Biography: writers Books
Princeton University Press Montaigne
Book SynopsisOne of the most important writers and thinkers of the Renaissance, Michel de Montaigne (1533-92) helped invent a literary genre that seemed more modern than anything that had come before. But did he do it, as he suggests in his Essays, by retreating to his chateau, turning his back on the world, and stoically detaching himself from his violent timeTrade Review"Philippe Desan, in Montaigne: A Life (Princeton; translated from the French by Steven Rendall and Lisa Neal), his immense new biography ... insists that our 'Chateau d'Yquem' Montaigne, Montaigne the befuddled philosopher and sweet-sharp humanist, is an invention, untrue to the original. Our Montaigne was invented only in the early nineteenth century. The Eyquem family, in their day, made no wine at all. They made their fortune in salted fish--and Desan's project is to give us a salty rather than a sweet Montaigne."--Adam Gopnik, New Yorker "The 'Essays,' Montaigne informed his readers, were written for a 'domestic and private' end and not for 'either you or my own glory.' He presented himself 'in my simple, natural, ordinary fashion, without straining or artifice; for it is myself that I portray.' Philippe Desan's Montaigne: A Life is animated by the purpose of detonating this carefully cultivated image. It is an effort at disenchantment. Montaigne's informality and transparency, in Mr. Desan's telling, were rhetorical strategies and triumphs of artifice. Montaigne's exploration of the private self was not a natural impulse but an adjustment required by the defeat of his considerable political ambitions... [Desan] seeks to drag the solitary genius back into his social milieu, exposing his conventionality. Montaigne claimed to have portrayed himself 'naked' to posterity. Mr. Desan removes the last of his garments."--Jeffrey Collins, Wall Street Journal "Desan, an expert on French essayist Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), takes readers on a detailed yet sweeping journey through the world of one of the Renaissance's most important literary figures."--Publishers Weekly "Revisiting the public and private life of the extraordinary humanist in light of religious divisions of the 16th century... [Montaigne: A Life is] a hefty biography."--Kirkus "Desan's biography is full of fascinating details about Montaigne and his world."--Glenn Altschuler, Tulsa World "An elaborate, exhaustive, and frequently brilliant restoration of Montaigne's life."--Dominic Green, National ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Prologue xi Introduction xvii Questions of Method and the Politics of a Book xix Part One-Ambitions 1 The Eyquems' Social Ascension 3 A Family Matter 7 "Nobilibus parentibus" 13 Living Nobly 20 "We Latinized Ourselves" 28 The Balance Sheet of a Humanist Education 37 2 A First Career as a Magistrate (1556-1570) 48 Parlementary Habitus 55 From the Cour des Aides in Perigueux to the Parlement in Bordeaux 67 Michel de Montaigne, Royal Councillor 84 The Religious Question 101 3 La Boetie and Montaigne: Discourse on Servitude and Essay of Allegiance 112 The Letter about La Boetie's Death 117 La Boetie's Political Treatises: The Memorandum and the Discourse 123 Voluntary Servitude and Allegiance 133 The Politics of a Friendship 143 4 "Witness My Cannibals": The Encounter with the Indians of the New World 155 Tupinambas and Tabajaras 159 From Rouen to Bordeaux 167 "Their Warfare Is Wholly Noble and Generous" 175 A "Simulacrum of the Truth" 179 5 The Making of a Gentleman (1570-1580) 183 The Break with the Parlement 185 Montaigne as Editor of La Boetie's Works 199 Dedicatees Influential at the Court 207 An Inconvenient Publication 217 An Influential Neighbor: The Marquis of Trans 222 Honorific Rewards and Clientelism 232 Montaigne at Work 246 6 The Essais of 1580: Moral, Political, and Military Discourses 254 "A Discourse on My Life and Actions" 256 The First Reader of the Essais 269 "Of the Battle of Gods" 277 An Apology for Sebond or a Justification of Montaigne? 285 A Skeleton in the Closet 299 A Royal Audience and a Military Siege 307 Part Two-Practices 7 The Call of Rome, or How Montaigne Never Became an Ambassador (1580-1581) 319 On Territory "Subject to the Emperor" 321 The Ambassador's Trade 326 A Montaigne in Spain 351 Montaigne in Rome 357 Paul de Foix and the Suspicion of Heresy 371 Roman Citizen 377 The Essais "Castigated and Brought into Harmony with the Opinions of the Monkish Doctors" 386 The Sociability of the Baths 392 The Travel Journal and the Secretary 401 8 "Messieurs of Bordeaux Elected Me Mayor of Their City" (1581-1585) 408 The Mayor's Book 412 Bordeaux and Its Administration 422 The Public Welfare 436 A Contested Reelection 444 Manager of the City and "Tender Negotiator" 455 An "Administration ... without a Mark or a Trace"? 473 9 "Benignity of the Great" and "Public Ruin" (1585-1588) 482 "Through an Extraordinarily Ticklish Part of the Country" 487 Secret Mission 501 "I Buy Printers in Guienne, Elsewhere They Buy Me" 508 Imprisoned in the Bastille 523 "A Girl in Picardy" 530 Observer at the Estates General of Blois 539 "Actum est de Gallia" 545 10 The Marginalization of Montaigne (1588-1592) 549 A Tranquil Life 551 "The Only Book in the World of Its Kind" 566 From History to the Essay: Commynes and Tacitus 580 Socrates or Political Suicide 589 Montaigne's Death 603 Part Three-Post Mortem 11 Montaigne's Political Posterity 613 Political Appropriations 614 Censure and Morality 621 Epilogue 631 Abbreviations 635 Notes 637 Bibliography 723 Translations Cited 765 Index 767
£33.25
Princeton University Press Becoming George Orwell
Book SynopsisIs George Orwell the most influential writer who ever lived? Yes, according to Rodden's provocative book about the transformation of a man into a myth. He charts the astonishing passage of a litterateur into a legend.Trade Review"The range and depth of Rodden’s knowledge and understanding of post-World War II literature and worldwide responses to Orwell are unparalleled. . . . Becoming George Orwell makes for an engrossing and illuminating read."---Norman Bissell, Orwell Society"As a self-described 'recovering utopian' in tune with his subject’s utopian skepticism, Rodden’s outlook on democratic socialism will resonate with our current political environment. . . . Anyone with an interest in Orwell will appreciate Rodden’s insights and reflections."---Thomas Karel, Library Journal"[Becoming George Orwell] is a grab-bag of Orwelliana. . . . The chapters can stand on their own or, taken together, form an idiosyncratic biography of a consequential life. To read them is to sit in the presence of a veteran scholar at the peak of his powers"---John J. Miller, National Review"Rodden’s book keeps alive the spirit of the man and his imagination."---Shelley Walia, The Hindu"John Rodden, arguably the world’s leading scholar on George Orwell . . . claims that Orwell 'is the most important writer since Shakespeare and the most influential writer who ever lived'. . . . It’s a big claim, but he provides enough evidence to keep literature departments arguing for years."---Dennis Glover, Sydney Morning Herald"A terrific book. An absolute must for fans of George Orwell."---David Marx, David Marx Book Reviews
£22.50
Princeton University Press The Life of WalattaPetros
Book Synopsis"[O]mits the notes and scholarly apparatus of the hardcover, features a new introduction aimed at students and general readers"--Page 4 of cover.Trade Review"Winner of the 2015 Best Scholarly Edition in Translation, Society for the Study of Early Modern Women""Winner of the 2017 Paul Hair Prize, African Studies Association"
£14.24
Princeton University Press Nathalie Sarraute
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Shortlisted for the R. Gapper Book Prize""A major contribution to Sarraute studies. . . . [Jefferson’s] account of Sarraute’s life and career will be indispensable reading not just for scholars, but for anyone who wants to know who Nathalie Sarraute was."---Toril Moi, London Review of Books"[This] compelling biographical portrait leaves no doubt that Sarraute, at least for an elusive moment, cast off old encumbrances and set literature at a new angle to the world."---Benjamin Balint, Wall Street Journal"Ann Jefferson’s scrupulous and deeply knowledgeable biography deserves to revive Sarraute’s reputation. . . . [The] story she tells illuminates a key phase in 20th-century French culture as embodied by one of its most idiosyncratic representatives."---Paul Dean, Hopkins Review"Nathalie Sarraute’s declaration to an interviewer in 1978 summed up a long life (she lived to 99) of passionate, unflinching commitment to writing. Ann Jefferson’s lively and engaging biography of the French novelist and dramatist shows how this commitment often set her at odds with dominant literary fashions."---Michael Cronin, Irish Times
£36.00
Princeton University Press Dante
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Took captures passionately and in meticulous detail the intellectual journeying Dante took in becoming one of the great portrait artists of the human condition. . . . This is a love letter magisterially crafted, eloquently rendered."---Rachel Moss, Times Higher Education"Powerful new readings."---Peter Hainsworth, Times Literary Supplement"Dante is an altogether authoritative and mighty intellectual biography – superlative in its writing and more than comprehensive in breadth of scope."---David Marx, David Marx Book Reviews
£25.20
Princeton University Press Now Comes Good Sailing
Book SynopsisTrade Review"A remarkable anthology. . . . Blauner’s table of contents reads like a ‘Who’s Who of Intelligent Modern Prose’. . . . This collection amplifies the wisdom of Thoreau for an age that is frequently hard of hearing."---John Kaag, New York Times"Many of the 27 pieces gathered in Andrew Blauner’s anthology Now Comes Good Sailing, by such leading lights as Jennifer Finney Boylan, Adam Gopnik, Lauren Groff and Geoff Wisner, . . . emphasize Thoreau’s exuberant and often funny side, though none do this as memorably as George Howe Colt’s ‘Thoreau on Ice’. . . . And what a wonder to read, in James Marcus’s ‘Thoreau in Love,’ how the erotically stunted Henry opened his heart to Emerson’s wife, Lidian, imagining how, together, they would ‘splice the heavens.’"---Christoph Irmscher, Wall Street Journal"A rich new anthology."---Nina MacLaughlin, Boston Globe"[A] dynamic collection. . . . The contributors address what about Thoreau’s life and writing inspired them, and what he has to say to readers today. . . . The pieces make a convincing case that Thoreau’s work is ever-relevant and deserving of continued wide readership. . . . Thoreau fans will be delighted." * Publishers Weekly *"In graceful, often lyrical essays, the 26 contributors to Blauner’s thoughtful collection . . . consider Thoreau’s meaning in their lives. . . . Candid, often insightful reflections testify to Thoreau’s enduring appeal." * Kirkus *"Now Comes Good Sailing forms a wonderfully incidental biography of Thoreau and proves his immortal value. It will surprise and delight Thoreauvians and newcomers alike"---Alice Bloch, Geographical"Now Comes Good Sailing shows that we shouldn’t dismiss the transcendentalist nor the lessons he learned at Walden. . . . The essays in Now Comes Good Sailing vary widely in tone and style, offering a range of perspectives on how Thoreau’s nineteenth-century writing can still find relevance in 2022."---Austin Price, Earth Island Journal"An intriguing compilation that could lead you to hunt down your own copy of Walden."---Edward Hardy, Brown Alumni Magazine"Most readers will experience this anthology as a welcome imperative, an invitation to take up Thoreau once again." * Choice *
£18.00
Princeton University Press Wollstonecraft
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Tomaselli’s book moves dexterously between [Wollstonecraft’s] feelings and reasonings, producing a portrait that is both fresh and compelling."---Barbara Taylor, The Guardian"Tomaselli gives us an intimate portrait of the passionate, life-loving woman behind the public moralist. . . . [A] clever and humane book."---Ruth Scurr, The Spectator"As an intellectual biography, Tomaselli’s account is both forensic and fascinating."---Rebecca Abrams, Financial Times"Fortitude is a quality that Tomaselli brings to the fore in her study of Mary Wollstonecraft, sensitively created from an informed overview of her subject’s writings."---Miranda Seymour, New York Review of Books"Rigorously researched and beautifully crafted" * New Humanist *"Sylvana Tomaselli invites us to immerse ourselves into Mary Wollstonecraft’s world, looking at how she regarded family life, politics, current affairs and the roles of men and women in society." * Family Tree Magazine *"Tomaselli has herself written a book which is both inspiring and thought-provoking. In a word, Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics should be compulsory reading for all teachers and students of Wollstonecraft and eighteenth-century political thought."---Max Skjönsberg, Intellectual History Review"This book thoughtfully and thematically walks the reader through Wollstonecraft’s work, developing a coherent philosophy from which we still have much to learn. Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics is brilliant in its combination of ease of reading, academic rigour and captivating writing. Whether the reader is an undergraduate student, seeking to place Wollstonecraft in greater context, an intrigued member of the public or a seasoned professor of political theory, Tomaselli’s work is accessible to all and has something new to reveal to all of us about a remarkable woman that history is just beginning to remember fully."---Isobel Clare, LSE Review of Books"A very engaging and lively study of a remarkable woman."---David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer"A pleasure to read."---Jennifer Thorn, Eighteenth-Century Studies Review"A readable, meticulously researched, intellectual biography and introduction to Wollstonecraft’s work that underscores her unwavering desire to create a better, more just world for all humans, not just women."---Ashley Cross, European Romantic Review"Luminous"---Stephen Marston, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books"Tomaselli succeeds in a masterly exposition of every facet of Wollstonecraft’s views. She draws out the complexities, contradictions and changes over time in Wollstonecraft’s thought."---Sheila McGregor, Socialist Review"Tomaselli is a good writer and her research is excellent. This is a thoroughly fascinating book, full of enhancing detail."---Alan Dent, Northern Review of Books
£18.04
Princeton University Press Now Comes Good Sailing
Book SynopsisTrade Review"A remarkable anthology. . . . Blauner’s table of contents reads like a ‘Who’s Who of Intelligent Modern Prose’. . . . This collection amplifies the wisdom of Thoreau for an age that is frequently hard of hearing."---John Kaag, New York Times"Many of the 27 pieces gathered in Andrew Blauner’s anthology Now Comes Good Sailing, by such leading lights as Jennifer Finney Boylan, Adam Gopnik, Lauren Groff and Geoff Wisner, . . . emphasize Thoreau’s exuberant and often funny side, though none do this as memorably as George Howe Colt’s ‘Thoreau on Ice’. . . . And what a wonder to read, in James Marcus’s ‘Thoreau in Love,’ how the erotically stunted Henry opened his heart to Emerson’s wife, Lidian, imagining how, together, they would ‘splice the heavens.’"---Christoph Irmscher, Wall Street Journal"A rich new anthology."---Nina MacLaughlin, Boston Globe"[A] dynamic collection. . . . The contributors address what about Thoreau’s life and writing inspired them, and what he has to say to readers today. . . . The pieces make a convincing case that Thoreau’s work is ever-relevant and deserving of continued wide readership. . . . Thoreau fans will be delighted." * Publishers Weekly *"In graceful, often lyrical essays, the 26 contributors to Blauner’s thoughtful collection . . . consider Thoreau’s meaning in their lives. . . . Candid, often insightful reflections testify to Thoreau’s enduring appeal." * Kirkus *"Now Comes Good Sailing forms a wonderfully incidental biography of Thoreau and proves his immortal value. It will surprise and delight Thoreauvians and newcomers alike"---Alice Bloch, Geographical"Now Comes Good Sailing shows that we shouldn’t dismiss the transcendentalist nor the lessons he learned at Walden. . . . The essays in Now Comes Good Sailing vary widely in tone and style, offering a range of perspectives on how Thoreau’s nineteenth-century writing can still find relevance in 2022."---Austin Price, Earth Island Journal"An intriguing compilation that could lead you to hunt down your own copy of Walden."---Edward Hardy, Brown Alumni Magazine"Most readers will experience this anthology as a welcome imperative, an invitation to take up Thoreau once again." * Choice *
£15.19
Princeton University Press Horace Walpole
Book SynopsisTrade Review"It is Walpole the man who fascinates Mr. Lewis and who, when Mr. Lewis is done, fascinates us." * New Yorker *
£27.00
Princeton University Press Joseph Conrad A Psychoanalytic Biography
Book SynopsisJoseph Conrad once voiced the hope that from the reading of his pages might "emerge at last the vision of a personality: the man behind the books ...a coherent justifiable personality both in its origin and its actions." Dr. Meyer arrives at a unified picture of Conrad's personality by applying psychoanalytic principles and insights to two main setTable of Contents*Frontmatter, pg. i*Acknowledgments, pg. vii*Contents, pg. ix*Drawings by Joseph Conrad, pg. x*Introduction, pg. 1*I. Youth, pg. 21*II. The Duel, pg. 35*III. The Shadow-Line, pg. 54*IV. A Smile of Fortune, pg. 71*V. 'Twixt Land and Sea, pg. 91*VI. An Outcast of the Islands, pg. 112*VII. The Rescue, pg. 133*VIII. The Secret Sharers, pg. 154*IX. Heart of Darkness, pg. 168*X. The Character of the Foe, pg. 185*XI. Under Polish Eyes, pg. 202*XII. The End of the Tether, pg. 221*XIII. The Rover, pg. 244*XIV. A Personal Record, pg. 267*XV. The Arrow of Gold, pg. 291*XVI. The Black Mate, pg. 317*XVII. Poland Revisited, pg. 339*Bibliographical Notes, pg. 363*Index, pg. 385
£49.30
Pluto Press James Baldwin
Book SynopsisThe biography of one of the world's most influential African-American writersTrade Review'Finally, the James Baldwin we've been waiting for: the revolutionary, fierce internationalist, queer theorist, anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist, and perhaps the most dangerous thinker of the 20th century. If you want to know the real Baldwin, this is the book to read' -- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of 'Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original''A fresh, incisive, and uplifting biography' -- Kirkus'A clear, incisive writer, Mullen succeeds with providing a fresh perspective on an author he so obviously admires. Recommended for readers seeking a broader understanding of the opinions of one of the great writers of the 20th century' -- Library Journal'A smart, concise introduction, well worth a read' -- Guardian'A remarkable biography' -- Le Monde Diplomatique'One of the most important publishing events of this political age. Lucidly and compellingly written, it updates and recontextualizes our knowledge of the complex, humane brilliance of Baldwin, drawing out his importance not only for the ages, but most urgently for our present day. It is a book that angers, moves, and inspires. An indispensable weapon for any activist fighting today's ranging fires' -- David Palumbo-Liu, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor and Professor of Comparative Literature at Stanford University and author of 'The Deliverance of Others''A welcome contribution to a portrait of the radical Baldwin, untamed by liberal platitudes' -- Jacobin'A scrupulous biography' -- Publishers Weekly'A truly fresh, exciting, comprehensive biography that richly appreciates Baldwin's profound relevance both historically and in this moment' -- Michele Elam, William Robertson Coe Professor at Stanford University and editor of 'The Cambridge Companion to James Baldwin''An important addition to the ongoing assessment and examination of a writer whose legacy remains vital to this day' -- Pop Matters'An incisive, timely exposition of Baldwin's political and intellectual evolution. The historically grounded account of Baldwin's critical synthesis of the major strains of black radicalism that we have long needed' -- James Smethurst, Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of 'The Black Arts Movement''An admirably tempered appraisal, in clear and sturdy prose, that will vivify for a new generation the strength and moral clarity of Baldwin and his writing' -- Alan Wald, author of 'The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s''A truly internationalist and radical reading of an author whose work is only today being fully appreciated. It takes a radical sensibility like Bill Mullen's to draw out the revolutionary potential of the love promised by Baldwin [...] this biography is a step on that road to radical love as a way of life' -- Stefano Harney, co-author of 'The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study''Mullen gives us a fresh view of an iconic American literary and revolutionary figure, particularly when it comes to his solidarity with Palestine – a dangerous and unpopular position at the time – which underscores the depth of Baldwin's courage and moral fortitude. This book is an essential contribution to the body of literature examining James Baldwin's extraordinary life' -- Susan Abulhawa, author of 'Mornings in Jenin''Powerful' -- CounterfireTable of ContentsIllustrations Preface to the Paperback Edition Introduction: James Baldwin—A Revolutionary For Our Time 1. Baptism by Fire: Childhood and Youth, 1924–42 2. Dissidence, Disillusionment, Resistance: 1942–48 3. Political Exile and Survival: 1948–57 4. Paying His Dues: 1957–63 5. Baldwin and Black Power: 1963–68 6. Morbid Symptoms and Optimism of the Will: 1968–79 7. Final Acts Postscript: Baldwin’s Queer Legacies Notes Acknowledgments Index
£16.14
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge John Milton
Book SynopsisJohn Milton was born in 1608 and in the late 1630s he travelled to the Continent where he met, among others, Galileo and Grotius. A staunch republican, he served as Latin secretary to Oliver Cromwell during the Commonwealth. After the restoration of Charles II his life was probably saved by his fame as a poet.
£10.44
University of British Columbia Press A Queer Love Story
Book SynopsisA Queer Love Story chronicles the poignant, incisive exchanges and intimate friendship that developed between Jane Rule, lesbian novelist and essayist, and Rick Bébout, gay journalist and activist, as they reflected on and participated in the key issues and events that shaped LGBT communities in the ’80s and ’90s.Trade ReviewThese smart, deeply felt missives constitute a more than 600-page archival record and reference tool. Enhanced by an excellent index, A Queer Love Story will be invaluable to those interested in the history of the queer movement in Canada as viewed by two of its most thoughtful, lifelong participants. -- Steven Maynard, historian of sexuality at Queen's University Kingston * BC Studies *It’s one of history’s all-time great queer love stories. -- Christine Sismondo * Toronto Star *A Queer Love Story … encompasses a quintessential period for the queer community in Canada … What emerges is not merely an engaging portrait of two provocative thinkers, but a snapshot of a period in Canadian history that saw a seismic change in the lives and attitudes and ideas of the nation’s queer community. -- Steven W. Beattie * Quill and Quire - Editor’s Choice, Starred Review *It is a joy reading this correspondence that allows us to truly get to know these two powerhouses of contemporary LGBT history, and to see how they grew as people due to the exchange of ideas and experiences that they shared with each other. -- Rachel Wexelbaum * Lambda Literary Review *A Queer Love Story is a wonderful book full of daily life's details, notes on the writing process, and commentary on gay and lesbian issues. It will introduce younger readers to two exemplary members of the gay community ... I felt privileged to be in the presence of these two gifted, courageous writers, both of whom left the U.S. for Canada when they were young. Imagine a book of 600 pages that seems to end too soon. Will we ever again, in this age of texting, have such a lively, spirited, and revealing correspondence? -- Margaret Cruikshank * The Gay & Lesbian Review *Both Rule and Bebout are fiercely intelligent, thoughtful, opinionated and perceptive writers ... This voluminous and essential collection offers delights on every page: beautifully crafted sentences and astute opinions on racism, health care, same-sex marriage, violence and publishing. -- Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant * Shelf Awareness *In an era when tweets, texts, and e-mails have surpassed the art and practice of letter-writing, this volume will delight historians of the LGBTQ movement and everyday readers. -- Evelyn C. White * Herizons *It is a pleasure and a privilege to “watch” their friendship grow. I highly recommend A Queer Love Story. -- Julie Thompson * The Lesbrary *... a fin-de-siècle dialogue of bicoastal and pan-Canadian sensibilities, A Queer Love Story is a tribute to exemplary citizenship and the ethics of personal responsibility in times of crisis. -- Daniel Gawthrop * The Georgia Straight *Reading a collection of letters can be something of a guilty pleasure. Marilyn Schuster’s edition of the letters of Jane Rule and Rick Bébout, by contrast, is a moving experience, deftly mingling genres of memoir, diary, and essay. Though reduced by three-quarters from the carefully chronologized 2700-page collection both correspondents agreed to present to the editor, covering fifteen eventful years of their correspondence (1981-1995), A Queer Love Story offers a deeply personal view of academic and publishing life from two of Canada’s leading gay authors. -- Patricia Demers * The Ormsby Review *Table of ContentsForeword / Margaret AtwoodIntroduction1981 “Any question of such censorship”1982 “An odd flu”1983 “It’s raining men”1984 “Moved by a stranger”1985 “Why is a star a word for the exceptional?”1986 “What is it we want when we want sex?”1987 “Life and its sheer wonder”1988 “Loving is a way of being”1989 “Xenophilia”1990 “The dying of the light”1991 “There is no fault”1992 “A lesbian in the ’40s”1993 “It’s all right (even useful) to write drunk, as long as one edits sober”1994 “I accept this degree”1995 “A public space for our views and values”The Last Chapter “I will do my best to live up to you”Dramatis PersonaeNotes
£23.39
Cornell University Press The Letters of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb
Book SynopsisThe Letters of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb totals five or six volumes, and presents nearly 1200 letters written by Charles and Mary, singly or together. The correspondence is fully annotated, the volumes are illustrated, and the holographic idiosyncrasies of the originals are rendered typographically wherever possible.
£97.60
Cornell University Press The Same Solitude
Book Synopsis"Still, we have the same solitude, the same journeys and searching, and the same favorite turns in the labyrinth of literature and history."—Boris Pasternak to Marina Tsvetaeva One of the most compelling episodes of twentieth-century Russian...Trade Review"Catherine Ciepiela's accomplished account of the correspondence between Tsvetaeva and Pasternak weaves together literary criticism, history, psychology, and gender studies. Firmly grounded in the Russian and Soviet poetic discourse of the 1920s and 1930s, full of controversial, thought-provoking insights, the narrative succeeds, above all, in bringing to life these two great poets, whose voices intertwine and draw apart in an immortal dance of words—letters, poems, arguments, confessions—performed across an ever-deepening gulf of families, politics, and time." -- Olga Grushin, author of The Dream Life of Sukhanov"Catherine Ciepiela's book offers the most detailed account in English of the complex relationship of two great twentieth-century Russian poets, Marina Tsvetaeva and Boris Pasternak. It is remarkable for its very careful, illuminating, and nuanced analysis of their poetic philosophy and hermetic lyrical statements. The Same Solitude is an essential work for everyone interested in early twentieth century Russian literature. It places Ciepiela in the circle of the most authoritative specialists in Russian poetry." -- Lazar Fleishman, Stanford University"Married to others and barely meeting in their temporal lives, Boris Pasternak and Marina Tsvetaeva, two of Modernism's great poets of desire, carried on in poems and letters an enduring and passionate love affair. One stayed in Russia, committed for a while to the Revolution; the other emigrated to Paris then returned. One was a survivor, the other, eventually, a suicide. Disentangling the correspondences encrypted in their poems, Catherine Ciepiela achieves a remarkable and moving work of criticism and biography that illuminates a crucial relationship in twentieth-century literary history." -- Honor Moore, author of Red Shoes"Pasternak (1899–1960) was a Russian writer and poet best known for his novel Doctor Zhivago. Tsvetaeva (1892–1941) was also a Russian poet, whose work was distinctive for its powerful rhythms and lyrical directness. She lived in exile after 1922 but returned to the Soviet Union in 1939 and committed suicide two years later. When they discovered each other's poetry in 1922, they were just emerging as significant poets of their generation. Ciepiela reveals that their relationship was conducted almost entirely through text—'We have nothing except words, we're fated to them'—and that the task of telling this story is largely one of textual interpretation. The book's first two chapters chronicle the poets' evolving relationship in chronological fashion, moving back and forth between both sides of the conversation. The poems included here appear in both English and Russian. Drawing on previously untranslated letters and poems, Ciepiela details the poets' mutual influence in both their lives and their art." -- George Cohen, Booklist, August 2006"The Same Solitude is a fine study of the passionate fourteen-year epistolary conversation between the two poets and its fruits in their art.... Ciepiela, with admirable tact and erudition, maps the movement between emotional experience registered in the letters, and the metrical, rhythmic, metaphorical, and myth-laden structures of verse." -- Rachel Polonsky, Times Literary Supplement, August 3, 2007"With few exceptions, the true poetic impulse of Boris Pasternak and Marina Tsvetaeva comes across in the prose of their letters, the outlet available to their passionate and mercurial imaginations in an era when a published poem exuding a hint of the wrong sentiment could condemn a poet to exile or death. In The Same Solitude, with a blend of what Pasternak called 'the almighty God of details'—poems, letters, and essays both by and about them—and a degree of insight that borders on the uncanny, Catherine Ciepiela gives us a chance to experience the shudder of recognition." -- Mark Rudman, winner of the National Book Critics Award for his poetic quintet, Rider, The Millennium Hotel, Provoked in Venice, The Couple, and Sundays on the Phone, and translator of Boris Pasternak's My Sister-Life"With its impeccable scholarship, theoretical acumen, and rich, resourceful close readings, Catherine Ciepiela's The Same Solitude marks a major contribution to the study of Russian modernist poetry and gender." -- Clare Cavanagh, Herman and Beulah Pearce Miller Research Professor in Literature, Northwestern University
£38.70
Cornell University Press Christopher Marlowe
Book SynopsisKuriyama's new biography reconstructs the eventful life of a radically innovative playwright who flourished briefly and died violently more than four hundred years ago, yet persists in the romantic imagination even today.Trade ReviewAlthough Kuriyama devotes plenty of space to the writer's posthumous progress,... the real value of her book lies in the prevailing skepticism with which she treats her subject: the documentary evidence and the conspiracy theories favored throughout the past century. -- Michael Caines * Times Literary Supplement *Constance Brown Kuriyama's new book on Christopher Marlowe offers a refreshing counter to some of the more speculative and conspiracy-theory oriented works of literary biography on the young playwright. In her methodological introduction she presents a candid and honest overview of the demands and pitfalls of biographical writing and illustrates some of the dangers for Marlowe scholarship of valorizing a documentary-based approach without considering the immediate context of chosen primary materials.... Kuriyama's book is clearly presented with chapters structured around successive stages of Marlowe's personal development.... As a readable introduction to the playwright's life this book offers students a highly commendable combination of both primary and secondary material. -- Matthew Woodcock * Sixteenth Century Journal *Double agents, barroom brawls, counterfeit coins, paid informants, hired henchmen, intelligence networks spanning foreign locales, and dashing gents sent on clandestine missions for Her Majesty's secret service—descriptions from the most recent James Bond film? No, just some of the disputed details from Constance Brown Kuriyama's new biography of Christopher Marlowe.... My own sense is that the actual 'facts' of the poet and playwright's life lie somewhere between the wild speculations of Marlowe's more imaginative biographer's and Kuriyama's necessary and important corrective to them. -- Robert Sawyer * South Atlantic Review *In this more speculative life of Marlowe, Kuriyama provides insightful details into English education, politics, and religion during the Renaissance. * Library Journal *Kuriyama has written a smart 'life' shot through with learning—a timely look at the most notorious early modern 'badboy' and his reputation. * Studies in English Literature *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. A Canterbury Tale 2. Fetching Gentry from the University 3. Commencing M.A.: Acquaintances, Friends, and Connections 4. A Poet's Life in London 5. Lord Strange and Thomas Walsingham 6. Fortune Turns Base 7. A Trim Reckoning 8. The Dead Shepherd 9. Marlow Lost and FoundAppendix: Transcriptions and Translations of Selected Documents References Index
£42.30
Cornell University Press Baudelaires World
Book SynopsisCharles Baudelaire is often regarded as the founder of modernist poetry. Written with clarity and verve, Baudelaire's World provides English-language readers with the biographical, historical, and cultural contexts that will lead to a fuller...Trade ReviewTranslators are moody darlings—here ecstatic, there mischievous and ready to betray—and criticism is not more faithful either. Aware of this predicament, Lloyd does not only propose a reading but, most significantly, provides a rich ground on which other readings can be drawn. Ultimately, Baudelaire's World has many entries, and many streets entice the reader with illicit charms. * Literary Research/Recherche Litteraire *Drawing on her own translations as well as those of other poets, Lloyd offers a lively discourse on the possibilities and limitations of translation. For academic libraries with large collections of poetry and poetic criticism. * Library Journal *The prose is lively, passionate, even humorous, and scrupulously researched. * Times Literary Supplement *Lloyd's objective is to scrutinize the culture and influences that shaped the French poet. She does not recapitulate his life, except to illustrate something in the verse.... Few conventional biographies, though, offer so clear a picture of personality and thought process as does Lloyd's critical study. * The New Leader *Rosemary Lloyd's latest book brings a fresh approach to Baudelaire studies, thanks to the savvy use of English translations to stress elements easily lost or unappreciated by non-French readers.... Although not a biography in the full sense, her study avoids separating the man and the work. Lloyd wants to indicate how a reading that honors the complexities of his writings might proceed. And in this respect Baudelaire's World achieves its goal.... Accompanied by some previously unpublished illustrations and printed in an edition at once environmentally responsible and esthetically attractive, Rosemary Lloyd's Baudelaire's World makes a nice acquisition for undergraduate as well as graduate libraries. For Baudelaire specialists there are some excellent finds—such as the plate from Francois Baudelaire's illustrated Latin vocabulary—as well as Lloyd's exemplary translations and shrewd assessments of other translations. Specialists will also be usefully directed to lesser-known aspects of the many-sided Baudelaire. For the non-specialist seeking an introduction, Baudelaire's World is a fine place to start: thorough, balanced, thoughtful, amusing and pleasingly written. * Nineteenth-Century French Studies *
£46.80
Cornell University Press Seeing Chekhov
Book Synopsis"Chekhov's keen powers of observation have been remarked by both memoirists who knew him well and scholars who approach him only through the written record and across the distance of many decades. To apprehend Chekhov means seeing how Chekhov sees...Trade Review"Chekhov was a master at deflecting critical attention away from his own personality, both in his writing and in his private life. But he reckoned without the supreme forensic skills of a scholar such as Michael C. Finke, who seeks to probe beneath the layers of dusty cliché that have accumulated during the past century. In his incisive new book, Finke lays Chekhov bare by marshaling an impressive arsenal of analytical tools and by playing the writer at his own game, using X-ray vision to penetrate the unexpected points of contact between the life and the creative work. It is exhilarating to see Chekhov through Finke's eyes." -- Rosamund Bartlett, author of Chekhov: Scenes from a Life"In Seeing Chekhov, Michael C. Finke succeeds in integrating Chekhov's life and work, his art and his science, his role as a physician and as a patient, as a dramatist and a prose writer, the personal and the professional, the pseudonyms that efface his identity and those that all but proclaim it. Chekhov's preference for not being seen, as it turns out, demands that we examine his strategies of hiding rather than obligingly averting our eyes. The payoff in terms of insight into Chekhov's poetics is enormous." -- Cathy Popkin, Lionel Trilling Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University"Michael C. Finke has written an outstanding and innovative piece of work: a psychobiography of Chekhov the man and writer based on deep and sensitive readings of the Russian author's prose, plays, and letters, and of extensive biographical writings and materials. Thoroughly informed, Finke does not merely talk 'about' Chekhov or rehash general ideas, but opens up an unknown Chekhov, or, in any case, aspects of the man that the writer, Chekhov, rigorously guarded, and that have hitherto been seen or described mostly from the outside, and apart from Chekhov's writing and poetics. 'Seeing, being seen, hiding and showing,' in Finke's words, are signal concepts for exploring Chekhov the man and the writer. Here is a book that will interest both a wide range of specialists and the interested general reader." -- Robert Louis Jackson, B. E. Bensinger Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Yale University
£40.50
Cornell University Press Adam Mickiewicz
Book SynopsisAdam Mickiewicz (1798–1855), Poland's national poet, was one of the extraordinary personalities of the age. In chronicling the events of his life—his travels, numerous loves, a troubled marriage, years spent as a member of a heterodox religious sect...Trade ReviewThe best-researched and most readable biography of a major Romantic figure since Kenneth Johnston's 1998 book The Hidden Wordsworth, Roman Koropeckyj's Adam Mickiewicz: The Life of a Romantic covers the Polish national poet's life and works against the background of post-Napleonic Europe with scholarly sophistication, detailed accuracy, and masterful contextualization. The chapter on the years 1841–1846 is especially meticulous in its suggestive evocation of Mickiewicz's relationship with the trends and major Romantics of his time, and sets out beautifully the life and times of his reputation prior to his role in organizing the Polish legion in Italy. A model for future biographies of Romantics, Koropeckyj's work stands as a key source for future study of Polish Romanticism. * Prism *This superb, meticulously researched, richly detailed book places the great Polish Romantic poet and patriot in the midst of European events of his time.... Koropeckyj portrays Mickiewicz (1798–1855) as a genuine human being full of Romantic thoughts and intentions yet distracted by amorous advances and his allegiance to Andrzej Towianski's schism. The flowing narrative is firmly grounded in scholarly research.... Providing vivid descriptions of historical events, political struggles, and Romantic turmoils in Europe, Koropeckyj reveals details unknown even to avid scholars of Polish literature. * Choice *
£44.20
Cornell University Press The Death of Tolstoy
Book SynopsisIn the middle of the night of October 28, 1910, Leo Tolstoy, the most famous man in Russia, vanished. A secular saint revered for his literary genius, pacificism, and dedication to the earth and the poor, Tolstoy had left his home in secret to embark on a final journey. His disappearance immediately became a national sensation. Two days later he was located at a monastery, but was soon gone again. When he turned up next at Astapovo, a small, remote railway station, all of Russia was following the story. As he lay dying of pneumonia, he became the hero of a national narrative of immense significance.In The Death of Tolstoy, William Nickell describes a Russia engaged in a war of words over how this story should be told. The Orthodox Church, which had excommunicated Tolstoy in 1901, first argued that he had returned to the fold and then came out against his beliefs more vehemently than ever. Police spies sent by the state tracked his every move, fearing that his death wouTrade ReviewWilliam Nickell describes the death drama itself as Russia's first great mass media event. The room in the stationmaster's house in Astapovo where the dying Tolstoy was lodged was the eye of a news hurricane.... It comes through from Nickell's account that Russians believed something died for ever at Astapovo. -- James Meek * London Review of Books *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Family Crisis as a Public Event 2. Narrative Transfigurations of Tolstoy's Final Journey 3. The Media at Astapovo and the Creation of a Modern Pastoral 4. Tolstoyan Violence upon the Funeral Rites of the State 5. On or About November 1910 Conclusion: The Posthumous Notes of Fyodor KuzmichA Word on My Sources Notes Index
£24.69
Cornell University Press Who What Am I
Book SynopsisGod only knows how many diverse, captivating impressions and thoughts evoked by these impressions... pass in a single day. If it were only possible to render them in such a way that I could easily read myself and that others could read me as I do... Such was the desire of the young Tolstoy. Although he knew that this narrative utopiaturning the totality of his life into a bookwould remain unfulfilled, Tolstoy would spend the rest of his life attempting to achieve it. Who, What Am I? is an account of Tolstoy''s lifelong attempt to find adequate ways to represent the self, to probe its limits and, ultimately, to arrive at an identity not based on the bodily self and its accumulated life experience.This book guides readers through the voluminous, highly personal nonfiction writings that Tolstoy produced from the 1850s until his death in 1910. The variety of these texts is enormous, including diaries, religious tracts, personal confessions, letters, autobiographical fragments, anTrade ReviewOffers a rare exploration into the internal world of Tolstoy by examining his nonfictional, first-person writings, including diaries, letters, reminiscences, autobiographical and confessional statements, and essays.... Paperno makes an invaluable contribution to Tolstoy scholarship. -- R. A. Erb * CHOICE *Paperno reads all his [Tolstoy’s] writings in relation to the central project of his life: the transformation of his life into a book that would teach others how to live.... ‘Who, What Am I?’ is an important book that will become a standard source for students, general readers and scholars alike. * SLAVONIC AND EAST EUROPEAN REVIEW *Paperno deftly shows how Tolstoi's attempt to write an autobiography failed, but his perceived failure at capturing the moral, philosophical, and technical issues accurately becomes a testament to his literary honesty (102). "Who, What Am I?" is highly important for any Tolstoi researcher, as it brings together the whole of his writings dealing with the exploration of the self. -- Radha Balasubramanian * Slavic Review *This is a relatively short book, yet it is rich in content, taking on some of the most important and challenging problems Tolstoy faced as a writer and thinker. [Irina Paperno] draws on a full range of Tolstoy's nonfiction writings from the 1850s until his death in 1910: diaries, letters, reminiscences, autobiographical and confessional statements, essays, and religious tracts. In addition, her book is informed by vast reading in other sources, primary and secondary. -- Randall A. Poole * The Russian Review *Table of ContentsIntroductionChapter 1. "So That I Could Easily Read Myself": Tolstoy's Early DiariesTolstoy Starts a Diary—The Moral Vision of Self and the Temporal Order of Narrative—What Is Time? Cultural Precedents—“A History of Yesterday”— Time and Narrative—The Dream: The Hidden Recesses of Time—What Am I? The Young Tolstoy Defines Himself—What Am I? Cultural PrecedentsInterlude: Between Personal Documents and FictionFrom Diaries to Childhood: Tolstoy Becomes a Writer (1852)—“I Think I Will Never Write Again”: Tolstoy Attempts to Renounce Literature (1859)—“I . . . Don’t Even Think about the Accursed Lit-t-terature and Lit-t-terateurs”: Tolstoy Renounces Literature Again (1870); and Again (1874–75)Chapter 2. “To Tell One’s Faith Is Impossible. . . . How to Tell That Which I Live By. I’ll Tell You, All the Same. . . .” Tolstoy in His Correspondence“What Is My Life? What Am I?”: Tolstoy’s Philosophical Dialogue with Nikolai Strakhov—“I Wish that You, Instead of Reading Anna Kar [ enina ], Would Finish It. . . .”—“In the Form of Catechism,” “In the Form of a Dialogue”—To Tell One’s Life—Rousseau and His Profession/Confession—The Parting of Ways: Tolstoy Writes His Confession, and Strakhov Continues to Confess in His Letters to TolstoyChapter 3. Tolstoy’s Confession : What Am I?Tolstoy Publishes his Confession—The Conversion Narrative: Excursus on the Genre—Tolstoy’s Confession : Step by Step—Tolstoy’s Confession Related to Rousseau’s and Augustine’s—After Confession: “Presenting Christ’s Teaching as Something New after 1,800 Years of Christianity”—Coda: Tolstoy’s InfluenceChapter 4. “To Write My Life ”: Tolstoy Tries, and Fails, to Produce a Memoir or AutobiographyThe Author Biography—“My Life”: “On the Basis of My Own Memories”—“Reminiscences”: “More Useful Than All That Artistic Prattle with Which the Twelve Volumes of My Works Are Filled”—“Reminiscences”: “I Cannot Provide a Coherent Description of Events and States of Mind”—“The Green Stick”: “Où Suis-Je? Pourquoi Suis-Je? Que Suis-Je?”—Tolstoy and the Autobiographical TraditionChapter 5. “What Should We Do Then?”: Tolstoy on Self and Other“Why Have You, a Man from a Different World, Stopped near Us? Who Are You?”—Master and Slave: Tolstoy Rewrites Hegel—Tolstoy and the Washerwoman—The Order of Things: The Church, the State, the Arts and Sciences—“Master and Man”—Coda: Nonparticipation in EvilChapter 6. “I Felt a Completely New Liberation from Personality”: Tolstoy’s Late DiariesTolstoy Resumes his Diary—The Temporal Order of Narrative: The Last Day—“On Life and Death ”—The Diary as a Spiritual Exercise—“I, the Body, Is Such a Disgusting Chamber Pot”—“I Am Conscious of Myself Being Conscious of Myself Being Conscious of Myself. . . .”—“I Have Lost the Memory of Everything, Almost Everything. . . . How Can One Not Rejoice at the Loss of Memory?”—Sleeping, Dreaming, and Awakening—Tolstoy’s Dreams—Dreams: The World beyond Time and Representation—The Book of life: “It Is Written on Time”—The Circle of Reading: “To Replace the Consciousness of Leo Tolstoy with the Consciousness of All Humankind”—“The Death of Socrates”—Tolstoy’s DeathAppendix: Russian QuotationsNotesIndex
£33.25
Cornell University Press Unequal Partners
Book SynopsisIn the first book centering on the collaborative relationship between Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, Lillian Nayder places their coauthored works in the context of the Victorian publishing industry and shows how their fiction and drama represent and reconfigure their sometimes strained relationship. She challenges the widely accepted image of Dickens as a mentor of younger writers such as Collins, points to the ways in which Dickens controlled and profited from his literary satellites, and charts Collins''s development as an increasingly significant and independent author. The pair''s collaborations for Household Words and All the Year Round explicitly addressed Victorian labor disputes and political unrest, and Nayder reads the stories in terms of the social and imperial conflicts that both provided their themes and enabled Dickens and Collins to mediate their own personal and professional differences. Nayder''s discussion of the collaboration and its prinTrade ReviewUnequal Partners is a well-written, well-researched, sharply focused book that excels in training our attention on the asymmetries of Dickens's and Collins's professional relationship. In the early 1850's, Dickens was clearly the master, Collins the apprentice, but this model gradually lost applicability as Collins matured as a writer. * Novel *For more than a century, Wilkie Collins's reputation has been overshadowed by that of Charles Dickens, a situation that Nayder goes far toward rectifying.... Nayder's critiques of Collins's The Moonstone faced off by Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood are highlights in this study. * Choice *In Unequal Partners, Nayder graphs a progressively difficult partnership from Collins's initial hero-worship of The Inimitable,... through a more equitable division of labors which still excluded control of the total artistic vision of a work, to Collins's parting company with Dickens in 1862 after eight Christmas Stories.... When Collins returned, he was an established author prepared to challenge the authority of the journal's 'Conductor.' Finally, Nayder provides a refreshing and challenging reading of The Moonstone and The Mystery of Edwin Drood as diametrically opposed in matters of gender and race. * Victorian Web *Nayder's juxtaposition of fact and fiction, and her painstaking scholarship, offer fresh insights which renew interest in works which seemingly contain a key to the productive, yet often strained, alliance, between these two nineteenth-century authors. * Yearbook of English Studies *The Dickens/Collins collaborations and competitions were productive in the authors' lifetimes and subsequently. Lillian Nayder's thorough, clear, and partisan account of Collins's role will assuredly be answered by Dickensians. But they had better consider all her evidence, including the ambiguous, changing material conditions of writing that affected both authors' careers. For she has constructed an exemplary case for the subordinate who rose from dependent to independent Victorian author. * Victorian Periodical Review *Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsThe Collaborations of Dickens and CollinsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Professional Writers and Hired Hands: Household Words and the Victorian Publishing Business2. Collins Joins Dickens's Management Team: "The Wreck of the Golden Mary"3. The Cannibal, the Nurse, and the Cook: Variants of The Frozen Deep4. Class Consciousness and the Indian Mutiny: The Collaborative Fiction of 18575. "No Thoroughfare": The Problem of Illegitimacy6. Crimes of the Empire, Contagion of the East: The Moonstone and The Mystery of Edwin DroodConclusion—"This Unclean Spirit of Imitation": Dickens and the "Problem" of Collins's InfluenceWorks CitedIndex
£24.29
Cornell University Press Reading Desire
Book SynopsisWhether revered for his masculinity, condemned as an icon of machismo, or perceived as possessing complex androgynous characteristics, Ernest Hemingway is acknowledged to be one of the most important twentieth-century American novelists. For Debra A...Trade ReviewHemingway studies has long needed a book like Reading Desire. -- Carl P. Eby * American Literature *
£28.05
MB - Cornell University Press Virginia Woolf as Feminist
Book SynopsisBefore the Second World War and long before the second wave of feminism, Virginia Woolf argued that women's experience, particularly in the women's movement, could be the basis for transformative social change. Grounding Virginia Woolf's feminist...Trade ReviewBlack... provides an excellent account of the textual evolution and development of Woolf's feminism.... Black effectively combats the image of Woolf as an aloof artist by enriching our understanding of the feminist contexts in which she worked. * College Literature *In this convincing new study, Black (political science and women's studies, York Univ., Toronto) demonstrates that Woolf's book-length essay Three Guineas is the clearest, most explicit statement of her feminism—a philosophy Woolf referred to as the 'life of natural happiness.' Black provides a meticulously researched examination of 'Three Guineas,' contending that it is central to Woolf's large body of work. In addition, she carefully considers different versions of the text, along with Woolf's other works; her contacts with the various women's organizations promoting the suffrage movement; and her beliefs about how the world can be transformed into a peaceful society.... Highly recommended for academic libraries. * Library Journal *Perhaps none of Virginia Woolf's works has been so little loved and ill-understood as Three Guineas.... But now, thanks to Virginia Woolf as Feminist, Naomi Black's learned, tireless argument in favor of this deliberately obdurate work, readers may come to appreciate this most uncompromising of Woolf's feminist pronouncements. Black's major and sustained claim is that Three Guineas is an intrinsically feminist work whose anti-war attitudes cannot be disassociated from Woolf's assault on masculinist privilege and domination.... These details, coupled with accurate paraphrase and citation of Woolf's arguments, give Black's study its quiet and insistent authority. Virginia Woolf as Feminist... has some new-fashioned, and urgent, literary and historical work to perform, as Black makes clear in the fervid argument she makes for Three Guineas continuing relevance for feminism in the third millennium. She admits Woolf's relative neglect of sexuality and class in her feminist writings, issues that trouble our own time, but in return asks us to consider how much Woolf has to say about women's health issues and the racial politics that also preoccupy us. In closing, she refers to the recent wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya to impress upon us how the feminist objectives underwritten by Woolf's three guineas—'democratization, education, and public professional activity'—still represent a program for political transformation. * English Literature in Transition, 1880–1920 *This book feels remarkably short at 200 pages, and at the end of it I feel—and this is not a criticism—that there is much more to be said about Woolf's feminism: 'We will never, in any simple sense, fully understand either Three Guineas or the feminism it represents'. This is one of those few books that I wish I had been (cap)able to write. The reason I have quoted from it so extensively is that Naomi Black expresses so clearly the arguments she is making. * Virginia Woolf Bulletin *
£27.20
Cornell University Press Mallarm233 The Poet and His Circle
Book SynopsisUpon his death in 1898, the French Symbolist poet Stephane Mallarmé (b. 1842) left behind a body of published work which though modest in quantity was to have a seminal influence on subsequent poetry and aesthetic theory. He also enjoyed an...Trade ReviewAn extremely thoughtful and well-documented new study, a book that sheds as much light on the cultural dynamics of the fin-de-siecle as it does on the aesthetics, ethics, and personality of Mallarmé himself.... In the end, Lloyd skillfully demonstrates that Mallarmé's correspondence holds much hidden significance. * French Forum *Lloyd's richly insightful study focuses on the way Mallarmé's correspondence with his friends and acquaintances (his circle) sheds light on the process of poetic composition.... Lloyd's style is elegant rather than artful, and the erudition of the author, while understated, is apparent on every page. * French Review *The book places Mallarmé within the blazing late-19th-century Parisian artistic ferment and offers credible looks at the origins of his endlessly complicated and beautiful work. * Publishers Weekly *Rosemary Lloyd's book stands out among recent publications on Mallarmé for its readability and its intimate portrait of the poet in the context of his times. * The European Legacy *This articulate literary biography... sheds new and important light on Mallarmé's own poems and essays.... An important addition to large public as well as scholarly collections,... this volume will be a sine qua non for any library supporting serious study in poetry, art, and music of late 19th-century France. Endnotes, a substantial bibliography, a useful index, and excellent print, paper, and binding add to the book's value. * Choice *Throughout her book Lloyd segues gracefully from the poet's life and milieu to his poems, always matched with her first-rate translations and subtle explications. While insisting on the everyday simplicity of Mallarmé's symbols (mirrors, sunsets, vases) she never tries to explain away the poems' irreducible complexity. This is biographical criticism of the highest order; it is also an absorbing portrait of a dazzling subculture. * Times Literary Supplement *
£29.45
Johns Hopkins University Press Sylvia Plath
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewSteven Gould Axelrod's new book should be considered the definitive study of Plath... [It] enlarges our view of Plath's work and provides important new interpretations of poems we might have imagined we knew well. This book is essential reading for all critics of Plath's work. -- Margaret Dickie Journal of English and Germanic PhilologyTable of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsPart I. "Great Works May Speak from Me"Part II. "Jealous Gods"Part III. "A Women Famoud among Women"Part IV. "There Are Two of Me Now"Works CitedIndex
£23.85
Johns Hopkins University Press Edgar Allan Poe
Book SynopsisBased on exhaustive research in the Poe family archive, Quinn extracts the life from the legend, and describes how they both were distorted by prior biographies. "Trade ReviewWithout warning, without any preliminary fanfare of trumpets, a book has now appeared that towers above others of its kind, a book in which resourceful scholarship and a lucid gift of expression are happily joined. I wish I could recapture all I have recklessly said in praise of other books and concentrate it here. BooksTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsForewordPreface Chapter 1. The HeritageChapter 2. Richmond–The Early YearsChapter 3. The School Days in EnglandChapter 4. Richmond Again, 1820–1826Chapter 5. The University of VirginiaChapter 6. "Tamerlane" and the ArmyChapter 7. Hope Deferred – "Al Aaraaf"Chapter 8. West Point and the "Poems" of 1831Chapter 9. Baltimore – The Early FictionChapter 10. The Editor of the "Messenger"Chapter 11. Philadelphia – The "Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque"Chapter 12. At the Summit – The Editor of "Graham's Magazine"Chapter 13. Following the IllusinChapter 14. New York – "The Raven" and Other MattersChapter 15. The "Broadway Journal" and the "Poems" of 1845Chapter 16. Widening Horizons – Friends and EnemiesChapter 17. "Eureka"Chapter 18. To Helen and For AnnieChapter 19. Richmond – The Last AppealChapter 20. The Recoil of FateAppendicesBibliographyIndex
£31.35
Johns Hopkins University Press Dickens
Book SynopsisBrilliantly written and thoroughly researched, Dickens provides an absorbing and perceptive account of its subject as a singularly complex man and a consummate artist, offering readers new insights into Dickens's-and literature's-greatest works, works such as Bleak House, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, and Oliver Twist.Trade ReviewDickens by Fred Kaplan may do for our greatest writer after Shakespeare what Ellman did for Oscar Wilde... A brilliantly readable work and one essential for all of us who care about the man who, for all his faults, remained 'The Inimitable' and 'The Sparkler' to the end. -- John Mortimer Spectator Fred Kaplan's Dickens ... would be valuable if only because it takes into account the reams of research that have been published in the intervening years; but it is also well proportioned, persuasive in its judgments and consistently, grippingly readable. -- John Gross New York Times Kaplan has spent ten years preparing and writing this book; his achievement is as rare, as wonderful, as the Dickens he brings to life. We are all the beneficiaries of this exceptional biography. -- A. D. Hutter Los Angeles Times A winning mix of insight, narrative skill and shrewd judgement. Kaplan shows how powerfully both as a man and artist Dickens was shaped by the experience of his youth: on the one hand the humiliations showered on him by his penurious and feckless parents, on the other his mental escape into the bright world of the 18th-century novel which gave him his models for good and bad character. Publishers Weekly Kaplan is particularly good... on the shape and perspective of Dickens's career, his relation with his younger siblings, all of whom he outlived, and with his own children and their developing private lives. To be fully understood as a writer he needs to be put in this sort of family frame. -- John Bayley New York Review of Books Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Mr. Kaplan's biography is its picture of Dickens's professional life and friendships: one senses anew the extraordinary competitive vigor of the Victorian imperial personality. Mr. Kaplan's objective presentation of the facts about the colossus of the age gives us a far better sense of its shape and scale than any facile charm might conjure up. His clarity is the highest form of respect and affection for his astonishing subject. -- Richard Locke Wall Street Journal
£28.50
University of Toronto Press Testament of My Childhood
Book SynopsisLife in a Quebec manor-house at the turn of the century is colourfully described in this biography of his childhood by Robert de Roquebrune. Skilfully woven into the texture of reminiscences about his own growing up are absorbing accounts of the early history of Canada. Through his ancestors, whose careers and personalities live vividly in accounts preserved by the family, there is a strong feeling for the continuity of life and traditions from the France of Louis XIII to what was to become of the province of Quebec.This is the first time this classic of French Canada has been translated into English.
£17.99
University of Nebraska Press Sister Brother
Book SynopsisAmericans, expatriates, and virtually orphans, Gertrude and Leo Stein, lived together for almost forty years, collaborating in one of the great artistic and literary adventures of the twentieth century. This biography tells the story of that adventure and relationship.Trade Review“A luminous, harrowing achievement for which all students of literature and art, as well as of families, are in Brenda Wineapple's debt.”—Richard Howard“Brenda Wineapple brilliantly disentwines the record of Stein's life from the image of it that Stein and her allies created. . . . Wineapple's narrative is fluent and clear . . . fascinating.”—San Francisco Chronicle“Wineapple illuminates the distinct and tremendously influential personalities of Gertrude and Leo Stein as well as the intricate nature of their intense but doomed relationship.”—Booklist“Wineapple tells a dramatically compelling story; her analysis is insightful, her meticulous documentation unobtrusive. She has written an absorbing account of two extraordinary siblings.”—Washington Post Book World“Ms. Wineapple does an impressive job of setting down the facts of the Steins' eventful lives. . . . [An] ambitious biography.”—New York Times Book Review“Drawing on rich archival sources, and interpreting them judiciously and sensitively, Wineapple gives us a fresh picture of Stein, many of her relatives, and especially the sibling to whom she was closest: her brilliant, intense brother Leo.”—Linda Simon, Boston Globe“Sister Brother is a beautifully even-handed and penetrating treatment. This biography is indispensable for students of Gertrude Stein and of modernism, and will be a delight to lovers of art and to all those interested in what Wineapple calls ‘the romance of families.’”—Toronto Globe and Mail“A riveting joint profile of Gertrude and Leo Stein. . . . A wild, Fauve-like canvas of a time before emotional color was muted by Prozac.”—M. G. Lord, Elle“Wineapple’s book explores their partnership with humour and panache. Not the least of its virtues is that, while paying ample homage to Gertrude, it does justice perhaps for the first time at length and in detail, to Leo. . . . Scrupulous, sensitive, marvellous.”—Daily Telegraph“Eloquent”—ForwardTable of ContentsPrologue: And They Were Not WrongONE - DISORDER AND EARLY SORROW1. Bes Almon2. Tempers We Are Born With3. Too Darn Anxious to Be SafeTWO - BOTH ONES THAT QUITE ENOUGH ARE KNOWING4. To Know Thyself5. The Feminine Half6. Evolution7. Respectability8. New AmericansTHREE - SPEECH IS THE TWIN OF MY VISION9. Gilded Cages10. Brother Singular11. Quod Erat Demonstrandum12. Toward a More Quintessential Method, 1903-190513. In the Thick of ItFOUR - AN ALARM HAS NO BUTTON14. Quarreling15. Banquets16. I Could Be So Happy17. A Fine Frenzy18. Myself and Strangers, or The Inevitable Character of My ArtFIVE - RIPENESS IS ALL19. Two20. The Disaggregation21. Of Having a Great Many Times Not Continued to Be Friends: A FinaleEpilogue: A Family RomanceAppendixAcknowledgmentsNotes BibliographyIndex
£17.99
MQ - University of Nebraska Press The Broidered Garment The Love Story of Mona Martinsen and John G. Neihardt
Book SynopsisMona Martinsen was a tall, striking, visionary sculptor studying in Paris. John G Neihardt was a short, brilliant, but impoverished poet and writer. This work tells the story of how the sculptor and the poet met, fell in love, raised a family, and grew old together.Trade Review“[A] fondly told story of the lives of John and Mona Neihardt, The Broidered Garment is a fine addition to the Neihardt canon and in the spirit of other work by Hilda Neihardt, who died in 2004. She did much to champion her father’s work and reputation, performing readings of his poetry, accompanied by her son Robin on classical guitar; writing Black Elk and Flaming Rainbow: Personal Memories of the Lakota Holy Man and John Neihardt; and editing Black Elk Lives: Conversations with the Black Elk Family. The Broidered Garment completes this work as only a member of the Neihardt family could have done it.” —Carolyn Johnsen, Lincoln Journal Star.“The first two sections provide a richly detailed account of the formative years of the sculptor Martinsen and the poet Neihardt, she studying in Paris with Rodin, and he writing from the small Nebraska town of Bancroft, when they first began corresponding. Section three traces their lives from their marriage in November 1908 until Mona Martinsen’s death on April 17, 1958.”—Nebraska HistoryTable of ContentsPart I: An International Financier Family 1 Ada Ernst; 2 Mary Thorpe, Grandmother; 3. Rudolph Vinzent Martinsen; 4. Marriage; 5. A Tragic Loss; 6. Vrohmberg; 7. Big Business; 8. Family Life; 9. A Family is Broken; 10. Back in Vrohmberg; 11. Richard Scholz; 12. Mona Martisen; 13. Paris and Auguste Rodin; 14. Italy; 15. The Grand Salon, Paris; 16. The Little Book that Went to Paris; Part II: An American Pioneer Family 17. John Gneisenau Neihardt; 18. A Dream Changes a Boy's Life; 19. Searching and Vagabonding; 20. The Little Teacher; 21. Becoming a Writer Part III: The Couple 22. John and Mona; 23. A New Life; 24. A Prosy Little Village; 25. A Home of Their Own; 26. In the Ozark Mountains of Missouri; 27. Skyrim
£22.79
University of Nebraska Press Local Wonders
Book SynopsisTed Kooser describes with exquisite detail and humor the place he calls home in the rolling hills of southeastern Nebraskaan area known as the Bohemian Alps. Nothing is too big or too small for his attention. Memories of his grandmother's cooking are juxtaposed with reflections about the old-fashioned outhouse on his property. When casting his eye on social progress, Kooser reminds us that the closing of local schools, thoughtless county weed control, and irresponsible housing development destroy more than just the view. In the end, what makes life meaningful for Kooser are the ways in which his neighbors care for one another and how an afternoon walking with an old dog, or baking a pie, or decorating the house for Christmas can summon memories of his Iowa childhood. This writer is a seer in the truest sense of the word, discovering the extraordinary within the ordinary, the deep beneath the shallow, the abiding wisdom in the pithy Bohemian proverbs that are woven into his essaTrade Review"Eloquent meditations on country pleasures, the rhythms of the seasons and the lingering presence of Czech folk culture in rural Nebraska."—Dan Cryer, Newsday"Clear, generous, and imaginative, Local Wonders increases the sum of the world's best goods."—Patrice Koelsch, Speakeasy
£14.24
Ohio University Press An Invisible Rope
Book SynopsisCzesław Miłosz (1911–2004) often seemed austere and forbidding to Americans, but those who got to know him found him warm, witty, and endlessly enriching. An Invisible Rope: Portraits of Czesław Miłosz presents a collection of remembrances from his colleagues, his students, and his fellow writers and poets in America and Poland.Trade Review“(A)n exquisite collection of thirty-two memoirs…. I highly recommend it to fellow poets or scholars who are ‘new’ to (Miłosz) because it can deepen the appreciation for his work prior to reading more of it. This book is the ultimate ‘back story.’” * New Pages *“This collection is a must for everyone aspiring to know Milosz and his work. Summing Up: Highly recommended. * Choice *“(An Invisible Rope) will delight Miłosz readers with gossip and add anecdotal texture to his image as a great Polish poet in Californian exile, who made a triumphant return to Cracow in his old age…. The common themes include Miłosz’s roaring laughter and insatiable appetite, enduring desire for literary fame, and sense of loneliness.” * Times Literary Supplement *“There is something… in this book which is akin to eavesdropping on (a) social gathering of Czeslaw Milosz and his friends reminiscing over good food and drink…. An Invisible Rope is a very strong collection…. a captivating and human portrait of the poet and his life.” * Sarmatian Review *“The reader comes away feeling as if she knows this person as a man—no longer merely the picture of a legend. It compels the reader to revisit even his most well-known works, from The Captive Mind to Road-Side Dog, to be read anew, refreshed by the contextualization of a life lived.” * The Cosmopolitan Review *“In a way, An Invisible Rope—and the entire year-long celebration of the poet’s life—is a means for both the people who knew Miłosz and for those who simply admire him, to thank him for writing his books, which contributed much to the canon of Polish and worldwide literature.” * Words without Borders *“Milosz was a literary giant, a continent in himself. As Gombrowicz noted, with one stroke of the pen, Milosz shifted the moral center of European literature one thousand miles east…. As An Invisible Rope shows us, despite his fervent efforts to transform the devenir of experience into être, he never stopped becoming.” * World Literature Today *“The reminiscences gathered here include a host of luminaries in their own right: Seamus Heaney, Robert Pinsky, Adam Zagajewski, Helen Vendler, W.S. Merwin, and Robert Hass among them. Each of these pieces is, of course, eloquent and insightful. But another beauty of this collection is that there are other contributions—by individuals with less exalted resumes, such as those who worked for Milosz as personal assistants. The impressions that build up can at times be contradictory, but this only heightens the mystery of this complex man.” * Image *“The thirty-two contributors to Cynthia L. Haven’s anthology invite us to learn something about the man behind this enduring writing…. Reading this anthology may occasionally allow us a glimpse of Milosz stripped of the legend in which his life and accomplishments had encased him….” * The Threepenny Review *“Milosz, more than any other writer, made me feel what's it's like to miss home, to be separated from home, and An Invisible Rope highlights that pain in his life. I'd never been emotionally connected to the plight of political exile, but Milosz makes you feel his angst. It's beautiful that the boomerang of his life -- home, away, and finally welcomed back home to Poland after the fall of Communism -- reflects the mythic arc of The Odyssey, and reinforces the symbolic weight of Home.” * Book Fox blog *“This book presents an impressive picture of a great poet.” * Polish American Journal *“An Invisible Rope leaves the reader with a portrait of a man—a thinker and a humanist—who, through his writing and poetry, asks people to live more purposefully in the world and believes that people can.…Ms. Haven’s compilation of sketches paints a strong portrait of Czeslaw Milosz and his life. Truly, the reader is left better knowing the poet who penned, ‘Endurance comes only from enduring/With a flick of the wrist I fashioned an invisible rope/And climbed it and it held me.’” * New York Journal of Books *“These vivid portraits and memoirs, these intimacies rescued from oblivion, tie us more closely to one of the great poets and spiritual presences of the 20th century. An Invisible Rope is an indispensable compendium.” * author of The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems *“This collection is an invitation to explore not only Miłosz’s work, but the history and thought he sought to illuminate…. To read these essays is to step into his several worlds and to reflect on the contradictions and poverties of this age…. (Haven’s) project is to preserve memories of this icon, and perhaps his values as well.” * ForeWord Reviews *“In the wake of his death in 2004, the poetry of Czesław Miłosz seems more permanent than ever. Yet the creator of that poetry—the human being who spent much of his life wrestling with loneliness, obscurity, and a punishing form of linguistic exile—has already begun to recede into literary history. We should be grateful, then, for the reminiscences that Cynthia Haven has collected in An Invisible Rope. The reader is offered glimpses of Miłosz in his salad days and in his post-Nobel splendor, in Wilno and Berkeley, Washington and Krakow. The result is a vivid, kaleidoscopic portrait of the man whom Adam Zagajewski calls ‘an ecstatic poet and ecstatic person.’” * author of Amazonia and Deputy Editor, Harper’s Magazine *”The image emerging from this invaluable collection is the authentic Czesław Miłosz, the poet who rejected theodicy but kept faith. To know him was to enter a force field in which the past century’s struggle with evil could be palpably felt; it meant also to be swept up by the intensity with which he, a witness to his century’s horrors, lived and worked. Those who have been touched by his poetry will be moved by these recollections, all of them animated by his love of life and vibrating with his voice.” * author of A Coat of Many Colors: Osip Mandelstam and His Mythologies of Self-Presentation *“(I)t is wonderful to have these remembrances of this complicated man by those who knew him best including the translators he worked with most often.” * Porter Square Books Blog *
£21.59
Ohio University Press The Book Keeper A Memoir of Race Love and Legacy
Book SynopsisDecades after Julia McKenzie Munemo’s father committed suicide, she learned that he made his living writing interracial pornography under a pseudonym. She hid the stack of his old paperbacks from her Zimbabwean husband, their mixed-race children, and herself before realizing her obligation to understand her racial legacy.Trade Review“A carefully crafted memoir for all readers who care about family connections and legacies and about multiracial identity in an increasingly complex world.” * Library Journal *“The Book Keeper is a fiercely felt memoir about family shame and the transformative power of love even as it’s also an ongoing meditation on privilege and race in twenty-first century America. This is a debut striking in its empathetic imagination, observational acuity, and emotional intelligence.”“In lucid and unadorned prose, Munemo gives focus to her powerful material, which feels essential to the larger cultural conversation about race in America. In tracing her own journey from reckoning with to ownership of her family’s past, she offers a unique and important perspective that I haven’t seen before in memoir. The Book Keeper does what the best nonfiction does: through a unique and deeply felt personal story, it brings larger cultural and historic threads to light with nuance and resonance.”“Julia McKenzie Munemo has written an extraordinary book: about love, inheritance, race, loss and revelation. By unpacking the story of her father’s past—as a writer of racially charged pulp fiction—she in turns unpacks the story of herself, her husband, and the future of her children. Rarely does one come across a story as intricately blended and obviously unified as Munemo’s. This story, neatly told, with keen narrative syncopation, stands not only as a multi-generational interrogation into a writer’s unfurling past, but also as a fable about the complexity of race in America.”“Julia McKenzie Munemo’s The Book Keeper is a generous, intimate love story across continents and cultures, as well as an incisive social commentary on America’s racial divide. What, The Book Keeper asks, can racial progress possibly look like in a country where white liberals so willingly put on blinders every day? And how, in these tumultuous times, can a mother of two black boys tell her children they are safe? This is an urgent, crucial inquiry into what it means to mourn and to forgive and to hope.”“In The Book Keeper, Julia McKenzie Munemo invites you to become her confidante in a thoughtful, open discussion of race, mental illness, and the tenacity of family bonds. Her thoughtful and intimate story elicits reflection, long after turning the last page, on the frailty of life and on the work and enduring strength of love.” * The Williams Bookstore *
£20.89
Stanford University Press The Journal of Socho
Book SynopsisThe Journal of Socho is one of the most individual self-portraits in the literary history of medieval Japan. Its author, Saiokuken Socho (1448-1532)the preeminent linked-verse (renga) poet of his timewas an eyewitness to Japan''s violent transition from the medieval to the early modern age. Written between 1522 and 1527, during the Age of the Country at War (Sengoku jidai), his journal provides a vivid portrayal of cultural life in the capital and in the provinces, together with descriptions of battles and great warrior families, the dangers of travel through war-torn countryside, and the plight of the poor.The journal records four of Socho''s journeys between Kyoto and Suruga Province, where he served as the poet laureate of the Imagawa house, as well as several shorter excursions and periods of rest at various hermitages. The diverse upbringing of its authora companion of nobles and warlords, a student of the orthodox poetic neoclassicism of the rengTrade Review"With his fine translation of Socho's journal, Horton provides another valuable document to aid in our understanding of the complexities of medieval Japanese discourse." -- Journal of Japanese Studies"In sum, these two [The Journal of Socho and Song in an Age of Discord: 'The Journal of Socho' and Poetic Life in Late Medieval Japan] beautifully produced volumes provide a fine entry into the cultural world of the elite classes of warring states in Japan." -- Journal of Asian HistoryTable of ContentsList of Abbreviations Eras and Reigns During Soch6's Lifetime (1448-I532) A Note to the Translation Book One Second Year of Daiei (1522) Third Year of Daiei (1523) Fourth Year of Daiei (1524) Fifth Year of Daiei (1525) Sixth Year of Daiei (1526) Book Two Sixth Year of Daiei (1526) Seventh Year of Daiei (1527) Appendixes A: The Imagawa House B: The Historical Context of the "Asahina Battle Chronicle" C: Chronology of The Journal of Socho Notes Bibliography Index of First Lines General Index
£26.99
Stanford University Press Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Book SynopsisA biography of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935): Beecher-descendent, zealous reformer, exhilarating lecturer, prolific writer, scandalous divorcee, "unnatural mother," international celebrity, and life-long controversialist.Trade Review"Thanks to Cynthia J. Davis, scholars, students, and general readers finally have a definitive, authoritative, and comprehensive biography of the often enigmatic Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This much anticipated study of Gilman is, in a word, superb . . . [I]t is in the lesser known documents and materials that Davis has found the stuff great biographies are made of. Her meticulously researched volume brings both substance to and new revelations about Gilman's life in a manner that is captivating, thorough, well-informed, and inclusive . . . This book is a must read for anyone interested not only in Gilman but also in the cultural, intellectual, and social history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries." -- Denise D. Knight * Legacy *"The plethora of biographical data the author resurrected informs this comprehensive, scholarly portrait of Gilman's complex, controversial life and career, significantly contributing to the study of American literature, particularly 19th-century American women writers. The book is noteworthy not only for its inclusion of new salient information about Gilman, but for the careful correlations Davis provides to better present Gilman, the private woman, and her particular public forums of activism . . . Summing up: Essential." -- M.L. Mock * University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, CHOICE *"In her immensely readable and comprehensive biography, Cynthia J. Davis tells Gilman's fascinating life story with precision, wisdom, and tact. Davis's Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Biography provides the most complete consideration of Gilman's life. This book includes twenty-five photographs, some never before published, and its careful documentation of sources will prove a boon to future Gilman scholars." -- Jean M. Lutes * Feminist Collections *"This may be the definitive biography of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Over the last twenty years, a wealth of biographical data has come to light, much of it unearthed by Davis. Felicitously written, judiciously organized, and critically and theoretically informed, this Gilman biography will supersede all that have come before it." -- Gary Scharnhorst * University of New Mexico *"To read Davis's book is to be enriched by the lively, evocative pen of Gilman the poet. Every chapter and every section of every chapter (generally there are five) has an epigraph, often a selection from the poetry, which Davis uses skillfully to interpret her life." -- Louise W. Knight * Women's Review of Books *"Davis's long-awaited masterpiece is the most comprehensive Gilman biography to date. Both lyrical and scholarly, this splendid volume offers a coherent and compelling narrative of Gilman's life, work, and philosophy, drawing upon a rich field of source material . . . It is essential reading for Gilman scholars and promises to be the definitive Gilman biography for years to come." -- Jennifer S. Tuttle * Resources for American Literary Study *"Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a remarkable retelling of a 'living' that includes, but is not limited to, the career of a figure larger than life . . . Refreshingly, Davis does not shy away from juxtaposing Charlotte's professed philosophies with her lived experiences. A major strength of this biography is Davis's willingness to reveal inconsistencies, contradictions, and potentially unflattering elements of Charlotte's aspirations . . . Even though Davis's work weighs in at over five hundred pages, her writing style and fruitful research leave the reader wanting more, rather than less, of both Charlotte's and Davis's observations." -- Cara L. Burnidge * H-Net *
£98.60
Stanford University Press The Enigma of Isaac Babel
Book SynopsisPart biography, part history, part critical examination of Babel's legacy in Russian, European, and Jewish cultural context, The Enigma of Isaac Babel offers the first comprehensive view of the great Russian Jewish author since the opening of Soviet archives.Trade Review"Greogry Freidin's collection of the articles, The Enigma of Isacc Babel, covers an impressive range and includes much of value." -- Donald Rayfield * Times Literary Supplement *"The Isaac Babel in this collection emerges multi-faceted and deeply intriguing, and the essays are written in fresh, engaging language that pulls the reader in . . . This collection of experts - linguists and comparativists, biographers and historians - shed new light on Isaac Babel and his life, his work, and his place within Russian, Jewish and World literatures." -- Angela Brintlinger * Canadian-American Slavic Studies *"The Enigma of Isaac Babel is an excellent book on a major writer. The reader is treated here to a great deal of biographical material on Babel not generally known before and it is integrated into sophisticated analytical frames. Many of the monographic studies on Babel came out some time ago and are now dated, leaving the door open for this new work, which draws on information made available since perestroika." -- Katerina Clark * Yale University *"Contributed by an international group of scholars who had access to Soviet archives, the 12 essays in this collection are organized into three parts....All display impressive erudition and are extensively documented. Enhanced by photographs, this is a necessary resource for those interested in Russians literature and/or Jewish literary studies." D. B. Johnson Choice>I>"This volume is motivated by the need for a reassessment of the literary legacy of Isaak Babel given the rich trove of materials that has become available in the last two decades . . . [I]t is a welcome contribution to the study of Babel." -- Patricia Carden * Cornell University, Slavic Review *"The authors reflect on questions about [Issac Babel's] life and his death at Stalin's hands, but also throughly explore and analyze the ambiguous meanings in his stories and plays, often indecipherable to the modern reader." -- Merrily F. Hart * AJL *"The Enigma of Isaac Babel is a tour de force of scholarly writing as it should be: erudite, well-researched, at once path-breaking and definitive, lucidly written, stylistically vibrant, and captivating as narrative. Freidin—a foremost Babel scholar in his own right—has gathered in this volume the leading scholars currently working in the field. Every essay reveals a "new," unexpected Babel." -- Evgeny Dobrenko * University of Sheffield *"This collection of articles by some of the leading scholars working on Isaac Babel in recent times represents a veritable treasure trove for anyone researching or teaching Babel's works . . . A volume that sheds light on this most enigmatic of Soviet writers from so many angles is both overdue and welcome; readers of Babel should devour it with relish." -- Rebecca Stanton * Slavic and East European Journal *"The Enigma of Isaac Babel is infused with a sense of loss: Babel's manuscripts and correspondence were arrested with him, presumed lost in the wake of his execution at the age of forty-five. . . Highlighting the complexities of what it meant for Babel to be a Jew from Odessa who wrote in Russian in the Soviet Union, the volume successfully demonstrates his centrality to European, Soviet, and Jewish literary and historical traditions. . . In its reverence for the relics of a writer who left so little to posterity, The Enigma of Isaac Babel includes excellent examples of such scholarship." -- Lauren Kaminsky * Shofar: Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies *Table of ContentsTable of Contents Preface by Gregory Freidin ii Acknowlegements vii I. Attempting a Biography 1. Patricia Blake 2 Researching Babel's Biography: Adventures and Misadventures 2. Gregory Freidin 21 Two Babels'Two Aphrodites: Autobiography in Maria and Babel's Petersburg Myth II. Babel in the Context of Russian History 3. Oleg Budnitskii 92 The Reds and the Jews, or the Comrades in Arms of the Military Reporter Liutov 4 Carol J. Avins 122 Isaac Babel and the Jewish Experience of Revolution 5. Michael S. Gorham 150 Writers At the Front: Language of State in the Civil War Narratives of Isaac Babel and Dmitrii Furmanov 6. Marietta Chudakova 180 Thinned and Diluted: Babel in Published Russian Literature of the Soviet Period III. Babel in the World of Letters and on Stage 7. Robert Alter 215 Babel, Flaubert, and the Rapture of Perception 8. Alexander Zholkovsky 229 Towards a Typology of "Debut" Narratives: Babel, Nabokov, and Others 9. Elif Batuman 240 Pan Pisar': Clerkship in Babel's First-Person Narration 10. Zsuzsa Hetenyi 272 The Child's Eye: Isaac Babel in Russian-Jewish, American, and European Literature of Assimilation 11. Efraim Sicher 304 Text, Intertext, Context: Babel, Bialik, and Others 12. Carl Weber 337 Staging Babel's Maria'for Young American Audiences, Seventy Years After. Notes Index 482
£55.80
Stanford University Press The Fall of a Sparrow
Book SynopsisThe Fall of a Sparrow is the only full biography in English of the partisan, poet, and patriot Abba Kovner (19181987). An unsung and largely unknown hero of the Second World War and Israel''s War of Independence, Kovner was born in Vilna, the Jerusalem of Lithuania. Long before the rest of the world suspected, he was the first person to state that Hitler was planning to kill the Jews of Europe. Kovner and other defenders of the Vilna ghetto, only hours before its destruction, escaped to the forest to join the partisans fighting the Nazis. Returning after the Liberation to find Vilna empty of Jews, he immigrated to Israel, where he devised a fruitless plot to take revenge on the Germans. He then joined the Israeli army and served as the Givati Brigade''s Information Officer, writing Battle Notes, newsletters that inspired the troops defending Tel Aviv. After the war, Kovner settled on a kibbutz and dedicated his life to working the land, writing poetry, and raising a family. HTrade Review"Dina Porat has written a superb book, certainly one of the most important works of modern Jewish history to have appeared in recent years. The scope of her achievement is all the more convincing given the fact that she chose a very difficult subject for a biography . . . Porat's book serves as a reminder that sometimes individuals do not have to wield power in order to inspire and to serve as moral lodestones."—Samuel Kassow, Studies in Contemporary Jewry"Porat is at once biographer and historian, with a vision at times microscopic, probing Kovner's inner world, at times telescopic, surveying the larger world that he inhabited and also shaped. Now that it is available in Elizabeth Yuval's translation, Porat's book is for English-speaking readers the most important point of entry into Kovner's world."—Edward Alexander, Chicago Jewish Star"This books is an excellent and reliable account not only of a major activist and author but also of a vital phase in Jewish history . . . What Porat has managed to achieve is the assured positioning of Kovner in the pantheon of Israel's heroes."—Leon Yudkin, H-Net Reviews"Abba Kovner's life story encompasses many of the central themes of twentieth-century Jewish history. Dina Porat's exhaustively-researched and exquisitely-written biography of this partisan leader, poet, and shaper of Israeli perceptions of the Jewish past opens new vistas onto the Holocaust and the political, military, and cultural history of the State of Israel."—David Engel, New York University
£59.40
Stanford University Press Robinson Jeffers
Book SynopsisThe precipitous cliffs, rolling headlands, and rocky inlets of the California coast come alive in the poetry of John Robinson Jeffers, an icon of the environmental movement. In this concise and accessible biography, Jeffers scholar James Karman reveals deep insights into this passionate and complex figure and establishes Jeffers as a leading American poet of prophetic vision. In a move that would define his life's work, Jeffers' family relocated to California from Pennsylvania in 1903 when he was sixteen. While a graduate student at the University of Southern California he met Una Call Kuster, a student who was the wife of a prominent Los Angeles attorney, and they began a scandalous affair that made the front page of the Los Angeles Times. They eventually married and escaped to Carmel, California to write poetry; there they would spend the rest of their lives. At the height of his popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, Jeffers became one of the few poets ever featured on the cover of Trade Review"Karman discusses each of the poet's major books . . . and celebrates the poet's diverse output: meditative lyrics, long narratives, verse dramas. Karman also addresses issues that made Jeffers controversial . . . [and] urges a reevaluation of this 'anti-modern modernist,' emphasizing the ways in which Jeffers anticipated today's ecological concerns. Succinct, lucid, informative, evenhanded in its judgments, this is the best overview currently available of Jeffers's life and work." -- Choice"James Karman's new biography of Robinson Jeffers is an excellent introduction to one of America's greatest poets and a fine complement to Stanford University Press' exemplary editions of Jeffers' collected poetry and correspondence, the latter edited by Karman himself. The course of Jeffers' biography is clearly and deftly laid out, with particular attention to the most crucial relationship of his life, that with his wife Una. Each of his published books is individually considered, with trenchant analyses and generous quotations from key texts. The book situates Jeffers both among his major Modernist contemporaries and among the other poets—not necessarily less important—who constituted his milieu. It carefully tracks Jeffers' engagement with the history of his times, and the stance he marked out as its tragic observer. Finally, it shows Jeffers as a figure who evolved a singularly holistic view of humanity's place in the cosmic order at a time of fragmentation and division, and whose relevance to today's world has only grown with time. Karman's book will be of equal value to the introductory reader and the advanced specialist. It is written in a clear and supple prose that rises to more than occasional eloquence, and is generously illustrated with images both of the poet and of the wild California coast he made so uniquely his own." -- Robert Zaller * author of Robinson Jeffers and the American Sublime *"Karman chronicles Jeffers's life in measured prose, and his close readings of the poems draw out the prophetic, visionary voice of Jeffers's verse, most notably in his anticipation of current environmental concerns...Overall, this is an accessible and engaging biography that will be of use both to new readers of Jeffers's work and to advanced specialists." -- Forum for Modern Language Studies"James Karman's deeply informative biography of Robinson Jeffers situates the poet in his time and place, tracing the effect of both contemporary history and wild nature on his work. In eloquent prose Karman evokes the grandeur of Jeffers's poetry and argues for its author's unique position amid the constellation of major poets of his day." -- Edwin Cranston * Harvard University *"Only now, it seems, are we beginning to hear what Robinson Jeffers proclaimed decades ago—that to live an authentic life we must overcome self-centeredness and turn with compassion to the natural world. The wisdom of Jeffers' message is evident throughout his life and work, as James Karman convincingly demonstrates in this splendid book." -- Joanna Macy * author of World as Lover, World as Self *"Jeffers sought a plausible and sustaining vision, sought it explicitly outside the human circle, but sought it with an unremittingly human yearning." -- Louise Glück * Poet Laureate, author of The Wild Iris *"Robinson Jeffers: Poet and Prophet gives us an occasion to get reacquainted with the poet's work. Karman economically tracks the development of the poetry in parallel with the events and trends of the times." -- Ron Slate * On the Seawall: A Literary Website by Ron Slate *"Perhaps now, with the publication of the third and final volume of his letters and a short biography by their editor, James Karman, the time has come to bring Jeffers back to a wide readership. The letters detail his life in its dailiness, as well as its surprising outbursts of drama, while Mr. Karman's biography places Jeffers in the context of the literature and events of his era. Taken together, they are very nearly the major, full-length study that Jeffers really deserves . . . [Karman's] biography humanizes the inhumanist and will help new readers understand Jeffers's importance, while leaving room for a full-length life in the future." -- David Mason * The Wall Street Journal *"A deliberate outlier from his generation of American poets, Robinson Jeffers stood apart both literarily and literally . . . Karman discusses Jeffers' achievements in the context of his, his wife Una's and their twin sons' isolated yet everyday normal family life . . . This elegant review of a truly unique poet who has become a prophet of modern environmentalism belongs in all American literature collections." -- Ray Olson * Booklist *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsSection 1: 1887–1905 chapter abstractParents William Hamilton Jeffers and Annie Tuttle Jeffers; birth; education in Europe; college graduation Section 2: 1905–1910 chapter abstractGraduate literary studies; medical school; affair with Una Kuster; forestry Section 3: 1910–1915 chapter abstractMarriage to Una; birth and death of daughter; move to Carmel, California; death of father; book: Flagons and Apples (1912) Section 4: 1915–1920 chapter abstractWorld War I; birth of twin sons; finding a poetic voice; The Alpine Christ; construction of Tor House; book: Californians (1916) Section 5: 1920–1925 chapter abstractResponse to Modernism; building of Hawk Tower; The Tower Beyond Tragedy; Section 6: 1925–1930 chapter abstractFast pace of American life; Carmel as tourist attraction; growing circle of visitors and friends; travel to British Isles; Great Depression; books: The Women at Point Sur (1927); Cawdor and Other Poems (1928); Dear Judas and Other Poems (1929) Section 7: 1930–1935 chapter abstractFriendship with Mabel Dodge Luhan; travel to Taos, New Mexico; premonitions; At the Birth of an Age; books: Descent to the Dead: Poems Written in Ireland and Great Britain (1931); Thurso's Landing and Other Poems (1932); Give Your Heart to the Hawks and Other Poems (1933); Solstice and Other Poems (1935); Roan Stallion, Tamar and Other Poems (Modern Library edition, 1935) Section 8: 1935–1940 chapter abstractMachine Age; Bixby Creek Bridge; New Deal; science and technology; Spanish Civil War; neutrality; travel to British Isles; marriage crisis; anxiety and premonitions; books: Such Counsels You Gave to Me and Other Poems (1937); The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers (1938) Section 9: 1940–1945 chapter abstractLibrary of Congress lecture; college and university lecture tour; World War II; Mara; The Bowl of Blood; election to American Academy of Arts and Letters; named Chancellor of Academy of American Poets; book: Be Angry at the Sun and Other Poems (1941) Section 10: 1945–1950 chapter abstractEnd of World War II; Broadway production of Dear Judas; Broadway production of Medea; "Poetry, Góngorism, and a Thousand years;" sons' marriages; grandchildren; travel to British Isles; health crises; books: Medea (1946); The Double Axe and Other Poems (1948) Section 11: 1950–1955 chapter abstractDeath of Una; Korean War; Broadway production of The Tower Beyond Tragedy; publication of Visits to Ireland: Travel Diaries of Una Jeffers; revivals of Medea; performances of The Cretan Woman; book: Hungerfield and Other Poems (1954) Section 12: 1955–1962 chapter abstractTravel to British Isles; community plan for Tor House; Not Man Apart; The Loving Shepherdess; attack by Kenneth Rexroth; international acclaim; death; book: The Beginning and the End and Other Poems (1963, posthumous publication) Section 13: Afterword chapter abstractModern poetry; Jeffers' achievement
£18.99
Louisiana State University Press A New Orleans Author in Mark Twains Court
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£39.91
Louisiana State University Press Fallen Angel
Book SynopsisOver 170 years after his death, Edgar Allan Poe remains a figure of enduring fascination and speculation for readers, scholars, and devotees of the weird and macabre. In Fallen Angel, acclaimed novelist and poet Robert Morgan offers a new biography of this gifted, complicated author.Trade ReviewCombining, with a light touch, shrewd psychological analysis and literary appreciation, highlighting Poe's journalistic career and the interest of many lesser-known writings, this masterful exploration of the ways in which the incidents of Poe's life inform his work has much to engage and delight any fan of Poe." - Jonathan Culler, author of Theory of the Lyric"As a poet and novelist, Robert Morgan deftly explains the subtle, subliminal effects of Poe's texts, and he counters the gloomy emphasis of many earlier biographies by underscoring the author's courage in the face of recurrent adversity." - J. Gerald Kennedy, author of Poe, Death, and the Life of Writing"Morgan does what literary biography ought always to do, mixing a facility for humane storytelling with sound scholarly analysis. He captures Poe's haunted world, where what is strange is beautiful and what is beautiful is strange." - Andrew Burstein, author of The Original Knickerbocker: The Life of Washington Irving"Morgan masterfully weaves together the threads of Poe's life, literature, and legacy while uncovering the love-starved romantic too often hidden behind his popular image as a horror master." - Christopher P. Semtner, curator, Edgar Allan Poe Museum, Richmond, Virginia
£32.25
Louisiana State University Press Karen Blixens Search for Self
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£28.80
Northwestern University Press Franz Kafka the Eternal Son A Biography
Book SynopsisFranz Kafka remains one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. His novels, stories, and letters are still regarded today as the epitome of the dark, fascinating, and uncanny, a model of the modernist aesthetic. Peter-Andrà Alt's landmark biography recounts and explores Kafka's life and literary work throughout the cultural and political upheavals of central Europe.
£35.96
University of Pennsylvania Press Charles Brockden Browns Revolution and the Birth
Book SynopsisCharles Brockden Brown's Revolution and the Birth of American Gothic illuminates the social and political influences on the nation's first professional novelist and reveals the surprising origins of one of American literature's most popular and enduring genres.Trade Review"This is the most interesting book that I have read on Charles Brockden Brown. It has a lively style, a nice touch, and an engaging perspective on the man and his work." * Thomas P. Slaughter, author of The Natures of John and William Bartram *"This excellent biography of unique and challenging American writer provides a solid historical analysis of the American Revolution and the development of Brown's 'Gothic' tales." * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction Prologue: Philadelphia, Summer 1777-Summer 1778: "the Horrors of the night" PART I: FACTS AND FICTIONS, 1650-1798 Chapter 1: Children of the Light, 1650s-1777 Chapter 2: From Terror to Terror to Terror, 1777-1793 Chapter 3: Revolutionary Reverberations, 1793-1798 Interlude: Philadelphia, 1795-1799: "renderings in the bowels of nations" PART II: FICTIONS AND FACTS, 1798-1800 Chapter 4: Sins of Fathers Chapter 5: The Anti-Godwin Chapter 6: The Return of the Present and Past PART III: A LIE, 1800-1804 Conclusion: Charles Brown, American Epilogue: Brockden Brown and the American Gothic Tradition Notes Index Acknowledgments
£48.60
University of Pennsylvania Press Radclyffe Hall
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£40.50
Rutgers University Press Writing America Literary Landmarks from Walden
Book SynopsisWriting America takes readers on an eclectic tour of historic sites that have been pivotal to the making of American literature, reflecting the true diversity of the nation and its authors. Profusely illustrated, it is the literary gift book for 2015.Trade ReviewShelley Fisher Fishkin talks literature, place, and what it means to be American with Josh Logue (https://goo.gl/W1dgt7) * Inside Higher Ed *Winner of the John S. Tuckey 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award for Mark Twain Scholarship from The Center for Mark Twain Studies * The Center for Mark Twain Studies *"A vibrant and thoughtful guide through American literary history." * Chicago Tribune *"There is no one better suited to illuminate the connections between America’s great authors and the places in which they built their writing and their lives than Shelley Fisher Fishkin; give yourself a thoughtful treat and keep this book by your bedside to dip in and out of as the mood strikes." * Harper's Bazaar *"The depth of Fishkin's knowledge and the dynamism of her enthusiasm elevate this 'reader's companion' from superb resource to lustrous and delectable." * Booklist journal, starred review *"A must for book-loving travelers of the armchair and more intrepid kinds." * Library Journal, starred review *"Meeting at the intersection of physical place, history and literature, Writing America brings readers along for the ride, pinpointing the locales that fueled the imaginations of some of our most important writers." * Ms. Magazine *“Published on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Historic Preservation Act, [Writing America] traces the footsteps of William Faulkner, Allen Ginsberg, Zora Neale Hurston, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe and many others. With more than 60 illustrations, it's a fascinating trek.” * San Jose Mercury News *"Using the National Register of Historic Places as her guide, the author sparks interesting questions regarding how writers influence, and are influenced by, place … Fishkin's book offers a diverse look at our nation's literary landscape and history." * Publishers Weekly *"The Langston Hughes House, the Angel Island Immigration Station, and Hollywood Boulevard…they're all here, having influenced the writing of America's great literary geniuses. But the most poignant and memorable pages aren't about buildings and places; they're about the daily lives, crises, and interactions that motivated these writers to record fascinating, beautiful, and painful passages of history." * American Road *"Perfect for the armchair traveler or the reader who enjoys hitting the road, Shelley Fisher Fishkin’s Writing America is a meticulously researched, beautifully written survey of the nation’s most beloved literary sites ... A vivid mosaic of the cultures, voices and geographies that inform America’s literary inheritance ... It’s the ultimate trip advisor for lovers of literature and history." * BookPage *"Big, handsome, well-illustrated ... A book to own and read over and over again." * Booklist online *"Writing America is a triumph of scholarship and passion, a profound exploration of the many worlds which comprise our national canon . . . a book that redraws the literary map of the United States." -- Junot Díaz * author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao *"Shelley Fisher Fishkin is the best guide you could have through American literature and the places that inspired it. She writes like an angel. She appreciates the diversity and humor of the American spirit. Read her!" -- Erica Jong * poet and author *"Writing America is designed for those who love not only literature, but also history and landscape, and the conversation they have with one another. I could not stop reading." -- Philip Deloria * author of Playing Indian *"Shelley Fisher Fishkin's Writing America is an uncommon travel narrative. Fishkin takes the National Register of Historic Places as a starting point to develop a diverse literary itinerary for the nation … For Fishkin and those who travel with her, literature makes these places and their histories come to life - and this can inspire us all to look anew at the historic places around us." * The Journal of American History *"Writing America is an intelligent, meandering look at the rich interplay between writers and their places… Fishkin writes like a favorite college professor speaks: throwing out quotable lines, grabbing our attention with revelatory anecdotes, making us laugh at the human comedy, making us cry at inhumane injustice - while all the time, whetting our appetite to read more American literature. Highly recommended." * The Journal of American Culture *"A splendid travel guide for readers." * Yale Alumni Magazine *“When landscape and literature meet in Writing America, the life and work of great authors light up as in vivid Technicolor.” * Stanford Report *"Through the prism of more than 150 National Register historic sites, this eclectic, essential work honors authors’ voices both mainstream and underrepresented. Thought- and even tear-provoking, Writing America will leave you in awe of the writers whose worlds and words comprise our country’s canon. Lovers of American lit, commence salivating." * Swarthmore College Bulletin *"An impressive body of exceptional and detailed scholarship. Highly recommended." * Midwest Book Review *"Filled to the brim with literary treasures; it is a fine traveling companion for those with a little time to wander - and to wonder about America's literary past." * Book Chase *"This book cuts straight to the soul of America in all its shades and colors. I don't think anyone has ever put together a book that’s quite so extraordinary. I certainly have never read one." -- Hal Holbrook * actor, Mark Twain Tonight!, author, Harold *"Just when you thought you knew American literature, along comes Shelley Fisher Fishkin to show you what you've missed . . . and to make you think about it. She ushers us into both familiar and unusual spaces with prose as accessible as it is learned, observations that are clear and sometimes quirky, and quotations that prove the synergy between literature and place. She takes American literature out of the library and relocates it in the public square, revealing its essence as the most eloquent tour guide imaginable." -- David Bradley * author of South Street and The Chaneysville Incident *"What a fine, informative, and welcome book by Professor Fishkin. In brief, a first class piece of work that has been long in coming. It not only deserves a warm reception, it is also to be treasured by professionals as well as by beginners." -- Rolando Hinojosa * novelist and essayist *"This absorbing and wondrous book is a glorious cornucopia of America's literary memory. Writing America is necessary, delicious, and nourishing food for the American artist, reader and writer." -- Min Jin Lee * author of Free Food for Millionaires *"Smartly introduced, lavishly illustrated, and beautifully designed, Writing America treats the reader to sites associated with American authors and puts houses, landmarks, memorials, and museums into a vivid relationship with texts." -- Werner Sollors * coeditor with Greil Marcus of A New Literary History of America *"Writing America presents us with an exquisitely rendered geography, in word and image alike, of the nation's diverse literary heritage." -- Eric J. Sundquist * Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, Johns Hopkins University *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: The Literary Landscape1 Celebrating the Many in One Walt Whitman Birthplace, Huntington, Long Island, New York2 Living in Harmony with Nature Walden Pond, Concord, Massachusetts3 Freedom’s Port The New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, New Bedford, Massachusetts4 The House that Uncle Tom’s Cabin Built Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Hartford, Connecticut5 The Irony of American History The Mark Twain Boyhood Home, Hannibal, Missouri, and the Mark Twain House, Hartford, Connecticut6 Native American Voices Remember Wounded Knee, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota7 “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” The Paul Laurence Dunbar House, Dayton, Ohio8 Leaving the Old World for the New The Tenement Museum, New York City9 The Revolt from the Village The Original Main Street, Sauk Centre, Minnesota10 Asian American Writers and Creativity in Confinement Angel Island Immigration Station, San Francisco, California, and Manzanar National Historic Site, Independence, California11 Harlem and the Flowering of African American Letters The 135th Street Library / The Schomburg Center for Research on Black Culture, New York City12 Mexican American Writers in the Borderlands of Culture Roma, La Lomita, San Agustin de Laredo, and San Ygnacio Historic Districts, Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas13 American Writers and Dreams of the Silver Screen Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District, Los Angeles, California Index of Authors Index of Historic Sites
£32.30
John Wiley & Sons Writing America Literary Landmarks from Walden
Book SynopsisWriting America takes readers on an eclectic tour of historic sites that have been pivotal to the making of American literature, reflecting the true diversity of the nation and its authors. Profusely illustrated, it is the literary gift book for 2015.Trade Review"A vibrant and thoughtful guide through American literary history." * Chicago Tribune *Winner of the John S. Tuckey 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award for Mark Twain Scholarship from The Center for Mark Twain Studies * The Center for Mark Twain Studies *"There is no one better suited to illuminate the connections between America’s great authors and the places in which they built their writing and their lives than Shelley Fisher Fishkin; give yourself a thoughtful treat and keep this book by your bedside to dip in and out of as the mood strikes." * Harper's Bazaar *"Meeting at the intersection of physical place, history and literature, Writing America brings readers along for the ride, pinpointing the locales that fueled the imaginations of some of our most important writers." * Ms. Magazine *Shelley Fisher Fishkin talks literature, place, and what it means to be American with Josh Logue (https://goo.gl/W1dgt7) * Inside Higher Ed *"The depth of Fishkin's knowledge and the dynamism of her enthusiasm elevate this 'reader's companion' from superb resource to lustrous and delectable." * Booklist journal, starred review *"A must for book-loving travelers of the armchair and more intrepid kinds." * Library Journal, starred review *"Using the National Register of Historic Places as her guide, the author sparks interesting questions regarding how writers influence, and are influenced by, place … Fishkin's book offers a diverse look at our nation's literary landscape and history." * Publishers Weekly *"Perfect for the armchair traveler or the reader who enjoys hitting the road, Shelley Fisher Fishkin’s Writing America is a meticulously researched, beautifully written survey of the nation’s most beloved literary sites ... A vivid mosaic of the cultures, voices and geographies that inform America’s literary inheritance ... It’s the ultimate trip advisor for lovers of literature and history." * BookPage *“Published on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Historic Preservation Act, [Writing America] traces the footsteps of William Faulkner, Allen Ginsberg, Zora Neale Hurston, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe and many others. With more than 60 illustrations, it's a fascinating trek.” * San Jose Mercury News *"The Langston Hughes House, the Angel Island Immigration Station, and Hollywood Boulevard…they're all here, having influenced the writing of America's great literary geniuses. But the most poignant and memorable pages aren't about buildings and places; they're about the daily lives, crises, and interactions that motivated these writers to record fascinating, beautiful, and painful passages of history." * American Road *"Writing America is a triumph of scholarship and passion, a profound exploration of the many worlds which comprise our national canon . . . a book that redraws the literary map of the United States." -- Junot Díaz * author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao *"Writing America is designed for those who love not only literature, but also history and landscape, and the conversation they have with one another. I could not stop reading." -- Philip Deloria * author of Playing Indian *"What a fine, informative, and welcome book by Professor Fishkin. In brief, a first class piece of work that has been long in coming. It not only deserves a warm reception, it is also to be treasured by professionals as well as by beginners." -- Rolando Hinojosa * novelist and essayist *"Shelley Fisher Fishkin is the best guide you could have through American literature and the places that inspired it. She writes like an angel. She appreciates the diversity and humor of the American spirit. Read her!" -- Erica Jong * poet and author *"Shelley Fisher Fishkin's Writing America is an uncommon travel narrative. Fishkin takes the National Register of Historic Places as a starting point to develop a diverse literary itinerary for the nation … For Fishkin and those who travel with her, literature makes these places and their histories come to life - and this can inspire us all to look anew at the historic places around us." * The Journal of American History *"Filled to the brim with literary treasures; it is a fine traveling companion for those with a little time to wander - and to wonder about America's literary past." * Book Chase *"Big, handsome, well-illustrated ... A book to own and read over and over again." * Booklist online *"An excellent companion for any lover of American literature." * New Jersey Monthly *"Writing America is an intelligent, meandering look at the rich interplay between writers and their places… Fishkin writes like a favorite college professor speaks: throwing out quotable lines, grabbing our attention with revelatory anecdotes, making us laugh at the human comedy, making us cry at inhumane injustice - while all the time, whetting our appetite to read more American literature. Highly recommended." * The Journal of American Culture *"A splendid travel guide for readers." * Yale Alumni Magazine *“When landscape and literature meet in Writing America, the life and work of great authors light up as in vivid Technicolor.” * Stanford Report *"Through the prism of more than 150 National Register historic sites, this eclectic, essential work honors authors’ voices both mainstream and underrepresented. Thought- and even tear-provoking, Writing America will leave you in awe of the writers whose worlds and words comprise our country’s canon. Lovers of American lit, commence salivating." * Swarthmore College Bulletin *"An impressive body of exceptional and detailed scholarship. Highly recommended." * Midwest Book Review *"This book cuts straight to the soul of America in all its shades and colors. I don't think anyone has ever put together a book that’s quite so extraordinary. I certainly have never read one." -- Hal Holbrook * actor, Mark Twain Tonight!, author, Harold *"This absorbing and wondrous book is a glorious cornucopia of America's literary memory. Writing America is necessary, delicious, and nourishing food for the American artist, reader and writer." -- Min Jin Lee * author of Free Food for Millionaires *"Just when you thought you knew American literature, along comes Shelley Fisher Fishkin to show you what you've missed . . . and to make you think about it. She ushers us into both familiar and unusual spaces with prose as accessible as it is learned, observations that are clear and sometimes quirky, and quotations that prove the synergy between literature and place. She takes American literature out of the library and relocates it in the public square, revealing its essence as the most eloquent tour guide imaginable." -- David Bradley * author of South Street and The Chaneysville Incident *"Writing America presents us with an exquisitely rendered geography, in word and image alike, of the nation's diverse literary heritage." -- Eric J. Sundquist * Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, Johns Hopkins University *"Smartly introduced, lavishly illustrated, and beautifully designed, Writing America treats the reader to sites associated with American authors and puts houses, landmarks, memorials, and museums into a vivid relationship with texts." -- Werner Sollors * coeditor with Greil Marcus of A New Literary History of America *"A vibrant and thoughtful guide through American literary history." * Chicago Tribune *Winner of the John S. Tuckey 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award for Mark Twain Scholarship from The Center for Mark Twain Studies * The Center for Mark Twain Studies *"There is no one better suited to illuminate the connections between America’s great authors and the places in which they built their writing and their lives than Shelley Fisher Fishkin; give yourself a thoughtful treat and keep this book by your bedside to dip in and out of as the mood strikes." * Harper's Bazaar *"Meeting at the intersection of physical place, history and literature, Writing America brings readers along for the ride, pinpointing the locales that fueled the imaginations of some of our most important writers." * Ms. Magazine *Shelley Fisher Fishkin talks literature, place, and what it means to be American with Josh Logue (https://goo.gl/W1dgt7) * Inside Higher Ed *"The depth of Fishkin's knowledge and the dynamism of her enthusiasm elevate this 'reader's companion' from superb resource to lustrous and delectable." * Booklist journal, starred review *"A must for book-loving travelers of the armchair and more intrepid kinds." * Library Journal, starred review *"Using the National Register of Historic Places as her guide, the author sparks interesting questions regarding how writers influence, and are influenced by, place … Fishkin's book offers a diverse look at our nation's literary landscape and history." * Publishers Weekly *"Perfect for the armchair traveler or the reader who enjoys hitting the road, Shelley Fisher Fishkin’s Writing America is a meticulously researched, beautifully written survey of the nation’s most beloved literary sites ... A vivid mosaic of the cultures, voices and geographies that inform America’s literary inheritance ... It’s the ultimate trip advisor for lovers of literature and history." * BookPage *“Published on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Historic Preservation Act, [Writing America] traces the footsteps of William Faulkner, Allen Ginsberg, Zora Neale Hurston, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe and many others. With more than 60 illustrations, it's a fascinating trek.” * San Jose Mercury News *"The Langston Hughes House, the Angel Island Immigration Station, and Hollywood Boulevard…they're all here, having influenced the writing of America's great literary geniuses. But the most poignant and memorable pages aren't about buildings and places; they're about the daily lives, crises, and interactions that motivated these writers to record fascinating, beautiful, and painful passages of history." * American Road *"Writing America is a triumph of scholarship and passion, a profound exploration of the many worlds which comprise our national canon . . . a book that redraws the literary map of the United States." -- Junot Díaz * author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao *"Writing America is designed for those who love not only literature, but also history and landscape, and the conversation they have with one another. I could not stop reading." -- Philip Deloria * author of Playing Indian *"What a fine, informative, and welcome book by Professor Fishkin. In brief, a first class piece of work that has been long in coming. It not only deserves a warm reception, it is also to be treasured by professionals as well as by beginners." -- Rolando Hinojosa * novelist and essayist *"Shelley Fisher Fishkin is the best guide you could have through American literature and the places that inspired it. She writes like an angel. She appreciates the diversity and humor of the American spirit. Read her!" -- Erica Jong * poet and author *"Shelley Fisher Fishkin's Writing America is an uncommon travel narrative. Fishkin takes the National Register of Historic Places as a starting point to develop a diverse literary itinerary for the nation … For Fishkin and those who travel with her, literature makes these places and their histories come to life - and this can inspire us all to look anew at the historic places around us." * The Journal of American History *"Filled to the brim with literary treasures; it is a fine traveling companion for those with a little time to wander - and to wonder about America's literary past." * Book Chase *"Big, handsome, well-illustrated ... A book to own and read over and over again." * Booklist online *"An excellent companion for any lover of American literature." * New Jersey Monthly *"Writing America is an intelligent, meandering look at the rich interplay between writers and their places… Fishkin writes like a favorite college professor speaks: throwing out quotable lines, grabbing our attention with revelatory anecdotes, making us laugh at the human comedy, making us cry at inhumane injustice - while all the time, whetting our appetite to read more American literature. Highly recommended." * The Journal of American Culture *"A splendid travel guide for readers." * Yale Alumni Magazine *“When landscape and literature meet in Writing America, the life and work of great authors light up as in vivid Technicolor.” * Stanford Report *"Through the prism of more than 150 National Register historic sites, this eclectic, essential work honors authors’ voices both mainstream and underrepresented. Thought- and even tear-provoking, Writing America will leave you in awe of the writers whose worlds and words comprise our country’s canon. Lovers of American lit, commence salivating." * Swarthmore College Bulletin *"An impressive body of exceptional and detailed scholarship. Highly recommended." * Midwest Book Review *"This book cuts straight to the soul of America in all its shades and colors. I don't think anyone has ever put together a book that’s quite so extraordinary. I certainly have never read one." -- Hal Holbrook * actor, Mark Twain Tonight!, author, Harold *"This absorbing and wondrous book is a glorious cornucopia of America's literary memory. Writing America is necessary, delicious, and nourishing food for the American artist, reader and writer." -- Min Jin Lee * author of Free Food for Millionaires *"Just when you thought you knew American literature, along comes Shelley Fisher Fishkin to show you what you've missed . . . and to make you think about it. She ushers us into both familiar and unusual spaces with prose as accessible as it is learned, observations that are clear and sometimes quirky, and quotations that prove the synergy between literature and place. She takes American literature out of the library and relocates it in the public square, revealing its essence as the most eloquent tour guide imaginable." -- David Bradley * author of South Street and The Chaneysville Incident *"Writing America presents us with an exquisitely rendered geography, in word and image alike, of the nation's diverse literary heritage." -- Eric J. Sundquist * Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, Johns Hopkins University *"Smartly introduced, lavishly illustrated, and beautifully designed, Writing America treats the reader to sites associated with American authors and puts houses, landmarks, memorials, and museums into a vivid relationship with texts." -- Werner Sollors * coeditor with Greil Marcus of A New Literary History of America *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: The Literary Landscape1 Celebrating the Many in One Walt Whitman Birthplace, Huntington, Long Island, New York2 Living in Harmony with Nature Walden Pond, Concord, Massachusetts3 Freedom’s Port The New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, New Bedford, Massachusetts4 The House that Uncle Tom’s Cabin Built Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Hartford, Connecticut5 The Irony of American History The Mark Twain Boyhood Home, Hannibal, Missouri, and the Mark Twain House, Hartford, Connecticut6 Native American Voices Remember Wounded Knee, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota7 “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” The Paul Laurence Dunbar House, Dayton, Ohio8 Leaving the Old World for the New The Tenement Museum, New York City9 The Revolt from the Village The Original Main Street, Sauk Centre, Minnesota10 Asian American Writers and Creativity in Confinement Angel Island Immigration Station, San Francisco, California, and Manzanar National Historic Site, Independence, California11 Harlem and the Flowering of African American Letters The 135th Street Library / The Schomburg Center for Research on Black Culture, New York City12 Mexican American Writers in the Borderlands of Culture Roma, La Lomita, San Agustin de Laredo, and San Ygnacio Historic Districts, Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas13 American Writers and Dreams of the Silver Screen Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District, Los Angeles, California Index of Authors Index of Historic Sites
£17.09
Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson
Book SynopsisPresents the life and works of Emily Dickinson, one of the most famous and widely studied American poets of the 19th century. This book contains close readings and critical analyses of more than 150 of Dickinson's best-known poems. It discusses the different aspects of Dickinson's life that influenced her work - family, friends, and many others.
£63.75
