The Youth of James Whitcomb Riley: Fortune's Way With the Poet From Infancy to Manhood (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Dickey, Marcus

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1333409761 ISBN 13: 9781333409760

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2019

Synopsis

Excerpt from The Youth of James Whitcomb Riley: Fortune's Way With the Poet From Infancy to Manhood

When Cromwell sat to Sir Peter Leley, he said, I desire you will use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all; but remark all those roughnesses, pimples, warts, and everything as you see me.

This famous injunction Riley quoted to a reporter who sought his opinion on biography. The poet had read it, for the first time, when a youth, in the preface to a rare and much loved set of old books entitled British Painters and Sculptors. To a writer who came to him for a sketch of his life, he said, Don't take sides with conflicting opinions about me; don't strive to write me up or down; tell the facts. He went on to talk of Boswell. They have called him a conceited fool, said be, but he was of as much benefit to literature as Johnson himself. He put things down as they were, and for once we have the charming chronicle of a life without the weakness of apology.

To the author of this volume, the poet said: There is a Chemistry in Nature that is making the worst good and the best better. To this end a biographer may give scars the treatment distance gives them in the landscape; he may soften or spiritualize them - but never ignore them. In a word, the golden rule was this: speak the truth in love.

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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Edition details

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1333409761
• ISBN 13: 9781333409760
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 475