{"product_id":"hawthorne-a-life-paperback","title":"Hawthorne: A Life - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eBrenda Wineapple\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHandsome, reserved, almost frighteningly aloof until he was approached, then playful, cordial, Nathaniel Hawthorne was as mercurial and double-edged as his writing. \"Deep as Dante,\" Herman Melville said. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHawthorne himself declared that he was not \"one of those supremely hospitable people who serve up their own hearts, delicately fried, with brain sauce, as a tidbit\" for the public. Yet those who knew him best often took the opposite position. \"He always puts himself in his books,\" said his sister-in-law Mary Mann, \"he cannot help it.\" His life, like his work, was extraordinary, a play of light and shadow. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this major new biography of Hawthorne, the first in more than a decade, Brenda Wineapple, acclaimed biographer of Janet Flanner and Gertrude and Leo Stein (\"Luminous\"-Richard Howard), brings him brilliantly alive: an exquisite writer who shoveled dung in an attempt to found a new utopia at Brook Farm and then excoriated the community (or his attraction to it) in caustic satire; the confidant of Franklin Pierce, fourteenth president of the United States and arguably one of its worst; friend to Emerson and Thoreau and Melville who, unlike them, made fun of Abraham Lincoln and who, also unlike them, wrote compellingly of women, deeply identifying with them-he was the first major American writer to create erotic female characters. Those vibrant, independent women continue to haunt the imagination, although Hawthorne often punishes, humiliates, or kills them, as if exorcising that which enthralls. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHere is the man rooted in Salem, Massachusetts, of an old pre-Revolutionary family, reared partly in the wilds of western Maine, then schooled along with Longfellow at Bowdoin College. Here are his idyllic marriage to the youngest and prettiest of the Peabody sisters and his longtime friendships, including with Margaret Fuller, the notorious feminist writer and intellectual. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHere too is Hawthorne at the end of his days, revered as a genius, but considered as well to be an embarrassing puzzle by the Boston intelligentsia, isolated by fiercely held political loyalties that placed him against the Civil War and the currents of his time. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBrenda Wineapple navigates the high tides and chill undercurrents of Hawthorne's fascinating life and work with clarity, nuance, and insight. The novels and tales, the incidental writings, travel notes and children's books, letters and diaries reverberate in this biography, which both charts and protects the dark unknowable core that is quintessentially Hawthorne. In him, the quest of his generation for an authentically American voice bears disquieting fruit.\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eHandsome, reserved, almost frighteningly aloof until he was approached, then playful, cordial, Nathaniel Hawthorne was as mercurial and double-edged as his writing. \"Deep as Dante,\" Herman Melville said. \u003cbr\u003eHawthorne himself declared that he was not \"one of those supremely hospitable people who serve up their own hearts, delicately fried, with brain sauce, as a tidbit\" for the public. Yet those who knew him best often took the opposite position. \"He always puts himself in his books,\" said his sister-in-law Mary Mann, \"he cannot help it.\" His life, like his work, was extraordinary, a play of light and shadow. \u003cbr\u003eIn this major new biography of Hawthorne, the first in more than a decade, Brenda Wineapple, acclaimed biographer of Janet Flanner and Gertrude and Leo Stein (\"Luminous\"-Richard Howard), brings him brilliantly alive: an exquisite writer who shoveled dung in an attempt to found a new utopia at Brook Farm and then excoriated the community (or his attraction to it) in caustic satire; the confidant of Franklin Pierce, fourteenth president of the United States and arguably one of its worst; friend to Emerson and Thoreau and Melville who, unlike them, made fun of Abraham Lincoln and who, also unlike them, wrote compellingly of women, deeply identifying with them-he was the first major American writer to create erotic female characters. Those vibrant, independent women continue to haunt the imagination, although Hawthorne often punishes, humiliates, or kills them, as if exorcising that which enthralls. \u003cbr\u003eHere is the man rooted in Salem, Massachusetts, of an old pre-Revolutionary family, reared partly in the wilds of western Maine, then schooled along with Longfellow at BowdoinCollege. Here are his idyllic marriage to the youngest and prettiest of the Peabody sisters and his longtime friendships, including with Margaret Fuller, the notorious feminist writer and intellectual. \u003cbr\u003eHere too is Hawthorne at the end of his days, revered as a genius, but considered as well to be an embarrassing puzzle by the Boston intelligentsia, isolated by fiercely held political loyalties that placed him against the Civil War and the currents of his time. \u003cbr\u003eBrenda Wineapple navigates the high tides and chill undercurrents of Hawthorne's fascinating life and work with clarity, nuance, and insight. The novels and tales, the incidental writings, travel notes and children's books, letters and diaries reverberate in this biography, which both charts and protects the dark unknowable core that is quintessentially Hawthorne. In him, the quest of his generation for an authentically American voice bears disquieting fruit. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"From the Hardcover edition.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBrenda Wineapple\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of seven books including \u003ci\u003eThe Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation\u003c\/i\u003e, selected by a \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e book critic as one of the ten best nonfiction works of 2019; \u003ci\u003eEcstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848-1877\u003c\/i\u003e, a \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e 'Notable Book'; and \u003ci\u003eWhite Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson\u003c\/i\u003e, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. A recipient of a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting, and a Pushcart Prize, she has also received three National Endowment Fellowships including its Public Scholars Award. Her essays and reviews regularly appear in \u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e. In 2023, she was selected a Fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 509\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.1 x 7.9 x 5.2 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 29, 2004\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44797440557158,"sku":"9780812972917","price":34.04,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0599\/7255\/0758\/files\/jGK4knBx5i9780812972917.webp?v=1771199539","url":"https:\/\/infinitylightwa.com\/products\/hawthorne-a-life-paperback","provider":"Infinity Light","version":"1.0","type":"link"}