Description
Book SynopsisThe Life and Songs of Stephen Foster offers an engaging reassessment of the life, politics, and legacy of the misunderstood father of American music. Once revered the world over, Foster's plantation songs, like Old Folks at Home and My Old Kentucky Home, fell from grace in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement due to their controversial lyrics. Foster embraced the minstrel tradition for a brief time, refining it and infusing his songs with sympathy for slaves, before abandoning the genre for respectable parlor music. The youngest child in a large family, he grew up in the shadows of a successful older brother and his president brother-in-law, James Buchanan, and walked a fine line between the family's conservative politics and his own pro-Lincoln sentiments. Foster lived most of his life just outside of industrial, smoke-filled Pittsburgh and wrote songs set in a pastoral Southunsullied by the grime of industry but tarnished by the injustice of slavery.Rather than defining Foster by hi
Trade ReviewAlmost everyone knows something about Stephen Foster (1826–64), but unfortunately much of that information is either incorrect or vastly oversimplified. Many believe that Foster, the first American popular songwriter to make his living entirely from composing, was a Southerner. In fact Foster lived most of his life near Pittsburgh. Everyone knows he wrote minstrel and plantation songs that are now considered racist, but few know that he also wrote songs in support of Abraham Lincoln and the Union cause, not to mention sentimental parlor songs, comic songs for the stage, and hymns. O’Connell’s rich retelling of Foster’s story covers all this. Foster’s brother, Morrison Foster, destroyed hundreds of family letters, leaving wide gaps in the songwriter’s life story. O’Connell fills those gaps by examining musical, political, economic, and social writings of the day, and she addresses the thorny issues of race and gender. She refutes earlier claims that nearly all of Foster’s compositions after 1860 were inferior, and dares to speculate on the mysterious circumstances of Foster’s untimely death. This beautifully written biography provides important new insights into the complex life of one of America’s most controversial popular songwriters. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. * CHOICE *
Stephen Foster (1826–64) is often remembered as a writer of plantation songs, but researcher O’Connell describes him as a much more diverse composer. The author’s dense but fascinating book puts the life of Foster and his family in context as it relates to U.S. cultural and political history. This is particularly relevant to Foster’s works because his pieces were often autobiographical. Details of dealings with parents, siblings, spouse Jane McDowell, and publishers are described in great length, as are the many tragedies through deaths and financial distress experienced by the Foster family. The unhappiness of his marriage was in part caused by his alcoholism, which also affected his work. Foster’s political views were often hidden, and therefore, his sympathy for slaves was often unknown. He embraced minstrel songs until they were widely recognized as insulting and then abandoned them for campaign and parlor songs, variety, and music hall songs. VERDICT All readers interested in Foster, professional or amateur musicians or historians included, will delight in the perspective taken by O’Connell that the man was much more than the few songs for which he is remembered. * Library Journal *
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Pioneer Elites Chapter 2: Foreclosure and the Death of Charlotte Chapter 3: All Up and Down the Whole Creation Chapter 4: Schooling in Brother William’s Sunshine Chapter 5: At Home in Allegheny Chapter 6: Musical Bookkeeper Chapter 7: The Awakening in Cincinnati Chapter 8: Non-Companionate Marriage Chapter 9: “Swanee River,” E. P. Christy, and Sentimental Minstrelsy Chapter 10: Shiras and the Antislavery Impulse Chapter 11: Piano Girls and Parlor Songs Chapter 12: Hoboken and Deaths in the Family Chapter 13: The Buchanan Glee Club Chapter 14: Royalties Sellout Chapter 15: New York “Potboilers” Chapter 16: War Songs and Copperhead Relatives Chapter 17: The Foster – Cooper “Song Factory” Chapter 18: Concert Saloons and Variety Music Chapter 19: Last Days on the Bowery Chapter 20: Accidental Death or Suicide? Epilogue: What Came Afterwards
