David S. Reynolds Libri

Focusing on the major figures of American literature, this work offers insightful analyses of Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and Dickinson within the context of their time. David Reynolds combines critical insight and narrative drive to explore the cultural landscape surrounding these authors, enhancing our understanding of the American Renaissance as identified by F.O. Matthiessen. The new foreword by historian Sean Wilentz highlights the book's lasting influence, making it essential for those interested in the origins of America's literary heritage.

Winner of the Bancroft Prize and the Ambassador Book Award and Finalist for the National for the Book Critics Circle Award In his poetry Walt Whitman set out to encompass all of America and in so doing heal its deepening divisions. This magisterial biography demonstrates the epic scale of his achievement, as well as the dreams and anxieties that impelled it, for it places the poet securely within the political and cultural context of his age. Combing through the full range of Whitman's writing, David Reynolds shows how Whitman gathered inspiration from every stratum of nineteenth-century American life: the convulsions of slavery and depression; the raffish dandyism of the Bowery "b'hoys"; the exuberant rhetoric of actors, orators, and divines. We see how Whitman reconciled his own sexuality with contemporary social mores and how his energetic courtship of the public presaged the vogues of advertising and celebrity. Brilliantly researched, captivatingly told, Walt Whitman's America is a triumphant work of scholarship that breathes new life into the biographical genre.

The profound influence of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel extends beyond American literature, significantly impacting the abolitionist movement, the Civil War, and global events like the end of serfdom in Russia. David S. Reynolds explores Stowe's intellectual upbringing and religious inspirations that shaped her work. The book, cherished by many—including some southerners—has sparked enduring debates about America's identity, while its legacy continues through various adaptations, reflecting and challenging racial stereotypes in American culture.