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"Cheever doesn't really offer much that's new, but she packages it all so nicely. Rather than revering them as 'static daguerreotypes,' she brings these icons to life as men and women who fell in painful love, lived in crowded quarters, tramped on muddy roads, and 'walked arm in arm under Concord's great elms.' She also does a wonderful job of resurrecting the 19th century itself, and reminding us of how often her subjects were cold, hungry — well, the Alcotts, anyway — uncomfortable, and at the mercy of unenlightened doctors who harmed at least as often as they healed." Marjorie Kehe, The Christian Science Monitor (read the entire CSM review)
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
The 1850s were heady times in Concord, Massachusetts: in a town where a woman's petticoat drying on an outdoor line was enough to elicit scandal, some of the greatest minds of our nation's history were gathering in three of its wooden houses to establish a major American literary movement. The Transcendentalists, as these thinkers came to be called, challenged the norms of American society with essays, novels, and treatises whose beautifully rendered prose and groundbreaking assertions still resonate with readers today.
Though noted contemporary author Susan Cheever stands in awe of the monumental achievements of such writers as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Louisa May Alcott, her personal, evocative narrative removes these figures from their dusty pedestals and provides a lively account of their longings, jealousies, and indiscretions. Thus, Cheever reminds us that the passion of Concord's ambitious and temperamental resident geniuses was by no means confined to the page...
Review:
"This beguiling book is Cheever's exploration of the extraordinary cross-fertilization of creativity in Concord, Mass., during the mid-19th century, when Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and the Alcotts lived as neighbors there. If it won't offer much new information for serious students of American literature, it does provide a lively and insightful introduction to the personalities and achievements of the men and women who were seminal figures in America's literary renaissance, and who, Cheever theorizes, influenced the social activism of succeeding generations. In episodic chapters, Cheever describes their entwined relationships. Margaret Fuller was their brilliant, free-spirited muse and a model for Hester Prynne. Louisa May Alcott, was forced to support her family because her feckless father, Bronson, had no intention of doing so. Herman Melville briefly entered the enchanted circle through his friendship with Hawthorne. Cheever touches on their love affairs and intellectual platonic attractions, their high-minded idealism, their personal losses, their intermittent misunderstandings and jealousies, the years of penury suffered by all except Emerson and their full-fledged tragedies — such as Margaret Fuller's drowning. While Cheever sometimes indulges in high-flown speculation about their personal lives, she keenly analyzes the positive and negative ways they influenced one another's ideas and beliefs and the literature that came out of 'this sudden outbreak of genius.' 8 pages of photos." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
"Susan Cheever is the latest literary moth to be drawn to the bright flame of mid-19th century Concord, Mass. Her 12th book, 'American Bloomsbury,' invites readers to meander through the lives of five neighbors whom we would do well to remember. Cheever sets her stage early on: 'We may think of them as static daguerreotypes, but in fact these men and women fell desperately in and out of love with each... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) other, tormented each other in a series of passionate romantic triangles, edited each other's work, talked about ideas all night, and walked arm in arm under Concord's great elms.' She will resuscitate Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott and Margaret Fuller by telling us that they, too, had feet of clay and their oh-so-human foibles were salacious enough for a 21st-century TV reality show. Perhaps that's what it takes these days to get anyone to pay attention. But is that what we should be paying attention to? Should we not remember instead these Concordians' fertile mix of intellectual firepower and daily friendships? We might do well to ponder how to bring their rigorously ethical and independent thinking into today's conversations. But perhaps Cheever intends to argue that their 'passionate romantic triangles' were necessary to fuel their lively genius. Cheever correctly points out that most of us would be hard put to describe exactly what Emerson stood for, why Thoreau built his cabin on Walden Pond (and why he left it) or the dark themes Hawthorne wrestled into his fiction. We may know Louisa May Alcott only through 'Little Women,' the shallowest reflection of her energetic and opinionated life. And we may never have heard of Margaret Fuller at all. Unfortunately, the book's haphazard pastiche of stories diminishes its ability to improve our understanding of these amazing Americans. None of the gossip is new or infused with fresh insight. We learn only tidbits of what they did and nothing to help us understand the how or the why. Cheever takes the easy potshots at the Alcotts' Fruitlands commune, dwells with Victorian pathos on Fuller's shipwreck and repeats Thoreau and Emerson's best-known bon mots. Cheever's title assumes a readership that is familiar with the London Bloomsbury crowd, although never once does she mention Bloomsbury in the text — a potentially interesting direction not taken. Rather, much of the book is pitched toward adolescents: 'In other words, Hawthorne had come to the point where he needed to get out of Dodge'; 'Slaves had been used in ways that even animals were never used. This was wrong.' She mystifyingly describes Fuller as a 'Dorothy Parker woman in a Jane Austen world' and calls Emerson the 'sugar daddy of American literature.' Cheever's most emotional paragraphs are devoted to excoriating John Brown, calling him a 'passionate con artist in desperate need of money for his chosen cause.' Cheever's attempt to bring the women of the neighborhood closer to the center of the action is laudable, although she slights the two women most deserving of attention — Abba Alcott, Louisa's mother, and Lidian Emerson, Ralph Waldo's second wife. Lidian's 'Transcendental Bible,' which Cheever never mentions, is a scathingly accurate parody of Emerson's beloved transcendentalism and shows her to be a woman of intelligence and verve. Abba was a remarkably prescient economic analyst, understanding the dislocations of immigration and the Industrial Revolution with greater clarity than most. But Cheever dwells more on her famously short temper than on her intellectual contributions. Instead, she focuses on Fuller (who stayed for several months with the Emersons but never lived in Concord) and Louisa May Alcott (who certainly lived there but was of a younger generation than the Emerson-Thoreau-Hawthorne triumvirate). To her credit, Cheever devotes more space to Louisa's father, Bronson, who was the fourth and rarely silent partner of the Concord circle. Attempting to write a biography of one person is tricky enough; to delineate a group of active and prolific geniuses is a challenge few dare to attempt. The good ones stand out: Leon Edel's 'House of Lions' about the actual Bloomsbury group, William St. Clair's 'The Godwins and the Shelleys' and John Worthen's 'The Gang: Coleridge, the Hutchinsons and the Wordsworths in 1802.' The neighborly sages of Concord warrant as many tries as it takes to get it right. Kit Bakke's latest book is 'Miss Alcott's E-Mail.' She can be reached through www.kitbakke.com." Reviewed by Kit Bakke, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
(hide most of this review)
Review:
"[Cheever's] small volume about American Transcendentalists proves so lively and absorbing that it may awaken our desire to read some classics our teachers neglected to bludgeon us with." Hartford Courant
Review:
"Literary history with a pinch of irreverent salt." The Boston Globe
Review:
"With affection, Cheever captures heavyweight writers Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau as they move in and out of each other's lives. Rich with charming anecdotes, the portrait is an undeniable winner." Boston Magazine
Review:
"Cheever has crafted a stirring book along the apex of love triangles, the edge of jockeying egos and the crest of creative bursts set against the crabbed human condition." Cleveland Plain Dealer
Review:
"Susan Cheever's American Bloomsbury is a rather odd, and occasionally absorbing." Oregonian
Review:
"[Cheever] does a wonderful job of tracing the constant overlap and interplay of common experience and shared ideas that helped to shape their remarkable output." Christian Science Monitor
Review:
"Essential reading for anyone with an interest in American letters." Library Journal
Review:
"[Cheever's] inclusion of the neglected Louisa May Alcott in this pantheon of greats is a refreshing gesture." Los Angeles Times
Review:
"Cheever's accomplishment here is in making this fab five come alive for a new generation....American Bloomsbury is a charming book, and a welcome addition to the writings about these incomparable figures of American history." Balitomire Sun
Synopsis:
Between 1840 and 1868, Concord, Massachusetts, was home to such writers as Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau. In this fascinating history, noted author Cheever explores how Concord developed into the first American community devoted to idealism.
Susan Cheever is the bestselling author of eleven previous books, including five novels and the memoirs Note Found in a Bottle and Home Before Dark. Her work has been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the Boston Globe Winship Medal. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a member of the Corporation of Yaddo, and a member of the Author's Guild Council. She writes a weekly column for Newsday and teaches in the Bennington College M.F.A. program. She lives in New York City with her family.
Lucy Little, September 23, 2007 (view all comments by Lucy Little)
Interesting book that welcomes readers into the lives of Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, the Alcott family, and Margaret Fuller. In their individual searches for enlightenment, they faced everyday burdens such as paying bills, completing writing projects, and health problems. They had relationship issues with lovers, neighbors and friends. This book gives us depth and insight into their intertwined personal and professional lives as they created a community together.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No (9 of 16 readers found this comment helpful)
American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau: Their Lives, Th
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Susan Cheever
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Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"This beguiling book is Cheever's exploration of the extraordinary cross-fertilization of creativity in Concord, Mass., during the mid-19th century, when Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and the Alcotts lived as neighbors there. If it won't offer much new information for serious students of American literature, it does provide a lively and insightful introduction to the personalities and achievements of the men and women who were seminal figures in America's literary renaissance, and who, Cheever theorizes, influenced the social activism of succeeding generations. In episodic chapters, Cheever describes their entwined relationships. Margaret Fuller was their brilliant, free-spirited muse and a model for Hester Prynne. Louisa May Alcott, was forced to support her family because her feckless father, Bronson, had no intention of doing so. Herman Melville briefly entered the enchanted circle through his friendship with Hawthorne. Cheever touches on their love affairs and intellectual platonic attractions, their high-minded idealism, their personal losses, their intermittent misunderstandings and jealousies, the years of penury suffered by all except Emerson and their full-fledged tragedies — such as Margaret Fuller's drowning. While Cheever sometimes indulges in high-flown speculation about their personal lives, she keenly analyzes the positive and negative ways they influenced one another's ideas and beliefs and the literature that came out of 'this sudden outbreak of genius.' 8 pages of photos." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Review A Day"
by Marjorie Kehe, The Christian Science Monitor,
"Cheever doesn't really offer much that's new, but she packages it all so nicely. Rather than revering them as 'static daguerreotypes,' she brings these icons to life as men and women who fell in painful love, lived in crowded quarters, tramped on muddy roads, and 'walked arm in arm under Concord's great elms.' She also does a wonderful job of resurrecting the 19th century itself, and reminding us of how often her subjects were cold, hungry — well, the Alcotts, anyway — uncomfortable, and at the mercy of unenlightened doctors who harmed at least as often as they healed." (read the entire CSM review)
"Review"
by Hartford Courant,
"[Cheever's] small volume about American Transcendentalists proves so lively and absorbing that it may awaken our desire to read some classics our teachers neglected to bludgeon us with."
"Review"
by The Boston Globe,
"Literary history with a pinch of irreverent salt."
"Review"
by Boston Magazine,
"With affection, Cheever captures heavyweight writers Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau as they move in and out of each other's lives. Rich with charming anecdotes, the portrait is an undeniable winner."
"Review"
by Cleveland Plain Dealer,
"Cheever has crafted a stirring book along the apex of love triangles, the edge of jockeying egos and the crest of creative bursts set against the crabbed human condition."
"Review"
by Oregonian,
"Susan Cheever's American Bloomsbury is a rather odd, and occasionally absorbing."
"Review"
by Christian Science Monitor,
"[Cheever] does a wonderful job of tracing the constant overlap and interplay of common experience and shared ideas that helped to shape their remarkable output."
"Review"
by Library Journal,
"Essential reading for anyone with an interest in American letters."
"Review"
by Los Angeles Times,
"[Cheever's] inclusion of the neglected Louisa May Alcott in this pantheon of greats is a refreshing gesture."
"Review"
by Balitomire Sun,
"Cheever's accomplishment here is in making this fab five come alive for a new generation....American Bloomsbury is a charming book, and a welcome addition to the writings about these incomparable figures of American history."
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
Between 1840 and 1868, Concord, Massachusetts, was home to such writers as Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau. In this fascinating history, noted author Cheever explores how Concord developed into the first American community devoted to idealism.
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