From The Great Blasket to America

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William Henry Marquess

Focused on Keats, this study of the development of literary biography in the 19th and early 20th centuries demonstrates the influence and importance of biography as a form. In a dramatic narrative, we see Keats's reputation developing from minor to major poet and follow the increase of his influence on the English and American poets of the century after his death. An introductory section discusses the uses of biography, its place in the English moral tradition, and the present need for a study of it that would parallel the attempt of historiography to explicate the means and ends of history. The state of the art of biography in the early 19th century is discussed, looking back to Boswell and comparing the most outstanding "Romantic" biographies. After analyzing the autobiographical content of Keats's writing to establish the primary materials with which future biographers would work, the book proceeds through the first century of biographies of Keats, showing the importance of his biographers to his rise to prominence, and concluding with the outstanding biographical studies of the last twenty years, based on a more thorough understanding of texts and dates. - Jacket flap.

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Douglas Kinnard

"Dwight David Eisenhower proudly claimed that he "came from the very heart of America." Yet it could be argued that despite those provincial beginnings, no other American exerted more influence on world history during the twentieth century. From his humble youth in Abilene, Kansas, Eisenhower rose to the supreme command of the Allied armies that helped destroy Adolf Hitler's Nazi war machine and to the presidency of the United States. Douglas Kinnard's profile of this great soldier-statesman describes his rise through the ranks of the peacetime Army of the 1920s and 1930s, recognition of his abilities by such leaders as Douglas MacArthur and George C. Marshall, his "great crusade" in Europe during World War II, and his two terms in the Oval Office. Dr. Kinnard's penetrating look at this great military leader and commander in chief serves as an introduction to Eisenhower's life and provides a concise account of the momentous military and political events of the first half of the twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.

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Joy Gleason Carew

"One of the most compelling, yet little known stories of race relations in the twentieth century is the account of blacks who chose to leave the United States to be involved in the Soviet Experiment in the 1920s and 1930s. Frustrated by the limitations imposed by racism in their home country, African Americans were lured by the promise of opportunity abroad. A number of them settled there, raised families, and became integrated into society. The Soviet economy likewise reaped enormous benefits from the talent and expertise that these individuals brought, and the all around success story became a platform for political leaders to boast their party goals of creating a society where all members were equal. In Blacks, Reds, and Russians, Joy Gleason Carew offers insight into the political strategies that often underlie relationships between different peoples and countries. She draws on the autobiographies of key sojourners, including Harry Haywood and Robert Robinson, in addition to the writings of Claude McKay, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Langston Hughes."--Jacket.

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Pamela Allara

In this generously illustrated chronicle of the life and work of prolific painter and bohemian eccentric Alice Neel, Pamela Allara shows how portraits from a career that spanned the 1920s to the 1970s constitute a virtual gallery of American cultural history. While some of Neel's portraits graced the covers of publications like Ms. and Time, most of her subjects were unknowns - the marginalized, the disenfranchised, the oppressed.