Torn by War: The Civil War Journal of Mary Adelia Byers - Softcover

Samuel R. Phillips (editor), Mary Adelia Byers (author) & George E. Lankford (Introduction By)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0806143959 ISBN 13: 9780806143958

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013

Synopsis

A new collection from the world-renowned lyricistAcclaimed American poet James Ragan begins this newest collection of poems by asking whether “a rope could swing us / long and light across a widening trough / of all that fails us in our lives.” With these very first lines, Ragan draws readers into his world of vivid metaphor and evocative imagery, a world tinged with an aching sense of loss born of “a mind bereaved by solitude.”Yet if Ragan needs solitude to construct his poems, we are inspired to join him. In Too Long a Solitude, he takes us on far-flung journeys from equatorial jungles to Arctic icebergs and from heartbreaking loneliness to ecstatic human connection. Readers become travelers, with Ragan their insightful guide.“Ragan’s fine-grained poems move us through a remarkable range of total dexterity,” says poet C. K. Williams, and a strong streak of Wordsworthian nature-worship runs through the book. In “Bowing Trees,” this contemporary lyricist sings of saplings tending “to their ground as if the space were an altar.” His itinerant attention focuses in turn on the hills of London, rural roads in Belgium, and a garden wall in Vienna. Some journeys have the specificity of a scene witnessed (a Paris alley that might have entranced Picasso); others are journeys of the mind (a ride caught on an ice floe heading north out of Hudson Bay).Too Long a Solitude migrates from isolation to communion. Beginning alone on an iceberg, we eventually find ourselves at one with a lover in a moonlit vale. As solitude lifts and the journey ends, the poet finds he need no longer travel to find solace. But we’re glad, all the same, to have shared the journey with him.

About this title

Review:

"Torn By War is a rich personal account of the middle class Confederate civilian experience in a geographically isolated, yet militarily contested, region (NE Arkansas and the town of Batesville) not often addressed in the published Civil War literature. Its value is only enhanced by the precociously perceptive nature of young Mary Byers and her unusually expressive writing. Indeed, social historians would do well to add this journal to any bibliography hosting the finest examples of female Civil War diarists, journal writers, and correspondents."--Andrew Wagenhoffer, Civil War Books and Authors website.

"Phillips has done a remarkable job of editing this journal. There are copious notes that add to the journal's interest and flavor. Phillips, a descendant of Mary Byers, has inherited her not inconsiderable gift. What emerges from these pages is a brisk, well-written and highly literate volume that does not fail to entertain." --Journal of South Texas

"If one is interested in the Confederate "home front" during the Civil War, this book is well worth reading, as it focuses on social rather than military history. The book belongs in the library of anyone interested in the Trans-Mississippi region during the war." --The Journal of America's Military Past

"Mary Adelia Byers was only fifteen when she began keeping a diary in 1862. Her home in Batesville, Arkansas lay on the western edge of the Confederacy and traded hands six times during the Civil War. Though Mary never saw battle or true privation, she helped nurse the wounded and witnessed the upheaval of her agriculturally-dependent society, especially after the Emancipation Act. She also partied and counted her beaux as avidly as Scarlett O'Hara. Torn by War presents Mary and her world to modern readers. Samuel Phillips has done a superb job annotating Mary's diary entries to introduce readers to her acquaintances and relatives. Maps, photographs, and historical accounts add vital background. Mary's diary does not include battle scenes or provide overarching insight into national history on the diarist's part. However, Torn by War does provide readers and Civil War researchers a clear view of civilian life during the War Between the States as experienced by an unusually mature and observant young woman"--Jo Ann Butler, Historical Novel Society

"Phillips and Lankford . . . reveal just how fascinating and multifaceted a document Byers's diary is and how much we owe to Phillips for sharing his great-grandmother with us." --Arkansas Historical Quarterly

About the Author:

Samuel R. Phillips was raised near Batesville and is a descendant of Mary Adelia Byers. A graduate of Brooks School and the California Institute of Technology, he is a mechanical engineer and manufacturing consultant.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0806143959
• ISBN 13: 9780806143958
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 254