Hemingway And the Mechanism of Fame: Statements, Public Letters, Introductions, Forewords, Prefaces, Blurbs, Reviews, And Endorsements

Book Description

Ernest Hemingway was famous for being famous. He assiduously cultivated different and sometimes divergent personae—sportsman, soldier, aesthetician, patriot, drinker, womanizer, intellectual, anti-intellectual, sage, brawler, world traveler, war correspondent, big-game hunter, and even author—each chosen to foster his place in the American cultural consciousness and support the sales of his books. In every role he projected the insider's air of authority and expertise that was presumed credible, even when not wholly deserved. His success in these self-legendizing efforts to couple nonliterary celebrity with literary stature is evident in his continued fame among those familiar and unfamiliar with his books.

Hemingway and the Mechanism of Fame assembles Hemingway's public writings about himself, all framed as documents of support for or criticism of other people and other products. Comprising fifty-four public statements and letters; twenty introductions, forewords, and prefaces; and twenty-nine book blurbs, reviews, and product endorsements, the collection chronicles the means by which Hemingway advanced his own standing through these literary and extraliterary writings.

From his commercial endorsements for the Parker 51 pen and Ballantine ale to his Nobel Prize acceptance statement and commentary on President Kennedy's inauguration, Hemingway shows himself to be an expert marketing strategist, infusing each piece with thoughtfully crafted autobiography designed to engage his public and promote his image. Arranged in chronological order and spanning more than forty years, the selections in this volume map the development of Hemingway's most complex, studied, criticized, parodied, and celebrated fictional character: Ernest Hemingway himself.

Customer Reviews:

Good job, Mr Bruccoli.......2007-03-08

To focus on the myth building of Hem during his lifetime, is well worth a book. This one is both interesting and funny. //Kenneth Ohlsson

For Hemingway fans .......2007-02-24

For those of us who are fans of Hemingway, this book is like sipping a rum and coke in a gentle breeze on the veranda at Hemingway's home in the Keys. We get to enjoy our hero's thoughts on writing and fishing and the state of the world and Pound et al. Of course, just about everything Hemingway writes is about himself so we get goodly doses of our main squeeze. Enjoy.

Pudd'Nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins: Authoritative Texts, Textual Introduction and Tables of Variants Criticism (A Norton Critical)

Average customer rating:

A Three Ring Circus

Pudd'Nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins: Authoritative Texts, Textual Introduction and Tables of Variants Criticism (A Norton Critical)
Mark Twain , and Sidney E. Berger
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393950271

Customer Reviews:

A Three Ring Circus.......2000-10-15

Twain's novel Pudd'nhead Wilson can seem like an enigma at first, since it is a story about slavery written almost forty years after the end of the Civil War. Certainly race was still a pressing contemporary issue for Twain at the time: by 1893 Reconstruction had failed and race relations in the United States were a mess. Although a black man no longer had to fear being sold "down the river" as Roxy and Chambers do, extreme forms of violence were a distinct possibility. Part of the point here is that although the institutions surrounding race may have changed since 1850, the fundamental problems, even by 1893, had not. By featuring characters who are racially indeterminate--that is, characters who can "pass" or who are not immediately identifiable as black--Twain confuses the issue still further. When slavery was still legal, an individual's racial profile mattered on a concrete level: someone who is one-thirtysecondth black,like Chambers, could be owned as a slave, while someone with no known black ancestry could not. Racial identity, by the 1890's, had become a much more nebulous concept. Broader issues of identity are a compelling problem in this novel. Although this is by no means a carefully structured and polished piece of literature, Twain's multiple plots and thrown- together style do serve to inform a central set of issues, with the twins, Pudd'nhead, and Tom and Chambers all serving as variations on a theme. The coexistence of many characters and many localized plots mirrors the novel's setting. In its vacillation between the tiny town of Dawson's Landing and the metropolis of St. Louis, and in the centralized presence of the Mississippi River, with its possibilities for endless mobility, the novel offers both hope and despair: the world is too big a place for everyone to be known absolutely to their neighbors, yet one also has the ability to start over in a new place.

The idea of being able to start over is continuously interrogated in American literature. Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, which appeared almost exactly one hundred years before Pudd'nhead Wilson, sketched out the ideals of self-determination and personal identity in American culture: a man can become whatever he wants, no matter what his background, as long as he has a plan and the work ethic to realize it. Echoes of Franklin can be seen in the eccentric, scientifically-minded Pudd'nhead Wilson, whose writings mirror Franklin's and whose careful analysis and re-categorization of the world around him is also reminiscent of the American icon. Pudd'nhead's self-realizations, though, are dark and socially unsuccessful. Twain's characters live in an America where social mores are largely fixed and one's success depends not on determination but on fitting into a pre-existing public space.

Twain, like Franklin, was a celebrated public figure, immediately recognizable as a collection of carefully developed mannerisms and trademark items. Like Judge Driscoll in this novel, Twain somehow found himself high placed enough in society so as not to be bound by its rules. In Pudd'nhead Wilson, though, Twain looks at those who avoid constraints of reputation and public opinion by being so far beneath society as to be almost irrelevant. He also looks at those who, like the twins, get caught in the middle, in a mire of shifting opinions and speculations. The "plot" of this novel, if it can be said to have one, is a detective story, in which a series of identities--the judge's murderer, "Tom," "Chambers"--must be sorted out. This structure highlights the problem of identity and one's ability to determine one's own identity. The solution to the set of mysteries, though, is an incomplete and bleak one, in which determinations about identities have been made but the assigned identities do not correspond to viable positions in society. The seemingly objective scientific methods espoused by Pudd'nhead may have provided more "truthful" answers than public opinion, but they have not helped to better society. In the rapidly changing American culture of the 1890s, where race, celebrity, and publicity were confounding deeply ingrained cultural notions of self-determination, the depopulated ending of Pudd'nhead Wilson is a pessimistic assessment of one's ability to control one's identity. Twain's novel moves us from Franklin's comic world of possibility to a place where self- determination is Twain, like Franklin, was a celebrated public figure, immediately recognizable as a collection of carefully developed mannerisms and trademark items. Like Judge Driscoll in this novel, Twain somehow found himself high placed enough in society so as not to be bound by its rules. In Pudd'nhead Wilson, though, Twain looks at those who avoid constraints of reputation and public opinion by being so far beneath society as to be almost irrelevant. He also looks at those who,

like the twins, get caught in the middle, in a mire of shifting opinions and speculations. The "plot" of this novel, if it can be said to have one, is a detective story, in which a series of identities--the judge's murderer, "Tom," "Chambers"--must be sorted out. This structure highlights the problem of identity and one's ability to determine one's own identity. The solution to the set of mysteries, though, is an incomplete and bleak one, in which determinations about

Book Description

"Recognition of Mary Shelley's systemic dual focus on public and domestic power as the means to interrogate traditional norms and propose alternatives materially alters parochial perceptions of her objectives and her achievements. Her novels, outside of Frankenstein, and recently, The Last Man, have been dismissed as simple, mutual dissociated "romances" or experiments in genre solely to intersect with a market niche; they are neither. Rather, they and all of Mary Shelley's major works voice a cosmopolitan, socio-political reformist ideology that evolved as their author's acute awareness of world events enabled her to calibrate her literary voice to deal with unfolding rather than past societal issues. Her multidisciplinary fusion of literature, political philosophy, and history calls for a commensurate multidisciplinary reading in order to understand the complexities of both the author and her works." -- Betty T. Bennett

In this book, Betty T. Bennett offers an extensively expanded version of the introduction she wrote for Pickering and Chatto's eight volume set, The Novels and Selected Works of Mary Shelley. Along with her insightful retelling of Mary Shelley's eventful life story, Bennett gives us a fresh reading of Frankenstein in the context of its author's full career. She also discusses a variety of Mary Shelley's lesser known works, including Matilda, Valperga, The Last Man, Perkin Warbeck, Lodore, Falkner, and her travel books. The result is a compelling portrait of Mary Shelley as she saw herself -- an inventive, irreverent writer whose desire for political and social reform was at the heart of her literary expression for three decades.

American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction (Continuum Studies in Literary Genre)

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A welcome and informative study

American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction (Continuum Studies in Literary Genre)
Allan Lloyd Smith
Manufacturer: Continuum International Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0826415954

Customer Reviews:

A welcome and informative study.......2005-03-10

College-level literary classes studying various forms of fiction will find Alan Lloyd-Smith's introduction perfect for a review of the gothic literary genre. Chapters analyze the structure and facets of what makes American gothic, considers key texts and major themes, and includes quotes from some of the major works in the field. Many a high school student will find Tall Stories Omnibus 5: American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction to be a welcome and informative study.

The Detective Story : An Introduction to the World's Great Whodunit Sleuths and their Creators

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The Detective Story : An Introduction to the World's Great Whodunit Sleuths and their Creators
McGraw-Hill
Manufacturer: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0844256137

Book Description

The Detective Story showcases 22 mysteries written by 15 leading authors. This engaging text was carefully constructed using the finest, most captivating stories from such writers as Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, William Brittain, Mary Roberts Rinehart, and many more!

Introduction to the Short Story (Heinemann/Cassell Language & Literacy)

Average customer rating:

Pretty Good

Introduction to the Short Story (Heinemann/Cassell Language & Literacy)
Robert W. Boynton , and Maynard Mack
Manufacturer: Boynton/Cook
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0867092912

Book Description

A classic since its original publication twenty-five years ago, Introduction to the Short Story is now revised and expanded, with the addition of six stories new to this fourth edition. The text opens with a new section devoted to examining how readers of short stories--or any kind of literature--can, and do, approach such reading.

Customer Reviews:

Pretty Good.......2000-09-28

I think this book of short stories has a pretty good collection, but I think that the onlky place where this book she probaly be read is in school. THrere are many symbolisms in it and I think student need a teacher to guide them through it

Nineteenth-Century Religion and Literature: An Introduction

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Nineteenth-Century Religion and Literature: An Introduction
Mark Knight , and Emma Mason
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0199277117

Book Description

Recent scholarship in nineteenth-century literary studies consistently recognizes the profound importance of religion, even as it marginalizes the topic. There are few, if any, challenging yet manageable introductions to religion and literature in the long-nineteenth century, a factor that serves to fuel scholars' neglect of theological issues. This book aims to show how religion, specifically Christianity, is integral to the literature and culture of this period. It provides close readings of popular texts and integrates these with accessible explanations of complex religious ideas. Written by two scholars who have published widely on religion and literature, the book offers a detailed grounding in the main religious movements of the period 1750-1914. The dominant traditions of High Anglicanism, Tractarianism, Evangelicalism and Roman Catholicism are contextualized by preceding chapters addressing dissenting culture (primarily Presbyterianism, Methodism, Unitarianism and Quakerism), and the question of secularization is considered in the light of the diversity and capacity for renewal within the Christian faith. Throughout the book the authors untangle theological and church debates in a manner that highlights the privileged relationship between religion and literature in the period. The book also gives readers a language to approach and articulate their own 'religious' readings of texts, texts that are often concerned with slippery subjects such as the divine, the non-material and the nature of religious experience. Refusing to shut down religious debate by offering only narrow or fixed definitions of Christian traditions, the book also questions the demarcation of sacred material from secular, as well as connecting the vitality of religion in the period to a broader literary culture.

The Cambridge Introduction to James Joyce (Cambridge Introductions to Literature)

Average customer rating:

Good Background

The Cambridge Introduction to James Joyce (Cambridge Introductions to Literature)
Eric Bulson
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0521549655

Book Description

James Joyce has a reputation for being one of modern literature's most difficult writers. This introduction gives students the necessary tools they will need to get the most out of reading him. It provides the essential biographical information and situates his life and works in broader cultural, historical, and literary contexts. Students will also find detailed examinations of the major works including Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. In addition, Bulson lets students see how Joyce evolved as a writer. This introduction also provides a brief history of the critical reception of Joyce's life and works and explains what a variety of critical approaches can teach us. A guide to further reading has been included for those interested in consulting some of the more influential secondary works. This accessible and lively introduction gives students everything they will need to get started reading, understanding, and appreciating Joyce.

Customer Reviews:

Good Background.......2007-03-08

The Cambridge Introduction to James Joyce provides a useful commentary and is helpful for gleaning a wholistic view of his works. I would suggest it for those attempting to read one of his works without the benefit of having read all of his works, as it will give them an overview of plots, themes, characters, and historical background to Joyce's works that the reader may not have included in their own studies. I would also recommend this introduction to those who are doing extensive studies in Joyce's work since it provides useful historical contexting, as well as some common themes. That way, the reader is not forced to resort to giant tomes on Irish history or James Joyce's biography. Overall this is a good resource no matter what your familiarity with Joyce.

Irish Fiction: An Introduction (Literary Genres Series)

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Irish Fiction: An Introduction (Literary Genres Series)
Kersti Tarien Powell
Manufacturer: Continuum International Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0826415962

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