Robert F. Sayre's "The Examined Self" is a seminal work in the study of American autobiography. Its republication is a fitting initial effort in the new Wisconsin Studies in American Autobiography series, under the general editorship of William L. Andrews, Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin--Madison.Sayre's book, the first full scholarly study of American autobiography, was also the first to give full recognition to the rich potential of this American literary tradition. He studies the autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin, Henry James, and Henry Adams not only in the context...
Robert F. Sayre's "The Examined Self" is a seminal work in the study of American autobiography. Its republication is a fitting initial effort in the n...
New Essays on Walden reviews Thoreau's classic from four important contemporary perspectives. Lawrence Buell explains how decisions by Thoreau's publisher combined with promotion of Thoreau by early Thoreauvians, literary critics and reviewers turned Walden into a classic. Nature writer and ecologist Anne LaBastille writes of her own responses to Walden. H. Daniel Peck examines how the pastoralism of Walden serves to contain not only the forces of industrialism and commerce in American society but also psychic forces in Thoreau's inner life. Finally Michael Fischer reevaluates Walden in the...
New Essays on Walden reviews Thoreau's classic from four important contemporary perspectives. Lawrence Buell explains how decisions by Thoreau's publi...
American Lives is a groundbreaking book, the first historically organized anthology of American autobiographical writing, bringing us fifty-five voices from throughout the nation's history, from Abigail Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Jonathan Edwards, and Richard Wright to Quaker preacher Elizabeth Ashbridge, con man Stephen Burroughs, and circus impresario P.T. Barnum. Representing canonical and non-canonical writers, slaves and slave-owners, generals and conscientious objectors, scientists, immigrants, and Native Americans, the pieces in this collection make up a rich gathering of...
American Lives is a groundbreaking book, the first historically organized anthology of American autobiographical writing, bringing us fifty-...