Emerson in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, F - Softcover

Bosco & Myerson, Ronald A. & Joel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0877458421 ISBN 13: 9780877458425

Publisher: University Of Iowa Press, 2003

Synopsis

At his death, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) was universally acknowledged in America and England as “the Great Romancer.” Novels such as The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables and stories published in such collections as Twice-Told Tales continue to capture the minds and imaginations of readers and critics to this day. Harder to capture, however, were the character and personality of the man himself. So few of the essays that appeared in the two years after his death offered new insights into his life, art, and reputation that Hawthorne seemed fated to premature obscurity or, at least, permanent misrepresentation. This first collection of personal reminiscences by those who knew Hawthorne intimately or knew about him through reliable secondary sources rescues him from these confusions and provides the real human history behind the successful writer. 
    Remembrances from Elizabeth Peabody, Sophia Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott, Rebecca Harding Davis, and twenty others printed in Hawthorne in His Own Time follow him from his childhood in Salem, through his years of initial literary obscurity, his days in the Boston and Salem Custom Houses, his service as U.S. Consul to Liverpool and Manchester and his life in the Anglo-American communities at Rome and Florence, to his late years as the “Great Romancer.” 
    In their enlightening introduction, editors Ronald Bosco and Jillmarie Murphy assess the postmortem building of Hawthorne’s reputation as well as his relationship to the prominent Transcendentalists, spiritualists, Swedenborgians, and other personalities of his time. By clarifying the sentimental associations between Hawthorne’s writings and his actual personality and moving away from the critical review to the personal narrative, these artful and perceptive reminiscences tell the private and public story of a remarkable life.

About this title

About the Author

Ronald A. Bosco is Distinguished Professor of English and American Literature at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and General Editor for The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He is author or editor of many books, including Emerson in His Own Time (Iowa, 2003, with Joel Myerson). Jillmarie Murphy is professor of literature and writing at Schenectady County Community College.

Review

''I can't imagine a better source in one volume for the biographer, critic, or student of Emerson. Emerson in His Own Time is a treasure of fascinting anecodotes, many of them not generally known''

""Hawthorne in His Own Time" is better than a biography: it provides canny first-hand accounts of an author often considered unknowable, along with key literary assessments of the era, allowing readers to sift through the evidence and form their own judgments. Students, scholars, and lovers of the Great Romancer's work will all find much of value in this collection of gems."--Megan Marshall, author of "The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism"

Edition details

• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0877458421
• ISBN 13: 9780877458425
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320