Literary Genius: 25 Classic Writers Who Define English & American Literature [Paperback]

Joseph Epstein (Editor), Barry Moser (Illustrator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1589880358 | ISBN-13: 978-1589880351 | Publication Date: October 1, 2007

What constitutes literary genius? This collection of essays focuses on twenty-five English-language writers whose original and enduring works enrich our lives. Renowned portraitist Barry Moser provides a handsome engraving of each writer, together with illustrations based upon their texts.

Contents:
1. Tom Shippey on Geoffrey Chaucer
2. Lois Potter on William Shakespeare
3. Reynolds Price on John Milton
4. Anthony Hecht on Alexander Pope
5. David Bromwich on Samuel Johnson
6. David Womersley on Edward Gibbon
7. Dan Jacobson on William Wordsworth
8. Hilary Mantel on Jane Austen
9. Frederick Raphael on William Hazlitt
10. Evan Boland on John Keats
11. Daniel Mark Epstein on Nathaniel Hawthorne
12. A. N. Wilson on Charles Dickens
13. Justin Kaplan on Walt Whitman
14. William Pritchard on Herman Melville
15. Paula Marantz Cohen on George Eliot
16. Bruce Floyd on Emily Dickinson
17. David Carkeet on Mark Twain
18. Joseph Epstein on Henry James
19. Elizabeth Lowry on Joseph Conrad
20. Stephen Cox on Willa Cather
21. Robert Pack on Robert Frost
22. Joseph Blotner on William Faulkner
23. John Gross on James Joyce
24. John Simon on T.S. Eliot
25. James L. W. West III on Ernest Hemingway

Joseph Epstein, former editor of the American Scholar, teaches writing and literature at Northwestern University. He is the author of seventeen books.

Barry Moser is world-renowned for his children’s illustrations, engravings, watercolors, and reinterpretations of the classics.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Essayist and former editor of The American Scholar Epstein (In a Cardboard Box: Essays Personal, Literary, and Savage) assembles a stellar cast of 25 contemporary authors to explore how and when literary genius emerged from the pens of 25 classic English and American writers. In an introductory essay, Epstein observes that timelessness, grandeur of vision, and originality of outlook comprise genius in the writer. Writers ranging from Reynolds Price to Joseph Blotner explore the works of classic authors from Shakespeare to Hemingway, weaving together biography and literary analysis to reveal the nature of the particular writer's genius. Tom Shippey observes that Chaucer's genius "lies in his unique ability to combine a clear and penetrating insight into human weaknesses with a warm and wide-ranging sympathy," while Reynolds Price argues that it is Milton's manipulation of words and phrases toward a larger end that demonstrates his literary power. Yet the rationale behind the selection of classic authors isn't as complete as it could be: where are Shelley, Coleridge, and Woolf, whose genius arguably rivals that of Joyce and Faulkner, who are included? Nevertheless, these essays shed light on the creative fires that burned in the minds of our most cherished writers.
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About the Author

Joseph Epstein is the author of sixteen books, the most recent of which are Fabulous Small Jews and Envy. For more than twenty years he was editor of The American Scholar. A contributor to The New Yorker, Commentary, the London Times Literary Supplement, and other magazines, he also taught for many years in the English Department at Northwestern University. Barry Moser is an illustrator, author, and designer whose work appears in museums and libraries around the world. He has published nearly three hundred titles. A member of the National Academy of Design, he has served on the faculty of Rhode Island School of Design and is currently on the faculty of Smith College.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Paul Dry Books (October 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1589880358
• ISBN-13: 978-1589880351
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #971,942 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Let's hear it for the illustrator, December 17, 2007

By 

Francia Stephens "Francia Stephens" (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Literary Genius: 25 Classic Writers Who Define English & American Literature (Paperback)

Epstein has limited his collection to a few "literary" geniuses, but his introduction discusses elements and definitions of genius that apply to other of the sciences and arts. He quotes Melville: "Genius, all over the world, stands hand in hand, and one shock of recognition runs the whole circle round." Epstein--or someone--chose Barry Moser to do the illustrations for the book. I suggest that one cannot look at Moser's exquisite wood engravings--in this book and in the myriad other volumes he has illustrated--without seeing, feeling, knowing Melville's "shock of recognition." Even if you are not a fan of "Literary Genius"-es, pick up this book and wallow in the "genius" of the illustrations and the man who created them.

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Analysis of 25 Literary Genuises, November 3, 2007

By 

Roy E. Perry "amateur philosopher" (Nolensville, Tennessee) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Literary Genius: 25 Classic Writers Who Define English & American Literature (Paperback)

Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, William Faulkner--all are commonly accepted as four of the greatest writers in the English language. These, and other outstanding writers are analyzed in "Literary Genius: 25 Classic Writers Who Define English & American Literature."

The goal of this collection is to give readers fresh insight into what makes them literary geniuses, with 25 esteemed contemporary authors and critics such as Reynolds Price, Anthony Hecht, and others each contributing an essay about a classic author and his (or her) enduring works.

"'Surely the indisputable literary genius," writes Editor Joseph Epstein, "is William Shakespeare." In addition to an essay on Shakespeare, the book includes essays on three favorite writers of mine: Mark Twain, Robert Frost, and William Faulkner. Alas, another favorite, Edgar Allan Poe, is not included.

Epstein points out a key component of literary genius--a key trait that unites each of the 25 subjects in this book: "Style, it needs to be understood, is never ornamentation or a matter of choice of vocabulary or amusing linguistic tics or mannerisms. Style, in serious writing, is a way of seeing, and literary geniuses . . . see things in a vastly different way than the rest of us."

In other words, the literary genius expands our consciousness and intensifies our awareness, helping us "see in a way that would never have been possible for us to do on our own." Our horizons are broadened; our universe is enlarged.

The ancient Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca (ca. 4 B.C.-A.D. 65) wrote, "There is no great genius without a touch [some translations have "tincture"] of genius." Seneca may or may not be correct, but if he is then these literary genuises possessed a "divine" and beautiful madness that stimulates our imagination and enriches our lives.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every Book Shelf Should Have This Book, March 14, 2008

By 

M. Ellis "magnoliamansions" (Gulf Coast, Alabama) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Literary Genius: 25 Classic Writers Who Define English & American Literature (Paperback)

This is a marvelous reference to so many masterpieces that every book shelf should have it. The selections are excellent,though one wishes there could have been even more, and the articles are well written. Highly recommended.