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The Barn (Paperback)
Sharon L Dean
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R459
R402
Discovery Miles 4 020
Save R57 (12%)
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American writer and world traveler Constance Fenimore Woolson
(1840-1894) was author of more than fifty short stories, four
novels, a novella, and numerous poems and travel essays. During her
lifetime, she achieved both popular and critical success, but much
of her work is no longer available. This volume, as the first
anthology to collect representative samples of her stories, travel
sketches, poems, and correspondence, represents a major advance
toward re-establishing her place in nineteenth-century literature
and letters. As these pieces demonstrate, Woolson offered keen
observations on the issues she cared most deeply about, namely the
cultural and political transformation of the United States in the
wake of the Civil War, the status of women writers and artists in
the nineteenth century, and the growing implications of nationalism
and imperialism. Woolson grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and began her
career writing regional travel stories about the closing of the
American frontier in the old Northwest Territories (now known as
the Great Lakes region). During the Civil War, she worked for a
variety of Union causes and in 1873 moved to St. Augustine,
Florida. Traveling throughout the South, she wrote stories and
travel narratives that highlighted the wholesale changes facing
Americans after the Civil War. In 1879, Woolson left the United
States for Europe. There, she engaged her passion for nature and
exercised her gift for social satire. In her European writings, she
deplored the Americans' slavish devotion to the ubiquitous
guidebooks of the nineteenth century, and she chose instead to
spend long periods of time in one place in order to better learn
about it. Throughout her time in Europe (including visits to North
Africa), Woolson often commented that she could not describe
landscapes, only experience them. By the time of her death in
Venice at age fifty-three, she had become convinced that the
colonial agendas of the United States and Europe would transform
landscapes and peoples in far-reaching and ultimately dangerous
ways. This collection features selections from each of the three
distinct periods of Woolson's career and includes a chronology of
her life and travels. Focusing primarily on Woolson's short
stories, editors Victoria Brehm and Sharon L. Dean also include a
representative letter, poem, and travel sketch for each section.
Victoria Brehm is associate professor of English at Grand Valley
State University. She is editor of three anthologies, including "A
Fully Accredited Ocean": Essays on the Great Lakes and Sweetwater,
Storms, and Spirits: Stories of the Great Lakes. Sharon L. Dean is
professor of English at Rivier College and is author of Constance
Fenimore Woolson: Homeward Bound and Constance Fenimore Woolson and
Edith Wharton: Perspectives on Landscape and Art.
"Meticulously edited and contextualized, Dean's edition of
Woolson's complete letters opens the door to an extraordinarily
gifted writer's world. It offers depth to Woolson studies, but it
also connects Woolson to the nineteenth-century literary
marketplace in new and fascinating ways. We see Woolson the tough
but astute literary critic, the precise businesswoman, and the keen
cultural critic of the North, the South, and Europe. Perhaps most
importantly, Woolson's letters counter many false impressions of an
isolated woman. This was a life lived."--Sharon M. Harris,
University of Connecticut "Uncovers the complex, witty,
cosmopolitan, imaginative Woolson, who appears more obliquely in
her prose and poetry. Peopled by the famous, the infamous, and the
unknown, the letters sparkle with intelligence and energy,
providing insight into contemporary attitudes that Woolson
sometimes shared, sometimes satirized, and sometimes defied, while
they reveal an ample sensibility that anticipates today's concerns
for the environment, regional and national identity, and global
citizenship."--Karen L. Kilcup, author of Robert Frost and Feminine
Literary Tradition "The Complete Letters of Constance Fenimore
Woolson vibrate with the intelligence and sensitivity of an
immensely private woman who reached out through her correspondence
in search of like-minded souls. She found comrades among some of
the most accomplished writers of her era as well as among men of
science. Ultimately, these letters reveal the broad scope of a
well-traveled life and the depth of an intensely observant artist.
Every reader interested in the lives of nineteenth-century authors
or women should savor every one of this extraordinary writer's
letters."--Anne Boyd Rioux, president, Constance Fenimore Woolson
Society Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840-1894) led a colorful life,
travelling throughout the U.S. and Europe, becoming a literary
star, whose work was published in the premier magazines of her day.
She wrote critically acclaimed novels, short stories, and poetry
before her mysterious and untimely death in Venice at age
fifty-three. Sharon Dean has recompiled, dated, and, in many cases,
physically reassembled Woolson's extant correspondence from nearly
forty sources. A trenchant critic of the customs and mores of her
age, Woolson, in her letters, offers rich personal detail alongside
nuanced ruminations on contemporary political and social
conditions. Sharon L. Dean is professor emerita of English at
Rivier College in New Hampshire. One of the foremost experts on
Constance Fenimore Woolson, her most recent publication is
Constance Fenimore Woolson: Selected Stories and Travel Narratives.
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