The History of Southern Drama
The History of Southern Drama

Author: Charles S. Watson

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 1997-10-23

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 9780813120300

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Mention southern drama at a cocktail party or in an American literature survey, and you may hear cries for "Stella!" or laments for "gentleman callers." Yet southern drama depends on much more than a menagerie of highly strung spinsters and steel magnolias. Charles Watson explores this field from its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century roots through the southern Literary Renaissance and Tennessee Williams's triumphs to the plays of Horton Foote, winner of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize. Such well known modern figures as Lillian Hellman and DuBose Heyward earn fresh looks, as does Tennessee Williams's changing depiction of the South -- from sensitive analysis to outraged indictment -- in response to the Civil Rights Movement. Watson links the work of the early Charleston dramatists and of Espy Williams, first modern dramatist of the South, to later twentieth-century drama. Strong heroines in plays of the Confederacy foreshadow the spunk of Tennessee Williams's Amanda Wingfield. Claiming that Beth Henley matches the satirical brilliance of Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor, Watson connects her zany humor to 1840s New Orleans farces.With this work, Watson has at last answered the call for a single-volume, comprehensive history of the South's dramatic literature. With fascinating detail and seasoned perception, he reveals the rich heritage of southern drama.

The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence 1775-1783 (LOA #123)
The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence 1775-1783 (LOA #123)

Author: Various

Publisher: Library of America

Published: 2001-04-01

Total Pages: 775

ISBN-13: 1598531395

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This comprehensive collection of writings from the War of Independence poses a “subtle but profound challenge to much that we think we know about the founders and their era” (Los Angeles Times) Drawn from letters, diaries, newspaper articles, public declarations, contemporary narratives, and private memoranda, this Library of America volume brings together over 120 pieces by more than seventy participants and eyewitnesses to create a unique literary panorama of the War of Independence. Beginning with Paul Revere’s own narrative of his legendary ride in April 1775 and ending with a moving account of George Washington’s resignation from the command of the Continental Army in December 1783, the volume contains writing that describes the major events of the conflict—the early battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill; the failed American invasion of Canada; the 1776 campaign in New York and New Jersey; the crucial battle of Saratoga; the bitter fighting in the South and along the western frontier; and the decisive triumph at Yorktown. Included are writings by famous figures—Washington Franklin, Jefferson, Benedict Arnold, John and Abigail Adams—and by lesser known participants: Samuel Blachley Webb describing courage and panic at Bunker Hill; Sarah Hodgkins writing longingly to her absent soldier husband; Jabez Fitch recounting the last hours of a wounded American officer in Brooklyn; Albigence Waldo chronicling the privations and miseries of Valley Forge; Otho Holland Williams recording with appealing candor American defeats and victories in South Carolina. The volume also contains writings by American Loyalists and by British officers and officials serving in America that provide provocative insights into the losing side of an epochal conflict. All selections are written by people who were in America at the time of the conflict. The American Revolution also includes a chronology of events, biographical and explanatory notes, and an index.

South Carolina and the American Revolution
South Carolina and the American Revolution

Author: John W. Gordon

Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press

Published: 2021-02-08

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 1643362100

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An assessment of critical battles on the southern front that led to American independence An estimated one-third of all combat actions in the American Revolution took place in South Carolina. From the partisan clashes of the backcountry's war for the hearts and minds of settlers to bloody encounters with Native Americans on the frontier, more battles were fought in South Carolina than any other of the original thirteen states. The state also had more than its share of pitched battles between Continental troops and British regulars. In South Carolina and the American Revolution: A Battlefield History, John W. Gordon illustrates how these encounters, fought between 1775 and 1783, were critical to winning the struggle that secured Americas independence from Great Britain. According to Gordon, when the war reached stalemate in other zones and the South became its final theater, South Carolina was the decisive battleground. Recounting the clashes in the state, Gordon identifies three sources of attack: the powerful British fleet and seaborne forces of the British regulars; the Cherokees in the west; and, internally, a loyalist population numerous enough to support British efforts towards reconquest. From the successful defense of Fort Sullivan (the palmetto-log fort at the mouth of Charleston harbor), capture and occupation of Charleston in 1780, to later battles at King's Mountain and Cowpens, this chronicle reveals how troops in South Carolina frustrated a campaign for restoration of royal authority and set British troops on the road to ultimate defeat at Yorktown. Despite their successes in 1780 and 1781, the British found themselves with a difficult military problem—having to wage a conventional war against American regular forces while also mounting a counterinsurgency against the partisan bands of Francis Marion, Andrew Pickens, and Thomas Sumter. In this comprehensive assessment of one southern state's battlegrounds, Gordon examines how military policy in its strategic, operational, and tactical dimensions set the stage for American success in the Revolution.

The Swamp Fox
The Swamp Fox

Author: John Oller

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 2016-10-25

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 0306824582

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This comprehensive biography of Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, covers his famous wartime stories as well as a private side of him that has rarely been explored In the darkest days of the American Revolution, Francis Marion and his band of militia freedom fighters kept hope alive for the patriot cause during the critical British "southern campaign." Employing insurgent guerrilla tactics that became commonplace in later centuries, Marion and his brigade inflicted enemy losses that were individually small but cumulatively a large drain on British resources and morale. Although many will remember the stirring adventures of the "Swamp Fox" from the Walt Disney television series of the late 1950s and the fictionalized Marion character played by Mel Gibson in the 2000 film The Patriot, the real Francis Marion bore little resemblance to either of those caricatures. But his exploits were no less heroic as he succeeded, against all odds, in repeatedly foiling the highly trained, better-equipped forces arrayed against him. In this action-packed biography we meet many colorful characters from the Revolution: Banastre Tarleton, the British cavalry officer who relentlessly pursued Marion over twenty-six miles of swamp, only to call off the chase and declare (per legend) that "the Devil himself could not catch this damned old fox," giving Marion his famous nickname; Thomas Sumter, the bold but rash patriot militia leader whom Marion detested; Lord Cornwallis, the imperious British commander who ordered the hanging of rebels and the destruction of their plantations; "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, the urbane young Continental cavalryman who helped Marion topple critical British outposts in South Carolina; but most of all Francis Marion himself, "the Washington of the South," a man of ruthless determination yet humane character, motivated by what his peers called "the purest patriotism." In The Swamp Fox, the first major biography of Marion in more than forty years, John Oller compiles striking evidence and brings together much recent learning to provide a fresh look both at Marion, the man, and how he helped save the American Revolution.

Southern Writers
Southern Writers

Author: Joseph M. Flora

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 2006-06-21

Total Pages: 498

ISBN-13: 0807148555

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This new edition of Southern Writers assumes its distinguished predecessor's place as the essential reference on literary artists of the American South. Broadly expanded and thoroughly revised, it boasts 604 entries-nearly double the earlier edition's-written by 264 scholars. For every figure major and minor, from the venerable and canonical to the fresh and innovative, a biographical sketch and chronological list of published works provide comprehensive, concise, up-to-date information. Here in one convenient source are the South's novelists and short story writers, poets and dramatists, memoirists and essayists, journalists, scholars, and biographers from the colonial period to the twenty-first century. What constitutes a "southern writer" is always a matter for debate. Editors Joseph M. Flora and Amber Vogel have used a generous definition that turns on having a significant connection to the region, in either a personal or literary sense. New to this volume are younger writers who have emerged in the quarter century since the dictionary's original publication, as well as older talents previously unknown or unacknowledged. For almost every writer found in the previous edition, a new biography has been commissioned. Drawn from the very best minds on southern literature and covering the full spectrum of its practitioners, Southern Writers is an indispensable reference book for anyone intrigued by the subject.

Violence in American Drama
Violence in American Drama

Author: Alfonso Ceballos Muñoz

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2011-09-29

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 0786488972

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This interdisciplinary collection of 19 essays addresses violence on the American stage. Topics include the revolutionary period and the role of violence in establishing national identity, violence by and against ethnic groups, and females as perpetrators and victims, as well as state and psychological violence and violence within the family. The book works to assess whether representing violence may cause its cessation, or whether it generates further destruction. Featured playwrights include Susan Glaspell, Sophie Treadwell, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Amiri Baraka, Luis Valdes, Cherrie Moraga, Sam Shepard, Tony Kushner, Neil LaBute, John Guare, Rebecca Gilman, and Heather MacDonald.