Hawthorne: A Life - Hardcover

Wineapple, Brenda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375400443 ISBN 13: 9780375400445

Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc, 2003

Synopsis

The author of acclaimed biographies on Janet Flanner and Gertrude and Leo Stein turns her attention to Nathaniel Hawthorne, examining this complicated literary giant to unravel his secrets. 20,000 first printing.

About this title

Review

"Clearly the best biography of Hawthorne; "the Hawthorne for our time. Beautifully conceived and written, it conveys the full poignancy and complexity of Hawthorne's life; it makes vivid the times and people and places -- and what a rich array of people and events! A delight to read from start to end."
--Sacvan Bercovitch
"Brenda Wineapple's Hawthorne is, quite literally, an electrifying life. The power and sweep of the writing galvanizes a subject frozen, by earlier biographies, into a series of stills. We understand, finally, a man and artist torn by every conflict of his time, adding a few of his own, a man both strange and strangely familiar. The great achievement of this stunning biography lies in the feat of restoring Hawthorne to the rich and roiling America of his own period, while revealing him, for the first time, as our contemporary."
--Benita Eisler
"With the possible exception of Herman Melville, no one has ever understood the grand tragic Shakespearian nature of Nathaniel Hawthorne's life and work as well as Brenda Wineapple. Her brilliant, powerful, nervy, unsettling and riveting book is authoritatively researched and beautifully written; it has itself the dark mesmeric power of a Hawthorne story. Wineapple's Hawthorne is an intensely private man, compounded of strange depths, mysterious failings, concealments, yearnings and unmistakable incandescent genius."
--Robert D. Richardson
"Brenda Wineapple illuminates Hawthorne's complexities without demystifying the man. He remains one of the most intriguing American writers: dark, guilty, erotic, and psychologically acute - qualities that Wineapple deftly explores."
--Margot Peters
"There is nojustice for Hawthorne without the mercy which failed him in life and art. In Wineapple's new dispensation, all the man endured and the art achieved is revealed by loving scruple and, to awful circumstance, condolent response. No biographer since James, no critic since Lawrence has limned so unsparing and therefore so speaking a likeness of our first great fabulist, from which one returns to the works with enlightened wonder. More darkness, more light! Here both abound."
--Richard Howard

"A fine biography...A sensitive reading of Hawthorne's character...Wineapple makes generous use of a cache of family letters that detail the tangle and tussle of wills that Hawthorne had entered as son, brother, lover, and husband, all the while seeking the freedom of spirit to exercise his genius."
--Justin Kaplan, "Washington Post
"Meticulously researched and superbly written...captures the novelist in high resolution."
--Peter Campion, "San Francisco Chronicle
"A vivid account of a highly interesting life."
--Brooke Allen, "New York Times Book Review
"Richly detailed and nuanced; a model of literary biography and an illumination for students of Hawthorne's work...A thoughtful and absorbing life."
--"Kirkus (starred)
"A thoroughly engrossing story of a writer's life... written with novelistic grace and flow, with an eye to the telling detail and apt quotation."
--Dan Cryer, "New York "Newsday

"Wineapple is a splendid stylist and a master of concision. She can capture an entire personality and life in a brief paragraph, ... She can define a complex amatory relationship in a sentence.... Her eloquent hands bring Hawthorne vividly alive for us."
--Jamie Spencer, "St. Louis-Post Dispatch

"From the Hardcover edition.

"Clearly the best biography of Hawthorne; "the" Hawthorne for our time. Beautifully conceived and written, it conveys the full poignancy and complexity of Hawthorne's life; it makes vivid the times and people and places -- and what a rich array of people and events! A delight to read from start to end."
--Sacvan Bercovitch
"Brenda Wineapple's Hawthorne is, quite literally, an electrifying life. The power and sweep of the writing galvanizes a subject frozen, by earlier biographies, into a series of stills. We understand, finally, a man and artist torn by every conflict of his time, adding a few of his own, a man both strange and strangely familiar. The great achievement of this stunning biography lies in the feat of restoring Hawthorne to the rich and roiling America of his own period, while revealing him, for the first time, as our contemporary."
--Benita Eisler
"With the possible exception of Herman Melville, no one has ever understood the grand tragic Shakespearian nature of Nathaniel Hawthorne's life and work as well as Brenda Wineapple. Her brilliant, powerful, nervy, unsettling and riveting book is authoritatively researched and beautifully written; it has itself the dark mesmeric power of a Hawthorne story. Wineapple's Hawthorne is an intensely private man, compounded of strange depths, mysterious failings, concealments, yearnings and unmistakable incandescent genius."
--Robert D. Richardson
"Brenda Wineapple illuminates Hawthorne's complexities without demystifying the man. He remains one of the most intriguing American writers: dark, guilty, erotic, and psychologically acute - qualities that Wineapple deftly explores."
--Margot Peters
"There is no justice for Hawthorne without the mercy which failed him in life and art. In Wineapple's new dispensation, all the man endured and the art achieved is revealed by loving scruple and, to awful circumstance, condolent response. No biographer since James, no critic since Lawrence has limned so unsparing and therefore so speaking a likeness of our first great fabulist, from which one returns to the works with enlightened wonder. More darkness, more light! Here both abound."
--Richard Howard

"A fine biography...A sensitive reading of Hawthorne's character...Wineapple makes generous use of a cache of family letters that detail the tangle and tussle of wills that Hawthorne had entered as son, brother, lover, and husband, all the while seeking the freedom of spirit to exercise his genius."
--Justin Kaplan, "Washington Post
"
"Meticulously researched and superbly written...captures the novelist in high resolution."
--Peter Campion, "San Francisco Chronicle
"
"A vivid account of a highly interesting life."
--Brooke Allen, "New York Times Book Review
"
"Richly detailed and nuanced; a model of literary biography and an illumination for students of Hawthorne's work...A thoughtful and absorbing life."
--"Kirkus (starred)
"
"A thoroughly engrossing story of a writer's life... written with novelistic grace and flow, with an eye to the telling detail and apt quotation."
--Dan Cryer, "New York""Newsday"

"Wineapple is a splendid stylist and a master of concision. She can capture an entire personality and life in a brief paragraph, ... She can define a complex amatory relationship in a sentence.... Her eloquent hands bring Hawthorne vividly alive for us."
--Jamie Spencer, "St. Louis-Post Dispatch
"

"From the Hardcover edition."

Clearly the best biography of Hawthorne; "the" Hawthorne for our time. Beautifully conceived and written, it conveys the full poignancy and complexity of Hawthorne s life; it makes vivid the times and people and places and what a rich array of people and events! A delight to read from start to end.
--Sacvan Bercovitch
Brenda Wineapple s Hawthorne is, quite literally, an electrifying life. The power and sweep of the writing galvanizes a subject frozen, by earlier biographies, into a series of stills. We understand, finally, a man and artist torn by every conflict of his time, adding a few of his own, a man both strange and strangely familiar. The great achievement of this stunning biography lies in the feat of restoring Hawthorne to the rich and roiling America of his own period, while revealing him, for the first time, as our contemporary.
--Benita Eisler
With the possible exception of Herman Melville, no one has ever understood the grand tragic Shakespearian nature of Nathaniel Hawthorne's life and work as well as Brenda Wineapple. Her brilliant, powerful, nervy, unsettling and riveting book is authoritatively researched and beautifully written; it has itself the dark mesmeric power of a Hawthorne story. Wineapple's Hawthorne is an intensely private man, compounded of strange depths, mysterious failings, concealments, yearnings and unmistakable incandescent genius.
--Robert D. Richardson
Brenda Wineapple illuminates Hawthorne's complexities without demystifying the man. He remains one of the most intriguing American writers: dark, guilty, erotic, and psychologically acute qualities that Wineapple deftly explores.
--Margot Peters
There is no justice for Hawthorne without the mercy which failed him in life and art. In Wineapple's new dispensation, all the man endured and the art achieved is revealed by loving scruple and, to awful circumstance, condolent response. No biographer since James, no critic since Lawrence has limned so unsparing and therefore so speaking a likeness of our first great fabulist, from which one returns to the works with enlightened wonder. More darkness, more light! Here both abound.
--Richard Howard

A fine biography...A sensitive reading of Hawthorne s character...Wineapple makes generous use of a cache of family letters that detail the tangle and tussle of wills that Hawthorne had entered as son, brother, lover, and husband, all the while seeking the freedom of spirit to exercise his genius.
--Justin Kaplan, "Washington Post
"
Meticulously researched and superbly written...captures the novelist in high resolution.
--Peter Campion, "San Francisco Chronicle
"
A vivid account of a highly interesting life.
--Brooke Allen, "New York Times Book Review
"
Richly detailed and nuanced; a model of literary biography and an illumination for students of Hawthorne s work...A thoughtful and absorbing life.
--"Kirkus (starred)
"
A thoroughly engrossing story of a writer's life written with novelistic grace and flow, with an eye to the telling detail and apt quotation.
--Dan Cryer, "New York" "Newsday"

Wineapple is a splendid stylist and a master of concision. She can capture an entire personality and life in a brief paragraph, She can define a complex amatory relationship in a sentence . Her eloquent hands bring Hawthorne vividly alive for us.
--Jamie Spencer, "St. Louis-Post Dispatch
"

"From the Hardcover edition."

Clearly the best biography of Hawthorne; the Hawthorne for our time. Beautifully conceived and written, it conveys the full poignancy and complexity of Hawthorne s life; it makes vivid the times and people and places and what a rich array of people and events! A delight to read from start to end.
--Sacvan Bercovitch
Brenda Wineapple s Hawthorne is, quite literally, an electrifying life. The power and sweep of the writing galvanizes a subject frozen, by earlier biographies, into a series of stills. We understand, finally, a man and artist torn by every conflict of his time, adding a few of his own, a man both strange and strangely familiar. The great achievement of this stunning biography lies in the feat of restoring Hawthorne to the rich and roiling America of his own period, while revealing him, for the first time, as our contemporary.
--Benita Eisler
With the possible exception of Herman Melville, no one has ever understood the grand tragic Shakespearian nature of Nathaniel Hawthorne's life and work as well as Brenda Wineapple. Her brilliant, powerful, nervy, unsettling and riveting book is authoritatively researched and beautifully written; it has itself the dark mesmeric power of a Hawthorne story. Wineapple's Hawthorne is an intensely private man, compounded of strange depths, mysterious failings, concealments, yearnings and unmistakable incandescent genius.
--Robert D. Richardson
Brenda Wineapple illuminates Hawthorne's complexities without demystifying the man. He remains one of the most intriguing American writers: dark, guilty, erotic, and psychologically acute qualities that Wineapple deftly explores.
--Margot Peters
There is no justice for Hawthorne without the mercy which failed him in life and art. In Wineapple's new dispensation, all the man endured and the art achieved is revealed by loving scruple and, to awful circumstance, condolent response. No biographer since James, no critic since Lawrence has limned so unsparing and therefore so speaking a likeness of our first great fabulist, from which one returns to the works with enlightened wonder. More darkness, more light! Here both abound.
--Richard Howard

A fine biography...A sensitive reading of Hawthorne s character...Wineapple makes generous use of a cache of family letters that detail the tangle and tussle of wills that Hawthorne had entered as son, brother, lover, and husband, all the while seeking the freedom of spirit to exercise his genius.
--Justin Kaplan, Washington Post

Meticulously researched and superbly written...captures the novelist in high resolution.
--Peter Campion, San Francisco Chronicle

A vivid account of a highly interesting life.
--Brooke Allen, New York Times Book Review

Richly detailed and nuanced; a model of literary biography and an illumination for students of Hawthorne s work...A thoughtful and absorbing life.
--Kirkus (starred)

A thoroughly engrossing story of a writer's life written with novelistic grace and flow, with an eye to the telling detail and apt quotation.
--Dan Cryer, New York Newsday

Wineapple is a splendid stylist and a master of concision. She can capture an entire personality and life in a brief paragraph, She can define a complex amatory relationship in a sentence . Her eloquent hands bring Hawthorne vividly alive for us.
--Jamie Spencer, St. Louis-Post Dispatch

From the Hardcover edition.

"Clearly the best biography of Hawthorne; the Hawthorne for our time. Beautifully conceived and written, it conveys the full poignancy and complexity of Hawthorne's life; it makes vivid the times and people and places -- and what a rich array of people and events! A delight to read from start to end."

--Sacvan Bercovitch

"Brenda Wineapple's Hawthorne is, quite literally, an electrifying life. The power and sweep of the writing galvanizes a subject frozen, by earlier biographies, into a series of stills. We understand, finally, a man and artist torn by every conflict of his time, adding a few of his own, a man both strange and strangely familiar. The great achievement of this stunning biography lies in the feat of restoring Hawthorne to the rich and roiling America of his own period, while revealing him, for the first time, as our contemporary."

--Benita Eisler

"With the possible exception of Herman Melville, no one has ever understood the grand tragic Shakespearian nature of Nathaniel Hawthorne's life and work as well as Brenda Wineapple. Her brilliant, powerful, nervy, unsettling and riveting book is authoritatively researched and beautifully written; it has itself the dark mesmeric power of a Hawthorne story. Wineapple's Hawthorne is an intensely private man, compounded of strange depths, mysterious failings, concealments, yearn...

About the Author

Brenda Wineapple is author of the award-winning Hawthorne: A Life; Genêt: A Biography of Janet Flanner, and Sister Brother: Gertrude and Leo Stein. She is also the editor of the Selected Poems of John Greenleaf Whittier in the American Poets Series (Library of America.) Her essays, articles and reviews have appeared in many publications, among them The American Scholar, The New York Times Book Review, Parnassus, Poetry, and The Nation. A Guggenheim fellow, a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, and twice of the National Endowment, she teaches in the MFA programs at Columbia University and The New School and lives in New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0375400443
• ISBN 13: 9780375400445
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 509