Writing New England

Published by Harvard University Press 2001

Writing New England

An Anthology from the Puritans to the Present

Edited by: Andrew Delbanco

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674335486

Overview
Contents

About this book

The story of New England writing begins some 400 years ago, when a group of English Puritans crossed the Atlantic believing that God had appointed them to bring light and truth to the New World. Over the centuries since, the people of New England have produced one of the great literary traditions of the world--an outpouring of poetry, fiction, history, memoirs, letters, and essays that records how the original dream of a godly commonwealth has been both sustained and transformed into a modern secular culture enriched by people of many backgrounds and convictions.

Writing New England, edited by the literary scholar and critic Andrew Delbanco, is the most comprehensive anthology of this tradition, offering a full range of thought and style. The major figures of New England literature--from John Winthrop and Anne Bradstreet to Emerson, Hawthorne, Dickinson, and Thoreau, to Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton, and John Updike--are of course represented, often with fresh and less familiar selections from their works. But Writing New England also samples a wide range of writings including Puritan sermons, court records from the Salem witch trials, Felix Frankfurter's account of the case of Sacco and Vanzetti, William Apess's eulogy for the Native American King Philip, pamphlets and poems of the Revolution and the Civil War, natural history, autobiographical writings of W. E. B. Du Bois and Malcolm X, Mary Antin's account of the immigrant experience, John F. Kennedy's broadcast address on civil rights, and A. Bartlett Giamatti's memoir of a Red Sox fan.

Organized thematically, this anthology provides a collective self-portrait of the New England mind. With an introductory essay on the origins of New England, a detailed chronology, and explanatory headnotes for each selection, the book is a welcoming introduction to a great American literary tradition and a treasury of vivid writing that defines what it has meant, over nearly four centuries, to be a New Englander.

From the Preface:

"Imposing one unitary meaning on New England would be as foolish as it would be unconvincing. Yet one purpose of this book is to convey some sense of New England's continuities and coherence...Not all the writers in this book are major figures (a few are barely known), but all are here because of the bracing freshness with which they describe places, people, ideas, and events to which, even if the subject is familiar, we are re-awakened."

Author information

Delbanco Andrew :

Andrew Delbanco is the Mendelson Family Chair of American Studies and Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University.

Reviews

Andrew Delbanco's attractive anthology, which offers a judicious selection of material, pertinent both for readers who are new to the writing of the region and for those who it well. As Delbanco explains in his preface, he has tried to keep the anthology in line with his conviction that New England itself includes "different and distinct regions of cultural inheritance." He also works hard to show how the continuities in New England writing are inflected differently by African-Americans, Jewish Americans, Irish Americans, working-class Americans and American women, particularly when set along-side the classic texts produced by privileged white men. The anthology is wonderfully diverse.

There is nothing now in print quite like Writing New England. Three things make the book stand out: its enlargement of one's sense of the varieties of people who, over time, have inhabited New England; its insights into one region's contributions to the country at large; and its sheer readability. Strongly recommended.

Readers concerned that a New England anthology of writing would slip into mawkish paeans to autumn and Yankee wisdom should know that Delbanco does not shy from the darker aspects of our region and its history...Delbanco's business, at least in book form, has always been America--its culture, history and literature: whether he is anthologizing Emerson, Lincoln or the Puritans, or writing about American religion...Delbanco ensures that the path between past and present remains open and well-trod.

Writing New England is a readable, usable, invaluable gift to readers of American literature and to those who appreciate the virtues of anthology...The literary landscape in New England is precious in its beauty; harsh in its honesty, and soaring in its genius. Merely by possessing this book we stake a claim in the bounty.

Handsomely produced...[and] imaginatively done...[This] anthology succeeds admirably in conveying, in Delbanco's words, "how New Englanders have come to live in different and distinct regions of cultural inheritance." It manages also, in its inclusions and rediscoveries, to extend Thoreau's remark in his "Ktaadn" section from The Maine Woods printed here: "I am reminded by my journey how exceedingly new this country still is."

Now arrives the definitive New England reader, a book written for the New England booster, the New England admirer, and, of course, that character indigenous to these parts, the New England reader...[Andrew Delbanco's] luminous opening essay distills one of the great truths about great New England writing: It is produced by 'the sort of mind that, with an acute sense of its own fallibility, seeks moral knowledge in the wisdom literature of the past.' But Delbanco's greatest gift is his sense of judgment. He knows, for example, that it is impossible to understand New England...without a passing acquaintance with Henry David Thoreau, Henry Adams, Henry James, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow--and, lest we forget, Henry Beston. He knows, too, that there is a difference between choosing the best known and the best representative selection of a writer's work...One of the great New England virtues, besides a sense of the vanity of human wishes, is thrift, and here Delbanco has produced a metaphor of the region. There is not a page wasted in this volume, not an entry without a reason.

A book to keep by the reading light for years to come...The selections are both expected old friends and eclectic new neighbors, each with an introduction that suggests how it adds to an understanding of "the New England mind."

This broad selection gives a deeper understanding of the flavor of New England writing, be it artistic, religious, legal, or political. Well-known writers, such as Thoreau, Emerson, and Dickinson, are balanced with writers less well known outside the region, and male voices are balanced by female. Introductory head notes to each section delineate the theme explored, placing the selections into context, while those for each selection provide biographical information and critical context.

Despite the proliferation of regional studies, particularly of the American South, there are relatively few collections of or studies about New England writing. Perhaps it's because New England was the original region. Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry James are not generally considered New Englanders so much as Americans. Delbanco, a renowned scholar of the Puritan experience in America (author of The Puritan Ordeal), wants to call attention to the fact that these writers were not simply from New England but of it. In this beautifully conceived collection, Delbanco has interspersed with unchallenged figures such as Thoreau and Hawthorne a few pieces that have been all but lost to the general reading public...This is an excellent gathering of letters, poems, stories, essays and excerpts from novels and histories.

Who and what made New England the nation's intellectual and literary center is apparent in this expansive collection of writings by the abiding masters and luminaries of the day...[Writing New England] illustrate[s] the nuances of the "hope and disillusion, confidence and self-doubt" that inform the New England mind...In each [section], writers explore the attitudes and characteristics that came to define the region: an ideal of justice, an intolerance of newcomers, and a "proprietary intimacy" with the land...This [book] is a smorgasbord; we are unlikely to see its kind again soon.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
PREFACE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
INTRODUCTION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
CHRONOLOGY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xxxi
The Founding Idea
From A Model of Christian Charity John Winthrop Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
From Α Brief Recognition of New England's Errand into the Wilderness Samuel Danforth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	12
God Speaks to the Rain
Preface to God’s Determinations Touching His Elect Edward Taylor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
From The Christian Philosopher Cotton Mather Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
The Spider Letter Jonathan Edwards Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
Forest Hymn William Cullen Bryant Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	32
From Nature Ralph Waldo Emerson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
Dialogue Margaret Fuller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
From Two Years before the Mast Richard Henry Dana Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
From American Notebooks Nathaniel Hawthorne Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
From The History of the Puritan Commonwealth Peter Oliver Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	58
Four Trees upon a Solitary Acre Emily Dickinson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	60
From The Maine Woods Henry David Τηоreau Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
The Oldest Inhabitant – The Weather of New England Mark Twain Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
What Pragmatism Means William James Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	80
Out, Out– Robert Frost Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	94
The Snow Man Wallace Stevens Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
From The Outermost House Henry Beston Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
Mr. Edwards and the Spider Robert Lowell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
Another Night in the Ruins Galway Kinnell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Mayflies Richard Wilbur Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	106
The Examined Self
From Christ the Fountain of Life John Cotton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
Before the Birth of One of Her Children Anne Bradstreet Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
Personal Narrative Jonathan Edwards Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
I Should Have Been Too Glad, I See Emily Dickinson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	130
From The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	132
From Darkwater W. Ε. В. Du Bois Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	140
To Earthward Robert Frost Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
In the Waiting Room Elizabeth Bishop Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
From The Richer, the Poorer Dorothy West Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
A Gallery of Portraits
From Uncle Toms Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
From The Morgesons Elizabeth Stoddard Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
From The Bostonians Henry James Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	168
Miniver Cheevy Edwin Arlington Robinson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
From Literary Friends and Acquaintance William Dean Howells Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
The Cambridge Ladies Ε.Ε. Cummings Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
From The Late George Apley John P. Marquand Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	176
From The Last Hurrah Edwin O’Connor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Reunion John Cheever Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	184
Plumbing John Updike Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
From Parsons’ Mill Timothy Lewontin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Education
From New England’s First Fruits Harvard College Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Dogood Papers, No. 4 Benjamin Franklin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
From Conversations with Children Elizabeth Palmer Peabody and Bronson Alcott Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
From Christian Nurture Horace Bushnell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
From Equality before the Law Charles Sumner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Inaugural Address Charles W. Eliot Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
The Function of a University John Jay Chapman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	234
Sex Education Dorothy Canfield Fisher Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	238
Schoolmasters Louis Auchincloss, John Mcphee and Geoffrey Wolff Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
Dissident Dreamers
Letter to His Wife John Winthrop Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259
From The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved James Otis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
Letters Abigail Adams and John Adams Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269
Letters concerning Brook Farm George Ripley, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
Argument before the Supreme Court in the Amistad Case John Quincy Adams Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	281
The Lady in the White Dress, Whom I Helped into the Omnibus Nathaniel Parker Willis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	286
Speech in the United States Senate Daniel Webster Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	288
From Three Sermons Theodore Parker Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297
Battle–Hymn of the Republic Julia Ward Howe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	306
Transcendental Wild Oats Louisa May Alcott Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	308
From What Social Classes Owe to Each Other William Graham Sumner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	321
Natural Law Oliver Wendell Holmes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	328
Broadcast Address John F. Kennedy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	333
The Green Fields of the Mind A . Bartlett Giamatti Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	338
Strangers in the Promised Land
Examination of Susanna Martin The Salem Court Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	343
Front Eulogy on King Philip William Apess Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	346
From My Bondage and My Freedom Frederick Douglass Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	356
The Jewish Cemetery at Newport Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	358
From The Promised Land Mary Antin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	361
From The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti Felix Frankfurter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	373
Journal Letters F.О. Matthiessen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	381
From Boston Adventure Jean Stafford Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	387
The Lottery Shirley Jackson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	391
For the Union Dead Robert Lowell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	399
From The Autobiography of Malcolm X Malcolm X and Alex Haley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	402
Her Kind Anne Sexton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	416
From Death at an Early Age Jonathan Kozol Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	418
From Common Ground J. Anthony Lukas Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	422
The Abiding Sense of Place
Hamatreya Ralph Waldo Emerson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	433
Α White Heron Sarah Orne Jewett Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	436
From The American Scene Henry James Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	445
Maine Speech Ε.Β. White Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	447
Letter to The Cape Codder Fred Allen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	450
Scenic View Donald Hall Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	452
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	455
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	461

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Front matter: 46
- Main content: 463
Illustrations
- Other: 9 halftones
Keywords: American literature -- New England.; New England -- Civilization -- Sources.; New England -- Literary collections.; LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General; LITERARY COLLECTIONS / General

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674335486

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 2001
ISBN: 9780674335479