The first major Hawthorne biography to be published in two decades, featuring original scholarship on both unpublished and published sourcesThe Life of the Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne presents a rich and nuanced portrait of one of America’s greatest writers, exploring the thoughts and ideas of a man whose profound insights about the human condition continue to resonate in the modern day. Accessible to those with little knowledge of Hawthorne, this unique volume uses a new biographical approach based on exhaustive primary research that provides readers with a better understanding of the artist and his work.Author Dale Salwak challenges the presumption that Hawthorne was a reclusive, eccentric, and alienated man whose relevance to modern times is diminishing. Drawing from his forty-five years' experience reading, studying, and teaching Hawthorne, the author reveals a more approachable Hawthorne. In-depth and reflective chapters explore topics such as the circumstances that led Hawthorne to become a writer, the influence of Sophia Hawthorne on her husband’s work, the theory of the unfulfilled homoerotic relationship between Hawthorne and Herman Melville, and more. Offers a fresh reading of Hawthorne’s life and work from birth to deathProvides new perspectives on Hawthorne and stories surrounding his workDraws from a wide variety of sources, including novels, tales, children’s books, notebooks, and personal letters to and from HawthorneSuggests new strategies for teaching Hawthorne to today’s studentsIncludes a detailed index and comprehensive introductory and concluding chaptersHighlighting Hawthorne's special contributions to American literature, The Life of the Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne is essential reading for scholars, lecturers, and college students taking courses including Literary History, American Literature, and History of the Novel as well as anyone interested in biography, literature, and creativity."Dale Salwak has assimilated vast amounts of scholarship on Hawthorne and his circle, and he's crafted a highly readable and brilliant biography. The lines in Hawthorne's astonishing life have never been more clearly drawn. A wonderful book, highly recommend."—Jay Parini, author of Robert Frost: A Life and Borges and Me

The first major Hawthorne biography to be published in two decades, featuring original scholarship on both unpublished and published sources

The Life of the Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne presents a rich and nuanced portrait of one of America’s greatest writers, exploring the thoughts and ideas of a man whose profound insights about the human condition continue to resonate in the modern day. Accessible to those with little knowledge of Hawthorne, this unique volume uses a new biographical approach based on exhaustive primary research that provides readers with a better understanding of the artist and his work.

Author Dale Salwak challenges the presumption that Hawthorne was a reclusive, eccentric, and alienated man whose relevance to modern times is diminishing. Drawing from his forty-five years'' experience reading, studying, and teaching Hawthorne, the author reveals a more approachable Hawthorne. In-depth and reflective chapters explore topics such as the circumstances that led Hawthorne to become a writer, the influence of Sophia Hawthorne on her husband’s work, the theory of the unfulfilled homoerotic relationship between Hawthorne and Herman Melville, and more.

Offers a fresh reading of Hawthorne’s life and work from birth to death Provides new perspectives on Hawthorne and stories surrounding his work Draws from a wide variety of sources, including novels, tales, children’s books, notebooks, and personal letters to and from Hawthorne Suggests new strategies for teaching Hawthorne to today’s students Includes a detailed index and comprehensive introductory and concluding chapters

Highlighting Hawthorne''s special contributions to American literature, The Life of the Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne is essential reading for scholars, lecturers, and college students taking courses including Literary History, American Literature, and History of the Novel as well as anyone interested in biography, literature, and creativity.

"Dale Salwak has assimilated vast amounts of scholarship on Hawthorne and his circle, and he''s crafted a highly readable and brilliant biography. The lines in Hawthorne''s astonishing life have never been more clearly drawn. A wonderful book, highly recommend."—Jay Parini, author of Robert Frost: A Life and Borges and Me

The first major Hawthorne biography to be published in two decades, featuring original scholarship on both unpublished and published sources

The Life of the Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne presents a rich and nuanced portrait of one of America’s greatest writers, exploring the thoughts and ideas of a man whose profound insights about the human condition continue to resonate in the modern day. Accessible to those with little knowledge of Hawthorne, this unique volume uses a new biographical approach based on exhaustive primary research that provides readers with a better understanding of the artist and his work.

Author Dale Salwak challenges the presumption that Hawthorne was a reclusive, eccentric, and alienated man whose relevance to modern times is diminishing. Drawing from his forty-five years'' experience reading, studying, and teaching Hawthorne, the author reveals a more approachable Hawthorne. In-depth and reflective chapters explore topics such as the circumstances that led Hawthorne to become a writer, the influence of Sophia Hawthorne on her husband’s work, the theory of the unfulfilled homoerotic relationship between Hawthorne and Herman Melville, and more.

Offers a fresh reading of Hawthorne’s life and work from birth to death Provides new perspectives on Hawthorne and stories surrounding his work Draws from a wide variety of sources, including novels, tales, children’s books, notebooks, and personal letters to and from Hawthorne Suggests new strategies for teaching Hawthorne to today’s students Includes a detailed index and comprehensive introductory and concluding chapters

Highlighting Hawthorne''s special contributions to American literature, The Life of the Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne is essential reading for scholars, lecturers, and college students taking courses including Literary History, American Literature, and History of the Novel as well as anyone interested in biography, literature, and creativity.

"Dale Salwak has assimilated vast amounts of scholarship on Hawthorne and his circle, and he''s crafted a highly readable and brilliant biography. The lines in Hawthorne''s astonishing life have never been more clearly drawn. A wonderful book, highly recommend."—Jay Parini, author of Robert Frost: A Life and Borges and Me

A collection of essays celebrating the talents of Philip Larkin, poet, critic and fiction writer who died in 1985. They range from Kingsley Amis'' and Anthony Curtis'' fine memoirs of Larkin''s life at Oxford to William H.Pritchard''s examination of some of the qualities in his poetry.

A collection of essays celebrating the talents of Philip Larkin, poet, critic and fiction writer who died in 1985. They range from Kingsley Amis' and Anthony Curtis' fine memoirs of Larkin's life at Oxford to William H.Pritchard's examination of some of the qualities in his poetry.

By turns reflective, entertaining and moving, this book reveals how some of the most influential and best loved writers of our time were shaped by their inspirational teachers. Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee, Margaret Drabble, Stephen Greenblatt, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Andrew Motion, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina and Paul Theroux are among the twenty contributors of original essays to this landmark volume celebrating masters of the teaching profession.What makes a good teacher? What lights the writer’s creative fire? How can the teacher shape the writer? This book answers these questions and more, describing the powerful influence of mentors at an impressionable time of life, portraying the heart-warming transition from pupil to friend, and exploring the lasting impact that truly great teachers can have on their students.To have teachers who care, and to have such notable writers capture their spirit, is ample reason to read Dale Salwak's elegant celebration of the ‘noble profession’ and the world-renowned writers that it helped to hone.

By turns reflective, entertaining and moving, this book reveals how some of the most influential and best loved writers of our time were shaped by their inspirational teachers. Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee, Margaret Drabble, Stephen Greenblatt, Ngugi wa Thiong''o, Andrew Motion, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina and Paul Theroux are among the twenty contributors of original essays to this landmark volume celebrating masters of the teaching profession.What makes a good teacher? What lights the writer''s creative fire? How can the teacher shape the writer? This book answers these questions and more, describing the powerful influence of mentors at an impressionable time of life, portraying the heart-warming transition from pupil to friend, and exploring the lasting impact that truly great teachers can have on their students.To have teachers who care, and to have such notable writers capture their spirit, is ample reason to read Dale Salwak''s elegant celebration of the ''noble profession'' and the world-renowned writers that it helped to hone.

By turns reflective, entertaining and moving, this book reveals how some of the most influential and best loved writers of our time were shaped by their inspirational teachers. Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee, Margaret Drabble, Stephen Greenblatt, Ngugi wa Thiong''o, Andrew Motion, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina and Paul Theroux are among the twenty contributors of original essays to this landmark volume celebrating masters of the teaching profession.What makes a good teacher? What lights the writer''s creative fire? How can the teacher shape the writer? This book answers these questions and more, describing the powerful influence of mentors at an impressionable time of life, portraying the heart-warming transition from pupil to friend, and exploring the lasting impact that truly great teachers can have on their students.To have teachers who care, and to have such notable writers capture their spirit, is ample reason to read Dale Salwak''s elegant celebration of the ''noble profession'' and the world-renowned writers that it helped to hone.

Part epistolary memoir, part handbook, ""Teaching Life"" reflects on more than three decades of teaching literature and touching the lives of students. Both a reflection on a life in literature and a primer on teaching as a vocation, this soul-stirring work also provides behind-the-scenes stories of many of the authors who have influenced Dale Salwak's career.Written in response to the sudden death of one of his students, who died tragically in an automobile accident on her way to Salwak's office to talk over her career plans, ""Teaching Life"" is an effort to impart lessons to the next generation of teachers: ""It was the suddenness of her death, I think, along with the utter loss of so much potential, which struck me forcibly, and I found myself wondering if anything I had said in class had made a difference in her too-short life or, for that matter, in the lives of any of my students.""By turns analytical, reflective, and exhortatory, ""Teaching Life"" unselfconsciously captures the fascination, enlightenment, and sheer joy that literary studies can offer professors and students. It also implicitly speaks to society's prevailing - and disturbing - prejudice against the profession.

Ian McEwan, Margaret Drabble, Martin Amis, Rita Dove, Andrew Motion  and Anthony Thwaite are among the twenty-two distinguished contributors of original essays to this landmark volume on the profound and frequently perplexing bond between writer and mother. In compelling detail they bring to life the thoughts, work, loves, friendships, passions and, above all, the influence of mothers upon their literary offspring from Shakespeare to the present.Many of the contributors evoke the ideal with fond and loving memories: understanding, selfless, spiritual, tender, protective, reassuring and self-assured mothers who created environments favorable to the development of their children’s gifts. At the opposite end of the parenting spectrum, however, we also see tortured mothers who ignored, interfered with, smothered or abandoned their children.  Their early years were times of traumatic loss, unhappily dominated by death and human frailty.Elegantly assembled and presented, Writers and Their Mothers will appeal to everyone interested in biography, literature, and creativity in general.

Ian McEwan, Margaret Drabble, Martin Amis, Rita Dove, Andrew Motion  and Anthony Thwaite are among the twenty-two distinguished contributors of original essays to this landmark volume on the profound and frequently perplexing bond between writer and mother. In compelling detail they bring to life the thoughts, work, loves, friendships, passions and, above all, the influence of mothers upon their literary offspring from Shakespeare to the present.

Many of the contributors evoke the ideal with fond and loving memories: understanding, selfless, spiritual, tender, protective, reassuring and self-assured mothers who created environments favorable to the development of their children’s gifts.

At the opposite end of the parenting spectrum, however, we also see tortured mothers who ignored, interfered with, smothered or abandoned their children.  Their early years were times of traumatic loss, unhappily dominated by death and human frailty.

Elegantly assembled and presented, Writers and Their Mothers will appeal to everyone interested in biography, literature, and creativity in general.

Ian McEwan, Margaret Drabble, Martin Amis, Rita Dove, Andrew Motion  and Anthony Thwaite are among the twenty-two distinguished contributors of original essays to this landmark volume on the profound and frequently perplexing bond between writer and mother. In compelling detail they bring to life the thoughts, work, loves, friendships, passions and, above all, the influence of mothers upon their literary offspring from Shakespeare to the present.Many of the contributors evoke the ideal with fond and loving memories: understanding, selfless, spiritual, tender, protective, reassuring and self-assured mothers who created environments favorable to the development of their children’s gifts. At the opposite end of the parenting spectrum, however, we also see tortured mothers who ignored, interfered with, smothered or abandoned their children.  Their early years were times of traumatic loss, unhappily dominated by death and human frailty.Elegantly assembled and presented, Writers and Their Mothers will appeal to everyone interested in biography, literature, and creativity in general.

The first major Hawthorne biography to be published in two decades, featuring original scholarship on both unpublished and published sourcesThe Life of the Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne presents a rich and nuanced portrait of one of America’s greatest writers, exploring the thoughts and ideas of a man whose profound insights about the human condition continue to resonate in the modern day. Accessible to those with little knowledge of Hawthorne, this unique volume uses a new biographical approach based on exhaustive primary research that provides readers with a better understanding of the artist and his work.Author Dale Salwak challenges the presumption that Hawthorne was a reclusive, eccentric, and alienated man whose relevance to modern times is diminishing. Drawing from his forty-five years' experience reading, studying, and teaching Hawthorne, the author reveals a more approachable Hawthorne. In-depth and reflective chapters explore topics such as the circumstances that led Hawthorne to become a writer, the influence of Sophia Hawthorne on her husband’s work, the theory of the unfulfilled homoerotic relationship between Hawthorne and Herman Melville, and more. Offers a fresh reading of Hawthorne’s life and work from birth to deathProvides new perspectives on Hawthorne and stories surrounding his workDraws from a wide variety of sources, including novels, tales, children’s books, notebooks, and personal letters to and from HawthorneSuggests new strategies for teaching Hawthorne to today’s studentsIncludes a detailed index and comprehensive introductory and concluding chaptersHighlighting Hawthorne's special contributions to American literature, The Life of the Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne is essential reading for scholars, lecturers, and college students taking courses including Literary History, American Literature, and History of the Novel as well as anyone interested in biography, literature, and creativity."Dale Salwak has assimilated vast amounts of scholarship on Hawthorne and his circle, and he's crafted a highly readable and brilliant biography. The lines in Hawthorne's astonishing life have never been more clearly drawn. A wonderful book, highly recommend."—Jay Parini, author of Robert Frost: A Life and Borges and Me

The first major Hawthorne biography to be published in two decades, featuring original scholarship on both unpublished and published sources

The Life of the Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne presents a rich and nuanced portrait of one of America’s greatest writers, exploring the thoughts and ideas of a man whose profound insights about the human condition continue to resonate in the modern day. Accessible to those with little knowledge of Hawthorne, this unique volume uses a new biographical approach based on exhaustive primary research that provides readers with a better understanding of the artist and his work.

Author Dale Salwak challenges the presumption that Hawthorne was a reclusive, eccentric, and alienated man whose relevance to modern times is diminishing. Drawing from his forty-five years'' experience reading, studying, and teaching Hawthorne, the author reveals a more approachable Hawthorne. In-depth and reflective chapters explore topics such as the circumstances that led Hawthorne to become a writer, the influence of Sophia Hawthorne on her husband’s work, the theory of the unfulfilled homoerotic relationship between Hawthorne and Herman Melville, and more.

Offers a fresh reading of Hawthorne’s life and work from birth to death Provides new perspectives on Hawthorne and stories surrounding his work Draws from a wide variety of sources, including novels, tales, children’s books, notebooks, and personal letters to and from Hawthorne Suggests new strategies for teaching Hawthorne to today’s students Includes a detailed index and comprehensive introductory and concluding chapters

Highlighting Hawthorne''s special contributions to American literature, The Life of the Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne is essential reading for scholars, lecturers, and college students taking courses including Literary History, American Literature, and History of the Novel as well as anyone interested in biography, literature, and creativity.

"Dale Salwak has assimilated vast amounts of scholarship on Hawthorne and his circle, and he''s crafted a highly readable and brilliant biography. The lines in Hawthorne''s astonishing life have never been more clearly drawn. A wonderful book, highly recommend."—Jay Parini, author of Robert Frost: A Life and Borges and Me

The first major Hawthorne biography to be published in two decades, featuring original scholarship on both unpublished and published sources

The Life of the Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne presents a rich and nuanced portrait of one of America’s greatest writers, exploring the thoughts and ideas of a man whose profound insights about the human condition continue to resonate in the modern day. Accessible to those with little knowledge of Hawthorne, this unique volume uses a new biographical approach based on exhaustive primary research that provides readers with a better understanding of the artist and his work.

Author Dale Salwak challenges the presumption that Hawthorne was a reclusive, eccentric, and alienated man whose relevance to modern times is diminishing. Drawing from his forty-five years'' experience reading, studying, and teaching Hawthorne, the author reveals a more approachable Hawthorne. In-depth and reflective chapters explore topics such as the circumstances that led Hawthorne to become a writer, the influence of Sophia Hawthorne on her husband’s work, the theory of the unfulfilled homoerotic relationship between Hawthorne and Herman Melville, and more.

Offers a fresh reading of Hawthorne’s life and work from birth to death Provides new perspectives on Hawthorne and stories surrounding his work Draws from a wide variety of sources, including novels, tales, children’s books, notebooks, and personal letters to and from Hawthorne Suggests new strategies for teaching Hawthorne to today’s students Includes a detailed index and comprehensive introductory and concluding chapters

Highlighting Hawthorne''s special contributions to American literature, The Life of the Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne is essential reading for scholars, lecturers, and college students taking courses including Literary History, American Literature, and History of the Novel as well as anyone interested in biography, literature, and creativity.

"Dale Salwak has assimilated vast amounts of scholarship on Hawthorne and his circle, and he''s crafted a highly readable and brilliant biography. The lines in Hawthorne''s astonishing life have never been more clearly drawn. A wonderful book, highly recommend."—Jay Parini, author of Robert Frost: A Life and Borges and Me

A collection of essays celebrating the talents of Philip Larkin, poet, critic and fiction writer who died in 1985. They range from Kingsley Amis'' and Anthony Curtis'' fine memoirs of Larkin''s life at Oxford to William H.Pritchard''s examination of some of the qualities in his poetry.

A collection of essays celebrating the talents of Philip Larkin, poet, critic and fiction writer who died in 1985. They range from Kingsley Amis' and Anthony Curtis' fine memoirs of Larkin's life at Oxford to William H.Pritchard's examination of some of the qualities in his poetry.

By turns reflective, entertaining and moving, this book reveals how some of the most influential and best loved writers of our time were shaped by their inspirational teachers. Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee, Margaret Drabble, Stephen Greenblatt, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Andrew Motion, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina and Paul Theroux are among the twenty contributors of original essays to this landmark volume celebrating masters of the teaching profession.What makes a good teacher? What lights the writer’s creative fire? How can the teacher shape the writer? This book answers these questions and more, describing the powerful influence of mentors at an impressionable time of life, portraying the heart-warming transition from pupil to friend, and exploring the lasting impact that truly great teachers can have on their students.To have teachers who care, and to have such notable writers capture their spirit, is ample reason to read Dale Salwak's elegant celebration of the ‘noble profession’ and the world-renowned writers that it helped to hone.

By turns reflective, entertaining and moving, this book reveals how some of the most influential and best loved writers of our time were shaped by their inspirational teachers. Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee, Margaret Drabble, Stephen Greenblatt, Ngugi wa Thiong''o, Andrew Motion, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina and Paul Theroux are among the twenty contributors of original essays to this landmark volume celebrating masters of the teaching profession.What makes a good teacher? What lights the writer''s creative fire? How can the teacher shape the writer? This book answers these questions and more, describing the powerful influence of mentors at an impressionable time of life, portraying the heart-warming transition from pupil to friend, and exploring the lasting impact that truly great teachers can have on their students.To have teachers who care, and to have such notable writers capture their spirit, is ample reason to read Dale Salwak''s elegant celebration of the ''noble profession'' and the world-renowned writers that it helped to hone.

By turns reflective, entertaining and moving, this book reveals how some of the most influential and best loved writers of our time were shaped by their inspirational teachers. Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee, Margaret Drabble, Stephen Greenblatt, Ngugi wa Thiong''o, Andrew Motion, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina and Paul Theroux are among the twenty contributors of original essays to this landmark volume celebrating masters of the teaching profession.What makes a good teacher? What lights the writer''s creative fire? How can the teacher shape the writer? This book answers these questions and more, describing the powerful influence of mentors at an impressionable time of life, portraying the heart-warming transition from pupil to friend, and exploring the lasting impact that truly great teachers can have on their students.To have teachers who care, and to have such notable writers capture their spirit, is ample reason to read Dale Salwak''s elegant celebration of the ''noble profession'' and the world-renowned writers that it helped to hone.

Part epistolary memoir, part handbook, ""Teaching Life"" reflects on more than three decades of teaching literature and touching the lives of students. Both a reflection on a life in literature and a primer on teaching as a vocation, this soul-stirring work also provides behind-the-scenes stories of many of the authors who have influenced Dale Salwak's career.Written in response to the sudden death of one of his students, who died tragically in an automobile accident on her way to Salwak's office to talk over her career plans, ""Teaching Life"" is an effort to impart lessons to the next generation of teachers: ""It was the suddenness of her death, I think, along with the utter loss of so much potential, which struck me forcibly, and I found myself wondering if anything I had said in class had made a difference in her too-short life or, for that matter, in the lives of any of my students.""By turns analytical, reflective, and exhortatory, ""Teaching Life"" unselfconsciously captures the fascination, enlightenment, and sheer joy that literary studies can offer professors and students. It also implicitly speaks to society's prevailing - and disturbing - prejudice against the profession.

Ian McEwan, Margaret Drabble, Martin Amis, Rita Dove, Andrew Motion  and Anthony Thwaite are among the twenty-two distinguished contributors of original essays to this landmark volume on the profound and frequently perplexing bond between writer and mother. In compelling detail they bring to life the thoughts, work, loves, friendships, passions and, above all, the influence of mothers upon their literary offspring from Shakespeare to the present.Many of the contributors evoke the ideal with fond and loving memories: understanding, selfless, spiritual, tender, protective, reassuring and self-assured mothers who created environments favorable to the development of their children’s gifts. At the opposite end of the parenting spectrum, however, we also see tortured mothers who ignored, interfered with, smothered or abandoned their children.  Their early years were times of traumatic loss, unhappily dominated by death and human frailty.Elegantly assembled and presented, Writers and Their Mothers will appeal to everyone interested in biography, literature, and creativity in general.

Ian McEwan, Margaret Drabble, Martin Amis, Rita Dove, Andrew Motion  and Anthony Thwaite are among the twenty-two distinguished contributors of original essays to this landmark volume on the profound and frequently perplexing bond between writer and mother. In compelling detail they bring to life the thoughts, work, loves, friendships, passions and, above all, the influence of mothers upon their literary offspring from Shakespeare to the present.

Many of the contributors evoke the ideal with fond and loving memories: understanding, selfless, spiritual, tender, protective, reassuring and self-assured mothers who created environments favorable to the development of their children’s gifts.

At the opposite end of the parenting spectrum, however, we also see tortured mothers who ignored, interfered with, smothered or abandoned their children.  Their early years were times of traumatic loss, unhappily dominated by death and human frailty.

Elegantly assembled and presented, Writers and Their Mothers will appeal to everyone interested in biography, literature, and creativity in general.

Ian McEwan, Margaret Drabble, Martin Amis, Rita Dove, Andrew Motion  and Anthony Thwaite are among the twenty-two distinguished contributors of original essays to this landmark volume on the profound and frequently perplexing bond between writer and mother. In compelling detail they bring to life the thoughts, work, loves, friendships, passions and, above all, the influence of mothers upon their literary offspring from Shakespeare to the present.Many of the contributors evoke the ideal with fond and loving memories: understanding, selfless, spiritual, tender, protective, reassuring and self-assured mothers who created environments favorable to the development of their children’s gifts. At the opposite end of the parenting spectrum, however, we also see tortured mothers who ignored, interfered with, smothered or abandoned their children.  Their early years were times of traumatic loss, unhappily dominated by death and human frailty.Elegantly assembled and presented, Writers and Their Mothers will appeal to everyone interested in biography, literature, and creativity in general.