'Raymond Carver: The Collected Stories' Nov 23, 2009
Carol Sklenicka's superb biography, "Raymond Carver: A Life," tells half the story, and Raymond Carver: Collected Stories (Library of America; 1,040 pages; $40) tells the rest. Editors William L. Stull and Maureen P. Carroll have included all the published stories as well as several posthumous works, fragments from the aborted novel "The Augustine Notebooks" and, most intriguing of all, original versions of some of the Carver stories that were rather heavily edited by Gordon Lish before... (San Francisco Chronicle)
There’s much to admire in ‘Raymond Carver: Collected Stories’ Nov 17, 2009
This Library of America volume pulls together a career-spanning collection of his short fiction, in which from first to last Carver wrote about the lives of the defeated with a distinctive empathy, even - or perhaps especially - when his characters were at their most self-destructive ... BOOK REVIEW RAYMOND CARVER: Collected Stories The Library of America, 1,019 pages, $40. (Boston Globe)
Books serve up bloody good reads Nov 1, 2009
- "American Fantastic Tales: From the 1940s to Now," edited by Peter Straub (Library of America, $35, 750 pages): Horror writer Straub has chosen 42 short stories by top-name writers, including Anthony Boucher, Truman Capote, Shirley Jackson, Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison and Stephen King. - "Zombies: Encounters With the Hungry Dead," edited by John Skipp (Black Dog, $19. (Erie Times-News, PA)
‘American Fantastic Tales’ collects best stuff that bad dreams are made of Oct 18, 2009
Klein is one of the 86 writers represented in the Library of America s two-volume collection, American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny, volume one being From Poe to the Pulps, and volume two, From the 1940s to Now ($35 each). The set was edited by Peter Straub, who wrote separate introductions to the volumes, each one an excellent little roundup filled with astute observation about the class of fiction we have here. (Boston Globe)
For the record Oct 7, 2009
Correction: Because of a reporting error, A Reading Life, a column in the Sunday Books section, gave the incorrect title for a Library of America volume of Thornton Wilder s works. The correct title is The Bridge of San Luis Rey and Other Novels 1926-1948. (Boston Globe)
‘Thornton Wilder’ and ‘Man Nobody Knows’ harken to days of counter-cultural Catholicism Oct 4, 2009
In this respect, the Library of America s just-published second volume of Thornton Wilder s works, Thornton Wilder: The Bridge Over San Luis Rey and Other Novels 1926-1948, ($35) could not have entered the house at a more opportune moment, for it includes Heaven s My Destination. First published in 1935 and set during the Depression, this funny, ultimately moving novel begins with its hero, George Brush, a school-book salesman, making a nuisance of himself: inscribing biblical passages on the... (Boston Globe)
America celebrates the U.S. Constitution Sep 30, 2009
"It means just what it says: The Constitution, and only the Constitution, spells outs the powers delegated to the Federal government. Those powers not spelled out or prohibited are reserved to the States or to the people. Beware a Federal government that oversteps it bounds spelled out in the Constitution that trample State and individual rights.The Constitution is very carefully crafted document arrived at after long discussions by the Founding Fathers. I suggest reading 'The Debate on the... (Keokuk Daily Gate City, IO)
Thus Spake Zora Sep 11, 2009
Hurston s works are in print again indeed, enshrined in a Library of America volume. Her early play Mule Bone, a collaboration with Langston Hughes, enjoyed a full-scale staging in New York in 1991. (The American Conservative)
Leaves and pages turn in the fall books preview Sep 7, 2009
edited by Ilan Stavans (Library of America). A mammoth work, more than 800 pages long, whose many authors include Junot Daz, Jhumpa Lahiri and Czeslaw Milosz. (San Francisco Chronicle -- Entertainment)
Richard Poirier; literary critic and writer who founded Library of America Aug 22, 2009
WASHINGTON - Richard Poirier, a literary critic and writer who was one of the founders of the Library of America, a monumental effort to keep American literary classics in print and accessible to the reading public, died Aug. 15 at Roosevelt Hospital in New York ... Dr. Poirier, who wrote books about James, Frost, and Mailer, was a major force behind the Library of America, the ambitious ongoing effort to publish the works of the greatest writers America has produced ... The success of the... (Boston Globe)
Flannery O'Connor's violence, religion Aug 21, 2009
When the Library of America put out her collected works 10 years ago, she outsold Faulkner. So she has this popularity and interest. (CNN -- Showbiz)
Literary ghost stories Aug 2, 2009
In the fall, the Library of America will recognize this most American of genres with a historical two-volume anthology that brings together the best of the genre in selections by Straub, who edited the volumes ... The first volume, "American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps" (Library of America, $35) is a survey of a century and a half of fantastic storytelling -- 44 stories covering a period from the early 19th century to the mid-20th century ... The second volume,... (Erie Times-News, PA)
Alice Methfessel, 66, muse to poet Elizabeth Bishop Jul 10, 2009
It is an autumnal poem, a poem by an older person who is in love with a younger person, and the fact that the younger person can love the older person makes the love more powerful, said Schwartz, who coedited the Library of America edition of Bishop s poems, prose, and letters. It s the only poem in which Bishop talks about dying, her own death, he said. (Boston Globe)
Why Britain Lost the Revolutionary ... Jul 3, 2009
The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence, John Rhodehamel, Editor (New York: The Library of America, 2001). Barbara Tuchman, The First Salute: A View of the American Revolution (New York: Ballantine Books, 1988). (Suite101.com)
Watch lists, guns and government Jun 30, 2009
The Library of America edition of Jefferson s Writings is excellent but the Jefferson Cyclopedia is available for free on-line. Also free on-line is the sedulous proof of Bush s and Cheney s 9/11 treason, The New Pearl Harbor, patriotically donated after millions of copies were sold for $15 each, by its publisher, and author, a scholar of proven integrity, Emeritus Professor David Ray Griffin, PhD.. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- Opinion)
Socialized medicine takes away freedom Jun 29, 2009
"-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Smith, November 13, 1787; reproduced in Thomas Jefferson, Writings (The Library of America, 1984), p. 911. ". hillbillytea wrote on Jun 28, 2009 8:36 AM:" Goverment playing god with our health? So how would things be any different than what they are today with the private - for profit insurance industry as it is? The goverment legislators don't even have a plan on the table yet. Isn't it a bit early to be casting judgment on the issue? So far the loudest... (Waterloo Courier, IO)
When Women Blew Up American Poetry Jun 3, 2009
At a recent reading to celebrate , an anthology I edited for the Library of America, Jean Valentine, a poet of Plaths generation, remembered the shock of encountering her: I had a manuscript, and after I read Ariel, I rewrote it. Younger women like myself began to look to poetry as a way to articulate our own suppressed feelings, finding in Plaths tragedy a mirror for our own pain, and in her provocation and wit, dramatization of a discomfort we could not quite identify. (Slate)
A Good Woman Found May 25, 2009
Only several years ago, she was honored by inclusion in the Library of America series, cheek by jowl with Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, and Edith Wharton ... Whether this amounts to a reputation for the ages remains to be seen, Library of America or no. Not at all in doubt are Flannery O Connor s genius, the quality of her prophetic vision at once luminous and penetrating her originality as an artist, and her importance both to American letters and the distinguished apologetic tradition of... (The American Conservative)
Hilton Als: How Katherine Anne Porter perfected herself. Apr 14, 2009
Enameled Lady: A Critic at Large: The New Yorker (New Yorker)
Michael Winship: Abraham Lincoln's legacy 144 years later Apr 11, 2009
Featured with Waterston is historian Harold Holzer, who has written, co-written or edited 22 books about Lincoln, including The Lincoln Anthology, published by the Library of America, from which Waterston s readings were chosen. Whitman, Whittier and Melville worshipped Lincoln in death; African-American leader Frederick Douglass met and admired him, but kept a slight, although respectful distance, one generated by centuries of enslavement and doubt. (Medfield Press, MA)
Cheever’s conflicts - With family’s blessing, a new look at torments of a suburban author Mar 14, 2009
The appearance of his biography coincides with publication of a two-volume edition of Cheever s work, Complete Novels and Collected Stories and Other Writings, published by the Library of America and also edited by Bailey. I don t think anyone reading the book will say, 'This was written to please the Cheevers, says Ben Cheever. (Missoulian, MT)
The wrestler Mar 8, 2009
CHEEVER: Collected Stories and Other Writings Library of America, 1,040 pp ... CHEEVER: Complete Novels Library of America, 933 pp ... To accompany the biography, he has edited "Cheever: Collected Stories and Other Writings" and "Cheever: Complete Novels" for the Library of America, thus handily enabling readers to judge how much the writer still weighs. (Boston Globe)
Gerald E. Myers, 85; wrote of dance and philosophy Mar 2, 2009
As a professor of philosophy, he wrote "William James: His Life and Thought" (1987) and "Self: An Introduction to Philosophical Psychology" (1969) and edited the Library of America edition of James's writings. As a dance enthusiast, he organized educational programs for the American Dance Festival, wrote books like "Who's Not Afraid of Martha Graham?" (2008), and, in a pinch, drove the bus for touring dance companies. (Boston Globe)
The habit of seeing Mar 1, 2009
Her collected works - including correspondence, occasional prose, and a few previously uncollected stories - were canonized in a 1988 volume from the Library of America. The mysterious power of her writing, the harsh suffering of her life, the way art and life merge - O'Connor's story exerts an ongoing interest for people interested in literary endeavor. (Boston Globe)
Lincoln's plea for assistance Feb 16, 2009
"I now leave with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being, who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me and remain with you and be every where for good. Let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me" (Abraham Lincoln: Speeches, Letters, and Miscellaneous Writings, Presidential Messages... (Lodi News Sentinel, CA)
Seeking Lincoln, and finding the Lincoln Memorial Feb 9, 2009
WASHINGTON Two hundred years after the birth of Abraham Lincoln, we still seek him in words and in action, in lessons from his life, in reminders of his legend and in pilgrimages to the temple built in his honor (Gaylord Herald Times, MI)
Lincoln Memorial a temple of respect, hope Feb 8, 2009
"It's amazing how Lincoln affects people," says historian Harold Holzer, whose Lincoln books include "Lincoln: President-Elect" and a new Library of America anthology of writings about the president. "He's Sandburg-esque in Sandburg's writing, Whitman-esque in Whitman's poems.". (San Francisco Chronicle)
The omnivores remember Feb 8, 2009
This year I got a head start on the last step by way of an excerpt from John McPhee's 1967 book, "Oranges," included in "American Food Writing: An Anthology With Classic Recipes," edited by Molly O'Neill (Library of America, paperback, $24). That piece canters along briskly through countless facts about oranges, including one that I'd say is no longer true today, some 40 years later: that actual oranges are being replaced by frozen concentrated orange juice in the American diet. (Boston Globe)
