Jackson J. Benson

Recounts the life of the American writer, including his campaigns for the rights of the "little people", his stand on the Vietnam War, his Hollywood film scripts, and his winning of the Nobel Prize for literature.

A Biography

John Steinbeck, Writer

Reveals the dimensions of the man and the events of his life as he pursued his artistic vocation.

The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer

Series Editors: Gary Scharnhorst, University of New Mexico and Eric Haralson, State University of New York, Stony Brook. This is the only series to provide in-depth critical introductions to major modern and contemporary short story writers worldwide. Each volume offers: a comprehensive overview of the artists short fiction-including detailed analyses of every significant story; interviews, essays, memoirs and other biographical materials -- often previously unpublished; a representative selection of critical responses; and a comprehensive primary bibliography, a selected bibliography of important criticism, a chronology of the artists life and works and an index.

A Study of the Short Fiction

Wallace Stegner

A definitive portrait of the celebrated and controversial Nobel laureate author chronicles the events of Steinbeck's life, his formative development as a writer, and his archetypical literary images of modern American culture

Author of The Big Sky series, The Way West, and the screenplay for the classic Shane, among many other timeless stories of frontier mountain men, icon of Western literature A. B. Bud Guthrie Jr. brought a blazing realism to the story of the West. That realism, which astounded and even shocked some readers, came out of the depth of Guthrie s historical research and an acuity that had seldom been seen in the work of Western novelists. In Under the Big Sky, the latest in his celebrated series of biographies of Western writers, Jackson J. Benson details the life and work of this true giant on the Western literary landscape. The small Montana town that figures in several of Guthrie s books is clearly patterned after the town where he grew up, Choteau, on the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains. Benson illuminates the critical details of Guthrie s upbringing and education, the influence of his intellectually inclined father, his work as a newspaperman in Kentucky, and his time at Harvard University. Animated by the observations of friends, family, and fellow authors, this intimate account offers rare insight into the life and work of a remarkable writer and into the making of the literary West.

A Biography of A. B. Guthrie Jr

Under the Big Sky

He skipped his senior year at college to go to Europe, where he was befriended by a Countess, was kept a prisoner in a castle by a mad Count, and almost met Mussoliniclose enough to land him in an Italian jail. Wright Morris returned to the States and went on to become probably the most experimental American novelist of the last century. He ended up with almost every award and prize that a novelist can earn, and his work was praised over and over again by many of our most prestigious critics. In addition to publishing thirty-four books, he was also an eminent photographer. He not only had his work shown in numerous museums and galleries around the country, but his photographs were also displayed throughout five photo-text booksa form that he pioneered.

The Strange and Profound Art of Wright Morris

Haunted: the Strange and Profound Art of Wright Morris

John Steinbeck

Susan Shillinglaw

Steinbeck's writing was fuelled by a need to observe things firsthand, whether as a journalist or novelist. The huge success of THE GRAPES OF WRATH enabled him to travel the world, ceaselessly writing about the great events of each decade. This collection brings together the greatest of those dispatches - from countries as diverse as Vietnam, Britain, Morocco and Italy. In addition, it reproduces 'America and the Americans', a gripping account of the US in the 1960s based on Steinbeck's observations on racism, moral decline & the environment. The extremely enjoyable book makes an important point about Steinbeck's oeuvre, showing just how important journalism was to his career as a writer.

Of Men and Their Making

In a career spanning more than fifty years, Wallace Stegner (1909?93) emerged as the greatest contemporary author of the American West?writing more than two dozen works of history, biography, essays, and fiction, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Angle of Repose and the bestselling Crossing to Safety. Jackson J. Benson?s Wallace Stegner: His Life and Work is the first full-dress biography of this celebrated ?Dean of Western Writers.? Drawing on nearly ten years of research and unlimited access to Stegner?s letters and personal files, Benson traces the trajectory of Wallace Stegner?s life from his birth on his grandfather?s Iowa farm to his prominence as an award-winning writer, critic, historian, environmental activist, and teacher, and as founder of Stanford?s creative writing program. But Benson?s book is as much a consideration of Stegner?s literary legacy as it is a retelling of his life. His critical reassessment of the entire body of Stegner?s work argues convincingly for his subject?s place in the literary canon?not merely as a ?regional? Western writer but straightforwardly as one of the great American writers of the twentieth century.

His Life and Work

Author of The Big Sky series, The Way West, and the screenplay for the classic film Shane, among other timeless stories of frontier mountain men, icon of Western literature A. B. “Bud” Guthrie Jr. brought blazing realism to the story of the West. That realism, which astounded and even shocked some readers, came out of the depth of Guthrie’s historical research and an acuity that had seldom been seen in the work of Western novelists. In Under the Big Sky Jackson J. Benson details the life and work of this true giant on the Western literary landscape. Benson illuminates the critical details of Guthrie’s upbringing and education, the influence his intellectually inclined father had on him, his work as a newspaperman in Kentucky, and his time at Harvard University. Animated by the observations of friends, family, and fellow authors, this intimate account offers rare insight into the life and work of a remarkable writer and into the making of the literary West.

A Biography of A. B. Guthrie Jr.

A Reconsideration

Steinbeck's Cannery Row

John Steinbeck's Cannery Row

DIVWith an Overview by Paul Smith and a Checklist to Hemingway Criticism, 1975–1990 New Critical Approaches to the Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway is an all-new sequel to Benson’s highly acclaimed 1975 book, which provided the first comprehensive anthology of criticism of Ernest Hemingway’s masterful short stories. Since that time the availability of Hemingway’s papers, coupled with new critical and theoretical approaches, has enlivened and enlarged the field of American literary studies. This companion volume reflects current scholarship and draws together essays that were either published during the past decade or written for this collection. The contributors interpret a variety of individual stories from a number of different critical points of view—from a Lacanian reading of Hemingway’s “After the Storm” to a semiotic analysis of “A Very Short Story” to an historical-biographical analysis of “Old Man at the Bridge.” In identifying the short story as one of Hemingway’s principal thematic and technical tools, this volume reaffirms a focus on the short story as Hemingway’s best work. An overview essay covers Hemingway criticism published since the last volume, and the bibliographical checklist to Hemingway short fiction criticism, which covers 1975 to mid-1989, has doubled in size. Contributors. Debra A. Moddelmog, Ben Stotzfus, Robert Scholes, Hubert Zapf, Susan F. Beegel, Nina Baym, William Braasch Watson, Kenneth Lynn, Gerry Brenner, Steven K. Hoffman, E. R. Hagemann, Robert W. Lewis, Wayne Kvam, George Monteiro, Scott Donaldson, Bernard Oldsey, Warren Bennett, Kenneth G. Johnston, Richard McCann, Robert P. Weeks, Amberys R. Whittle, Pamela Smiley, Jeffrey Meyers, Robert E. Fleming, David R. Johnson, Howard L. Hannum, Larry Edgerton, William Adair, Alice Hall Petry, Lawrence H. Martin Jr., Paul Smith/div

New Critical Approaches to the Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

The Grapes of Wrath is generally considered Steinbeck's masterpiece, but the short novel was the form he most frequently turned to and most consciously theorized about, and with constant experimentation he made the form his own. Much of the best—and the worst—of his writing appears in his short novels. This collection reviews what has been categorized as the “good” and the “bad,” looking beyond the careless labeling that has characterized a great deal of the commentary on Steinbeck's writing to the true strengths and weaknesses of the works. The contributors demonstrate that even in the short novels that are most often criticized, there is more depth and sophistication than has generally been acknowledged. The essays examine the six most popular short novels—Tortilla Flat, The Red Pony, Of Mice and Men, The Moon Is Down, Cannery Row, and The Pearl—in addition to the three usually thought of as less successful—Burning Bright, Sweet Thursday, and The Short Reign of Pippin IV. Because most of Steinbeck's short novels were adapted and presented as plays or screenplays, many of the essays deal with dramatic or film versions of the short novels as well as with the fiction. The collection concludes with a comprehensive checklist of criticism of the short novels. Contributors. Richard Astro, Jackson J. Benson, Carroll Britch, John Ditsky, Joseph Fontenrose, Warren French, Robert Gentry, Mimi Reisel Gladstein, William Goldhurst, Tetsumaro Hayashi, Robert S. Hughes Jr., Howard Levant, Clifford Lewis, Peter Lisca, Anne Loftis, Charles R. Metzger, Michael J. Meyer, Robert E. Morsberger, Louis Owens, Roy S. Simmonds, Mark Spilka, John Timmerman

Jackson J. Benson

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