Hawthorne: a life
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Handsome, reserved, almost frighteningly aloof until he was approached, then playful, cordial, Nathaniel Hawthorne was as mercurial and double-edged as his writing. “Deep as Dante,” Herman Melville said. Hawthorne himself declared that he was not “one of those supremely hospitable people who serve up their own hearts, delicately fried, with brain sauce, as a tidbit” for the public. Yet those who knew him best often took the opposite position. “He always puts himself in his books,” said his sister-in-law Mary Mann, “he cannot help it.” His life, like his work, was extraordinary, a play of light and shadow. In this major new biography of Hawthorne, the first in more than a decade, Brenda Wineapple, acclaimed biographer of Janet Flanner and Gertrude and Leo Stein (“Luminous”–Richard Howard), brings him brilliantly alive: an exquisite writer who shoveled dung in an attempt to found a new utopia at Brook Farm and then excoriated the community (or his attraction to it) in caustic satire; the confidant of Franklin Pierce, fourteenth president of the United States and arguably one of its worst; friend to Emerson and Thoreau and Melville who, unlike them, made fun of Abraham Lincoln and who, also unlike them, wrote compellingly of women, deeply identifying with them–he was the first major American writer to create erotic female characters. Those vibrant, independent women continue to haunt the imagination, although Hawthorne often punishes, humiliates, or kills them, as if exorcising that which enthralls. Here is the man rooted in Salem, Massachusetts, of an old pre-Revolutionary family, reared partly in the wilds of western Maine, then schooled along with Longfellow at Bowdoin College. Here are his idyllic marriage to the youngest and prettiest of the Peabody sisters and his longtime friendships, including with Margaret Fuller, the notorious feminist writer and intellectual. Here too is Hawthorne at the end of his days, revered as a genius, but considered as well to be an embarrassing puzzle by the Boston intelligentsia, isolated by fiercely held political loyalties that placed him against the Civil War and the currents of his time. Brenda Wineapple navigates the high tides and chill undercurrents of Hawthorne’s fascinating life and work with clarity, nuance, and insight. The novels and tales, the incidental writings, travel notes and children’s books, letters and diaries reverberate in this biography, which both charts and protects the dark unknowable core that is quintessentially Hawthorne. In him, the quest of his generation for an authentically American voice bears disquieting fruit.
Subjects
Subjects
Biographie
Biographies
Biography
Biography & Autobiography
Electronic books
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, -- 1804-1864
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, -- 1804-1864 -- Relations with women
History
Literary Criticism
Nonfiction
Novelists, American
Novelists, American -- 19th century -- Biography
Relations with women
Biographies
Biography
Biography & Autobiography
Electronic books
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, -- 1804-1864
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, -- 1804-1864 -- Relations with women
History
Literary Criticism
Nonfiction
Novelists, American
Novelists, American -- 19th century -- Biography
Relations with women
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ISBN:
9780812972917
9780307808660
9780375400445
9780307808660
9780375400445
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Grouping Information
Grouped Work ID | 97e3152d-5f9e-1c59-bb55-eaba5f8f507f |
---|---|
Grouping Title | hawthorne a life |
Grouping Author | brenda wineapple |
Grouping Category | book |
Grouping Language | English (eng) |
Last Grouping Update | 2024-04-27 06:54:27AM |
Last Indexed | 2024-05-03 23:11:15PM |
Solr Fields
accelerated_reader_point_value
0
accelerated_reader_reading_level
0
author
Wineapple, Brenda
author_display
Wineapple, Brenda
display_description
Handsome, reserved, almost frighteningly aloof until he was approached, then playful, cordial, Nathaniel Hawthorne was as mercurial and double-edged as his writing. “Deep as Dante,” Herman Melville said. Hawthorne himself declared that he was not “one of those supremely hospitable people who serve up their own hearts, delicately fried, with brain sauce, as a tidbit” for the public. Yet those who knew him best often took the opposite position. “He always puts himself in his books,” said his sister-in-law Mary Mann, “he cannot help it.” His life, like his work, was extraordinary, a play of light and shadow. In this major new biography of Hawthorne, the first in more than a decade, Brenda Wineapple, acclaimed biographer of Janet Flanner and Gertrude and Leo Stein (“Luminous”–Richard Howard), brings him brilliantly alive: an exquisite writer who shoveled dung in an attempt to found a new utopia at Brook Farm and then excoriated the community (or his attraction to it) in caustic satire; the confidant of Franklin Pierce, fourteenth president of the United States and arguably one of its worst; friend to Emerson and Thoreau and Melville who, unlike them, made fun of Abraham Lincoln and who, also unlike them, wrote compellingly of women, deeply identifying with them–he was the first major American writer to create erotic female characters. Those vibrant, independent women continue to haunt the imagination, although Hawthorne often punishes, humiliates, or kills them, as if exorcising that which enthralls. Here is the man rooted in Salem, Massachusetts, of an old pre-Revolutionary family, reared partly in the wilds of western Maine, then schooled along with Longfellow at Bowdoin College. Here are his idyllic marriage to the youngest and prettiest of the Peabody sisters and his longtime friendships, including with Margaret Fuller, the notorious feminist writer and intellectual. Here too is Hawthorne at the end of his days, revered as a genius, but considered as well to be an embarrassing puzzle by the Boston intelligentsia, isolated by fiercely held political loyalties that placed him against the Civil War and the currents of his time. Brenda Wineapple navigates the high tides and chill undercurrents of Hawthorne’s fascinating life and work with clarity, nuance, and insight. The novels and tales, the incidental writings, travel notes and children’s books, letters and diaries reverberate in this biography, which both charts and protects the dark unknowable core that is quintessentially Hawthorne. In him, the quest of his generation for an authentically American voice bears disquieting fruit.
id
97e3152d-5f9e-1c59-bb55-eaba5f8f507f
isbn
9780307808660
9780375400445
9780812972917
9780375400445
9780812972917
last_indexed
2024-05-04T05:11:15.101Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
primary_isbn
9780812972917
publishDate
2003
2004
2012
2004
2012
publisher
Alfred A. Knopf :
Random House
Random House
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Biographie
Biographies
Biography
Biography & Autobiography
Electronic books
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, -- 1804-1864
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, -- 1804-1864 -- Relations with women
History
Literary Criticism
Nonfiction
Novelists, American
Novelists, American -- 19th century -- Biography
Relations with women
Biographies
Biography
Biography & Autobiography
Electronic books
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, -- 1804-1864
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, -- 1804-1864 -- Relations with women
History
Literary Criticism
Nonfiction
Novelists, American
Novelists, American -- 19th century -- Biography
Relations with women
title_display
Hawthorne : a life
title_full
Hawthorne : a life / Brenda Wineapple
Hawthorne [electronic resource] : A life. Brenda Wineapple
Hawthorne [electronic resource] : A life. Brenda Wineapple
title_short
Hawthorne
title_sub
a life
topic_facet
Biography & Autobiography
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
History
Literary Criticism
Nonfiction
Novelists, American
Relations with women
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
History
Literary Criticism
Nonfiction
Novelists, American
Relations with women
Solr Details Tables
item_details
Bib Id | Item Id | Shelf Loc | Call Num | Format | Format Category | Num Copies | Is Order Item | Is eContent | eContent Source | eContent URL | Detailed Status | Last Checkin | Location |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ils:.b60074437 | .i127044000 | MRLD Montrose Biography | HAWTHORN | 1 | false | false | On Shelf | mrlab | |||||
overdrivecmc:ODN0000650741 | ODN0000650741 | Overdrive (CMC) | Online Overdrive (CMC) | eBook | eBook | 1 | false | true | Overdrive (CMC) | http://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=162&titleID=650741 | Available Online | Overdrive (CMC) | |
ils:.b31162113 | .i122763178 | Bemis Biography | B HAWTHORN WINEAPPL | 1 | false | false | On Shelf | Jan 12, 2016 | bebio |
record_details
Bib Id | Format | Format Category | Edition | Language | Publisher | Publication Date | Physical Description | Abridged |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ils:.b60074437 | Book | Books | 1st ed | English | Alfred A. Knopf : | 2003 | xii, 509 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm | |
overdrivecmc:ODN0000650741 | eBook | eBook | English | 2012 | 1 online resource | |||
ils:.b31162113 | Book | Books | Random House trade pbk. ed | English | Random House | 2004 | 509 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm |