By R. W. B. Lewis (NHC Fellow, 1989–90) Acclaimed biographer R.W.B. Lewis traces the life and complex development–emotional, artistic, philosophical–of this supreme poet-historian. Here we meet the boy who first encounters the mythic Beatrice, the lyric poet obsessed with love and death, the grand master of dramatic narrative and allegory, and his monumental search for … Continued
By Mary Ellis Gibson (NHC Fellow, 2007–08) In Indian Angles, Mary Ellis Gibson provides a new historical approach to Indian English literature. Gibson shows that poetry, not fiction, was the dominant literary genre of Indian writing in English until 1860 and that poetry written in colonial situations can tell us as much or even more about … Continued
By Olga Gonçalves (NHC Fellow, 1980–81)
By Hermione de Almeida (NHC Fellow, 1982–83) Using original research in scientific treatises, philosophical manuscripts, and political documents, this pioneering study describes the neglected era of revolutionary medicine in Europe through the writings of the English poet and physician, John Keats. De Almeida explores the four primary concerns of Romantic medicine–the physician's task, the meaning … Continued
Edited by Ronald A. Sharp (NHC Fellow, 1986–87) and Eudora Welty Famous literary friendships such as those between H.L. Mencken and James Joyce, Gustave Flaubert and Ivan Turgenev, and Elizabeth Bishop and Marianne Moore are examined in this magnificent collection of stories, legends, poems, essays, letters, and memoirs that illuminate the breadth and depth of … Continued
By David Simpson (NHC Fellow, 1984–85) Traditionally, Wordsworth’s greatness is founded on his identity as the poet of nature and solitude. The Wordsworthian imagination is seen as an essentially private faculty, its very existence premised on the absence of other people. In this title, first published in 1987, David Simpson challenges this established view of … Continued
Edited by Benjamin Harshav (NHC Fellow, 1981–82), Kathryn Hellerstein, Brian McHale, and Anita Norich This remarkable volume introduces to the large English-speaking audience what is probably the most coherent segment of twentieth-century American literature not written in English. The range of American Yiddish Poetry runs the gamut from individualistic verse of alienation in the modern metropolis, responses … Continued
By Lynda L. Coon (NHC Fellow, 2004–05) In Dark Age Bodies Lynda L. Coon reconstructs the gender ideology of monastic masculinity through an investigation of early medieval readings of the body. Focusing on the Carolingian era, Coon evaluates the ritual and liturgical performances of monastic bodies within the imaginative landscapes of same-sex ascetic communities in northern Europe. … Continued
By Nigel Smith (NHC Fellow, 2007–08) With literature waning in the interest of so many, is Shakespeare the only poet the public can still appreciate? John Milton, as this book makes clear, speaks more powerfully to the eternal questions and to the important concerns of our time. The Milton of this volume is an author … Continued
By Sara Mack (NHC Fellow, 1980–81) Of all the poets of ancient Rome Ovid had perhaps the most influence on the art and literature of Medieval and Renaissance Europe. Even today he is probably the most accessible of all classical poets to the non-specialist, both in his subject matter and in his style. Ovid is … Continued