A new edition of William Carlos Williams’ loving and groundbreaking book about American history, with a new introduction by Rick Moody.
Although admired by D. H. Lawrence, this modern classic went generally unnoticed during the years after its publication in 1925. Yet it is “a fundamental book, essential if one proposes to come to terms with American literature” (Times Literary Supplement). William Carlos Williams was not a historian, but he was fascinated by the texture of American history. Beginning with Columbus’s discovery of the Indies and moving on through Sir Walter Raleigh, Cotton Mather, Daniel Boone, George Washington, Ben Franklin, Aaron Burr, Edgar Allan Poe, and Abraham Lincoln, Williams found in the fabric of familiar episodes new shades of meaning and configurations of character. He brought a poetic imagination to the task of reconstructing a live tradition for Americans, and what results is one of the finest works of prose to have been penned by any writer of the twentieth century.
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Book Description
--This text refers to an alternate
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Editorial Reviews
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His treatment is free and episodic, beginning with the Vikings and ending with Abraham Lincoln. (Daniel J. Boorstin, author of The Discoverers)
It is ever more apparent that Williams is this century’s major American poet. (The Chicago Tribune) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
It is ever more apparent that Williams is this century’s major American poet. (The Chicago Tribune) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
About the Author
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) was born in Rutherford, New Jersey. He received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he met and befriended Ezra Pound and H.D. (Hilda Doolittle). At the same time as maintaining a popular medical practice, he became a prolific poet, novelist, essayist, and playwright. Experimenting with new techniques of meter and lineation, Williams sought to invent an entirely fresh—and singularly American—poetics, whose subject matter was centered on the everyday circumstances of life and the lives of common people. He was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2009.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Perspective on American Culture,
By A Customer
This review is from: In the American Grain (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)
In the American Grain is William Carlos Williams's outstanding and interesting perspecitive on the formation of American culture and ideals. Set as fictional and nonfictional stories of historical figures and their place in creating what Williams' calls the American Idiom. Williams provides the reader with some of the most interesting and provocative writting in the 20th century. He has supplied the piece with dramatic and extreme views on the state of American Art, Culture, and History like few before or since. An authoritative text for anyone seeking a realistic view of American Society.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Poetic History,
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This review is from: In the American Grain (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)
Published in 1925, this book of historical essays can be uneven both in method and interest but is, at its best, brilliant, and, even where it fails, mostly of interest. The subject matter stretches from Eric the Red to Abraham Lincoln, and from one page (Lincoln) to a lengthy set of essays on Puritanism. The strength of the book is the evocative writing and Williams' ability to bring a new way of looking at subjects that have received extensive treatment in the past.
His approach seems particularly suited to personalities at the margin of American development: Hernando de Soto, Cotton Mather, Pere Sebastion Rables and Aaron Burr. I would approach this more as a book of essays than a history. Slow your reading pace to savor Williams' rhythm. Allow him to transport you to each venue as you try to judge the past through its own framework. Williams certainly has a point of view about American character which he develops through these selected profiles. But he does not hide his bias so it remains up to the reader whether to agree or to take issue.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
IN THE AMERICAN GRAIN,
By Thomas Roberdeau (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In the American Grain (Second Edition) (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)
William Carlos Williams has written a classic text, poetic and profound, of vignettes about American icons who shaped our society throughout
history. This is a fever dream of impressionistic prose, cutting into the heart of each historical character, what they did, what it meant and still means. History as shimmering as a chiaroscuro.
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Inside This Book
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Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs):
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New World, Père Sebastian Rasles, New England, Edgar Allan Poe, Susanna Martin, Poor Richard, The Virtue of History, The Discovery of the Indies, Cotton Mather's Wonders, Père Rasles, New York, The Destruction of Tenochtitlan, The Discovery of Kentucky, Martin Alonzo, Daniel Boone, Merry Mount, Red Eric, George Washington, North America, Countess of Scarborough, Flamborough Head, Captain Landais, Adrienne Monnier, The Fountain of Eternal Youth, Juan Ortiz Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
New World, Père Sebastian Rasles, New England, Edgar Allan Poe, Susanna Martin, Poor Richard, The Virtue of History, The Discovery of the Indies, Cotton Mather's Wonders, Père Rasles, New York, The Destruction of Tenochtitlan, The Discovery of Kentucky, Martin Alonzo, Daniel Boone, Merry Mount, Red Eric, George Washington, North America, Countess of Scarborough, Flamborough Head, Captain Landais, Adrienne Monnier, The Fountain of Eternal Youth, Juan Ortiz Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
100
books
cite this book:
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- Against the American Grain: Myth and History in William Carlos Williams, Jay Wright, and Nicolas Guillén by Professor Vera M. Kutzinski on 42 pages
- The Grounding of American Poetry: Charles Olson and the Emersonian Tradition (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture) by Stephen Fredman on 10 pages
- The Teachers and Writers Guide to William Carlos Willliams (Teachers & Writers Guides) by Gary Lenhart on 9 pages
- Imagining Columbus: The Literary Voyage by Ilan Stavans on 7 pages
- In Respect to Egotism: Studies in American Romantic Writing (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture) by Joel Porte on 4 pages
See all 100 books citing this book
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