Spoon River Anthology: Poems and Verse about Rural American Life (Hardcover)


Book Description

The Spoon River Anthology is a classic collection of poems by Edgar Lee Masters, with verses dedicated and named for members of a fictional small American town. Edgar Masters intention when he composed these verses was to demystify the culture of small town America. Over the decades prior to this anthology's publication in 1915, rural and urban cultures in the USA had diverged considerably: to many city-dwellers, how life in the country actually proceeded was simply unknown. Originally serialized in a magazine named Reedy's Mirror, each of the poems give the reader insight into the lives, events, and culture of a typical small country town. Each is titled after a specific character, and contains their thoughts and concerns at a given time. This acts to build a narrative around the small town, which is proven to be colorful and emotionally distinct place, with several characters coping with grief and loss.




Across Spoon River


Book Description

The memoirs of one of Illinois’ great poets, author of Spoon River Anthology, with many vignettes of the Chicago Renaissance. This intimate and provocative autobiography, first published in 1936, reveals the innermost thoughts of a great American poet. Edgar Lee Masters was a transitional figure in American literature with one foot planted in the nineteenth century and the other firmly placed on the path of what we now think of as the modern period. Richly illustrated throughout with black and white photographs. “Across Spoon River: An Autobiography is blunt and cranky about a life [Masters] saw as largely “scrappy and unmanageable.” Emphasizing life on his grandfather’s farm, his school days, his political battles, the workday world, and the growth of a poet’s mind through wide reading, the book is a valuable record of Masters’s work habits and offers considerable insight on his position as a critic and his place in American literature.”—Ronald Primeau, American National Biography




Spoon River America


Book Description

From Main Street to Stranger Things, how poetry changed our idea of small town life A literary and cultural milestone, Spoon River Anthology captured an idea of the rural Midwest that became a bedrock myth of life in small-town America. Jason Stacy places the book within the atmosphere of its time and follows its progress as the poetry took root and thrived. Published by Edgar Lee Masters in 1915, Spoon River Anthology won praise from modernists while becoming an ongoing touchstone for American popular culture. Stacy charts the ways readers embraced, debated, and reshaped Masters's work in literary controversies and culture war skirmishes; in films and other media that over time saw the small town as idyllic then conflicted then surreal; and as the source of three archetypes—populist, elite, and exile—that endure across the landscape of American culture in the twenty-first century. A wide-ranging reconsideration of a literary landmark, Spoon River America tells the story of how a Midwesterner's poetry helped change a nation's conception of itself.




Spoon River Anthology


Book Description

DIVAn American poetry classic, in which former citizens of a mythical midwestern town speak touchingly from the grave of the thwarted hopes and dreams of their lives. /div




American Literature Review


Book Description

An entire American lit class in a single volume, covering major writers from our Puritan beginnings through the present day. Includes excerpts and summaries from major works, a discussion of plots, settings and characters, and an overview of important literary movements.




The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Literature


Book Description

Looks at American authors from Washington Irving to John Updike and provides brief biographical sketches, excerpts and summaries of major works, and explanations of major literary movements




The Work of Poetry


Book Description

The Work of Poetry is organized into three parts. "Poetic Substance" explores the nature of poetry and the poet, with essays that cover the poet "being-and-feeling-at-home" in his or her work and the parallels between dreams and poetry.




The Princeton Handbook of World Poetries


Book Description

An authoritative and comprehensive guide to poetry throughout the world The Princeton Handbook of World Poetries—drawn from the latest edition of the acclaimed Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics—provides a comprehensive and authoritative survey of the history and practice of poetry in more than 100 major regional, national, and diasporic literatures and language traditions around the globe. With more than 165 entries, the book combines broad overviews and focused accounts to give extensive coverage of poetic traditions throughout the world. For students, teachers, researchers, poets, and other readers, it supplies a one-of-a-kind resource, offering in-depth treatment of Indo-European poetries (all the major Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, and Romance languages, and others); ancient Middle Eastern poetries (Hebrew, Persian, Sumerian, and Assyro-Babylonian); subcontinental Indian poetries (Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Urdu, and more); Asian and Pacific poetries (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Nepalese, Thai, and Tibetan); Spanish American poetries (those of Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, and many other Latin American countries); indigenous American poetries (Guaraní, Inuit, and Navajo); and African poetries (those of Ethiopia, Somalia, South Africa, and other countries, and including African languages, English, French, and Portuguese). Complete with an introduction by the editors, this is an essential volume for anyone interested in understanding poetry in an international context. Drawn from the latest edition of the acclaimed Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics Provides more than 165 authoritative entries on poetry in more than 100 regional, national, and diasporic literatures and language traditions throughout the world Features extensive coverage of non-Western poetic traditions Includes an introduction, bibliographies, cross-references, and a general index




The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics


Book Description

Rev. ed. of: The Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics / Alex Preminger and T.V.F. Brogan, co-editors; Frank J. Warnke, O.B. Hardison, Jr., and Earl Miner, associate editors. 1993.




The Cambridge Companion to American Modernism


Book Description

The Cambridge Companion to American Modernism provides a comprehensive and authoritative overview of American literary modernism from 1890 to 1939. These original essays by twelve distinguished scholars of international reputation offer critical overviews of the major genres, literary culture, and social contexts that define the current state of Modern American literature and cultural studies. Among the diverse topics covered are nationalism, race, gender and the impact of music and visual arts on literary modernism, as well as overviews of the achievements of American modernism in fiction, poetry and drama. The book concludes with a chapter on modern American criticism. An essential reference guide to the field, the Companion offers readers a chronology of key events and publication dates covering the first half of the twentieth century in the United States, and a bibliography of further reading organized by chapter topics.