In the American Grain - Softcover

Williams, William Carlos

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140182705 ISBN 13: 9780140182705

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1989

Synopsis

Although admired by D. H. Lawrence, this modern classic went generally unnoticed during the years after its publication in 1925. Yet it is a fundamental book, essential if one proposes to come to terms with American literature (Times Literary Supplement). William Carlos Williams was not a historian, but he was fascinated by the texture of American history. Beginning with Columbus s discovery of the Indies and moving on through Sir Walter Raleigh, Cotton Mather, Daniel Boone, George Washington, Ben Franklin, Aaron Burr, Edgar Allan Poe, and Abraham Lincoln, Williams found in the fabric of familiar episodes new shades of meaning and configurations of character. He brought a poetic imagination to the task of reconstructing a live tradition for Americans, and what results is one of the finest works of prose to have been penned by any writer of the twentieth century."

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Review:

His treatment is free and episodic, beginning with the Vikings and ending with Abraham Lincoln. (Daniel J. Boorstin, author of The Discoverers) "

It is ever more apparent that Williams is this century s major American poet. (The Chicago Tribune) "

About the Author:

William Carlos Williams was born in Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1883. He lived there most of his life, practising medicine as a paediatrician. While studying at the Pennsylvania Medical School he became a friend of Ezra Pound and H. Doolittle, and was deeply influenced by Imagism. The limitations of Imagism, however, soon led him to launch his own campaign to 'create somehow by intense, individual effort, a new - and American - poetic language.'

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0140182705
• ISBN 13: 9780140182705
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240