frumiousb

(Available at Google Books, if you're interested.)

John Burroughs was an American essayist. Wikipedia describes him as a "literary naturalist". He met Walt Whitman during the Civil War, and this little book serves two purposes. It is a meditation on Leaves of Grass as well as a memoir of that friendship. Amazon tells me that it was the first biographical sketch of the author. I can't substantiate that, but it seems likely to be true.

Whitman has long been one of my great literary loves, and this book was a pleasure to read simply for reminding me how much I love Leaves of Grass. My copy is so fragile (1872 second edition, in poor shape) that I didn't dare linger over the pages, but have gladly bookmarked online text versions so that I can spend more time with it later. There are obviously more complete biographical texts, but it is fascinating to read a personal sketch from someone who knew him personally and who was a good friend. The closeness to the man adds its own touch as reading experience.

Recommended for anyone who loves Whitman, and doesn't mind spending a little time on something unusual.

( and the apology )

First of all, I would like to thank eameschair for bringing this book to my attention. I will make the confession that on my own, I never would have picked it up. I'm not really sure why. Something about Patchett's narrative image has repelled me. I had the feeling that I would find her writing way too folksy and precious-- just not to my taste. Although this work is memoir, I liked it enough to think that I should give her novels a chance. Can anyone here make a recommendation in the comments what you've thought about her novels, and which one (if any) that you might recommend?

( we all know this story )

For me, in the last resort, Alexander's true genius was as a field-commander: perhaps, taken all in all, the most incomparable general the world has ever seen. His gift for speed, improvisation, variety of strategy; his cool-headedness in a crisis, his ability to extract himself from the most impossible situations; his mastery of terrain, his psychological ability to penetrate the enemy's intentions-- all these qualities place him at the very head of the Great Captains of history. The myth of the Great Captains is wearing rather than these days, and admiration for their achievements has waned: this is where we too become the victims of our own age and our own morality. Viewed in political rather than military terms, Alexander's career strikes a grimly familiar note. We have no right to soften it on that account.

Philip's son was bred as a king and a warrior. His business, his all-absorbing obsession through a short but crowded life, was war an conquest. It is idle to palliate this central truth, to pretend that he dreamed, in some mysterious fashion, of wading through rivers of blood and violence to achieve the Brotherhood of Man by raping an entire continent. He spent his life, with legendary success, in the pursuit of personal glory, Achillean kleos; and until very recent times this was regarded as a wholly laudable aim. The empire he built collapsed the moment he was gone; he came as a conqueror and the work he wrought was destruction. Yet his legend still lives; the proof of his immortality is the belief he inspired in others. That is why he remained greater than the measurable sum of his works; that is why, in the last resort, he will continue an insoluble enigma, to this and all future generations. His greatness defies a final judgment.
Pgs. 487-488

I've been reading a reasonable amount of history lately, and I was starting to get worried how much of it has left me rather cold. Either I find that I can't engage with the writing, or else I find the thesis of the writer poorly supported. I had started to get the bad bad feeling that my problem with historians was more about me than about the history itself.

Luckily, just about that point I picked up a Really Good History Book. Excellent and apparently well-respected as history and delicious to read as a book. It doesn't talk down to the readers; it doesn't pretend to know more than it possibly can do. The prose is very good. The logic and structure of the book are clear and well-ordered. I really enjoyed reading it and felt that I learned a lot.

I'm talking about Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C. by Peter Green. I'll say a little bit more about the book after the cut.

But first before I talk about this book in specific, I'd like to get some recommendations from you all in general. What are your favorite history books? Which are the tomes that you felt made history come alive for you without engaging in unforgivable narrative indulgences? To give you an idea, I like Simon Schama, Barbara Tuchman, Braudel, and Amin Maalouf.

( and onwards to the book itself )

I love Henry James.

It was unfashionable to admit when I was a student, and it seems to still be unfashionable now. A short Google search will show that bashing Henry James is nearly as fashionable as bashing Thomas Hardy. One of the book communities that I frequent has a nearly monthly plaintive post from one student or another seeking help making their way through the dense and wordy prose of Portrait of a Lady or The Golden Bowl. I used to give out copies of The Ambassadors to friends visiting Europe until one person remarked crossly that it was as though I'd hung a literary albatross around their neck. I was genuinely shocked, since it had really never occurred to me that people would find James difficult to read.

I have never found his work ponderous. I knew the famous quip of Wells that reading his prose was like watching a hippopotamus trying to pick up a pea. I even get what that means. But I like the twisted and complicated prose. I like the moments and the conversations. I am always entranced by the picture of the characters that he produces. While the books are undoubtedly dense, I never found them *too* dense. I have always found his novels surprisingly moving, and genuinely emotionally affecting.

What's your feeling about Henry James? Fans? Haters? Just curious.

However, this post is not about Henry James directly, but is rather about the Henry James biography that I have been reading: The Jameses: A Family Narrative, by R.W.B. Lewis. It is not only a biography of the novelist, but also of William & Alice and all the other minor Jameses.

( read more )

In the Shade of Spring Leaves
The Life of Higuchi Ichiyō with Nine of her Best Short Stories
Higuchi Ichiyō
Danly, Robert Lyons
WW Norton & Company
1981
0393309134

( ... )

Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love
Sobel, Dava
Walker and Company
1999

( read more )

"I don't give a fuck about being right or artistic or clear-- I only care about what I'm saying for the moment.."
Miller in a letter to Emil Schnellock

( not a Henry Miller fan )