Prophet in the Marketplace – Thoreau′s Development As a Professional Writer - Hardcover

Fink, S

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691067643 ISBN 13: 9780691067643

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1992

Synopsis

Thoreau wanted to be both a prophet and a professional, and although his ideals often clashed with the demands of the reading public, he was compelled to respond to a complex and evolving literary marketplace. By focusing on the economic relationship between writer and reader in antebellum America, Steven Fink not only reveals the early professional ambitions of the "hermit of Walden Pond" as conveyed in his writings, but also illuminates the nature of nineteenth-century publishing. The author shows Thoreau to have been, from his first publications, sensitive to questions of audience and literary markets, and traces his evolving professionalism through the various trials and errors of his career, demonstrating how these professional considerations profoundly shaped his writings. This book concentrates on Thoreau's development in the pre-Walden years, when he wrote moral essays, literary criticism, reform essays, nature sketches, and travel narratives for a full range of literary media--from popular magazines to publications for the intellectual elite. Relying on historical and biographical research, Fink offers new information on the public response to Thoreau's works and on Thoreau's own sense of his life as a writer, and provides important readings of individual texts.

About this title

Review:

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1992

Synopsis:

By focusing on the economic relationship between writer and reader in the USA in the antebellum period, Steven Fink not only reveals the early professional ambitions of Thoreau as conveyed in his writings, but also illuminates the nature of 19th-century publishing. The author shows Thoreau to have been, from his first publications, sensitive to questions of audience and literary markets, and traces his evolving professionalism through the various trials and errors of his career, demonstrating how these professional considerations profoundly shaped his writings. The book concentrates on Thoreau's development in the pre-"Walden" years, when he wrote moral essays, literary criticism, reform essays, nature sketches and travel narratives for a full range of literary media - from popular magazines to publications for the intellectual elite.

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0691067643
• ISBN 13: 9780691067643
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 340