Katharine Lee Bates: From Sea to Shining Sea - Softcover

Ponder, Melinda M

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1941478395 ISBN 13: 9781941478394

Publisher: Windy City Publishers, 2017

Synopsis

Katharine Lee Bates’s “America the Beautiful” resonates for many people as the most patriotic and beloved American anthem. Her words remind us of why we love our country—the beauty of our land, the historic sacrifices of our people, and our ideals of hope and brotherhood. That has never been more important than today. Drawing on extensive research in Bates family diaries, letters, and memoirs, biographer Melinda M. Ponder brings Katharine to vivid life. Although her passion was poetry, Katharine’s three alluring suitors (two men and a woman) pulled her into major reform movements in a changing America after the Civil War. Teacher, poet, community builder, and patriot, she challenged Americans to make their country the best it could become in its values and literature. You will find yourself rooting for the unlikely triumph of this complicated woman on her journeys “from sea to shining sea.”

About this title

About the Author

MELINDA M. PONDER is a graduate of Katharine Lee Bates’s Wellesley College and received a M.A. in American Studies and a Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Boston College. She has published numerous articles and given many talks and interviews on Katharine Lee Bates, and has published two books on Nathaniel Hawthorne as well. Born in Indianapolis, Ponder now resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is Professor of English Emerita at Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

Review

"How I loved this splendid biography! Melinda Ponder brings Katharine Lee Bates to life as never before. And what a fascinating, remarkable woman she was—so much more important in the history and literature of our country than I had realized."
~Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize historian

"Finally, a full portrait of the wise and witty woman who wrote the words that best express our love for America. Melinda Ponder's rich narrative is a timely reminder that intellect, integrity, and a rigorous respect for truth are the real pillars of patriotism."
~Lynn Sherr, former ABC News correspondent and author of America the Beautiful:  The Stirring True Story Behind America's Favorite Song

"Katharine Lee Bates: From Sea to Shining Sea unfolds at long last the impressive life story and strikingly variegated career of the author of America's unofficial national anthem. A limit-bumping thinker ahead of her time, sometimes even at odds with it, Katharine Lee Bates also had a remarkable gift  for reaching the broader American public."
~Lawrence Buell, Harvard University, author of New England Literary Culture and the Dream of the Great American Novel

"...[A] carefully researched and thoroughly entrancing life tale of a brilliant and accomplished woman whose many achievements have too long been eclipsed by the enduring success of 'America the Beautiful'.... Ponder wisely sets this triumph in the context of a full and richly lived life."
~Megan Marshall, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Margaret Fuller: A New American Life and Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast

"Melinda Ponder's ... beautifully written biography presents Katharine Lee Bates as, in her time, a "New Woman." Readers will  find that this life story of a beloved poet, patriot, and social reformer has much to say about our own time."
~Barbara Kanellopoulos, The Falmouth Enterprise

"Congratulations to Melinda Ponder for telling the story of a poet who was also a true American hero.... this book is a stirring tribute to a brilliant and deeply patriotic American whose message we need to hear today."
~Stephen Kinzer, historian and author, The True Flag:  Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire

About this edition

• Publisher: Windy City Publishers
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1941478395
• ISBN 13: 9781941478394
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 374