General Series Editors: Gay Wilson Allen and Sculley Bradley Originally published between 1961 and 1984, and now available in paperback for the first time, the critically acclaimed Collected Writings of Walt Whitman captures every facet of one of America’s most important poets. Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts gathers Whitman’s autobiographical notes, his views on contemporary politics, and the writings he made as he educated himself in ancient history, religion and mythology, health (including phrenology), and word-study. Included is material on his Civil War experiences, his love of Abraham Lincoln, his descriptions of various trips to the West and South and of the cities in which he resided, his generally pessimistic view of America’s prospects in the Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, and his reminiscences during his final years and his preoccupation with the increasing ailments that came with old age. Many of these notes served as sources for his poetry—first drafts of some of the poems are included as they appear in the notes—and as the basis for his lectures.
Proceedings of the 22d-33d annual conference of the Library Association in v. 1-12; proceedings of the 34th-44th, 47th-57th annual conference issued as a supplement to v. 13-23, new ser. v. 3-ser. 4, v. 1.
This Perceptive Study Of Shakespeare By Dowden Remains Unsurpassed. It Is Not An Isolated Work But An Important Landmark In Scholarly Criticism On Shakespeare. Dowden Makes A Judicious Use Of Shakespeare S Intellectual Biography And Connects The Study Of Shakespeare S Works With An Inquiry About The Personality Of The Writer And Growth Of His Mind And Character. The Critic Is Careful In Keeping The Identities Of Shakespeare And His Characters Distinct Though He Skillfully Traces The Proclivities Of Shakespeare S Characters In The Spiritual Tendencies Or Rabits Of Their Creator. In View Of The Range Of Shakespeare S Characters, From John Falstaff To Hamlet, From Lady Macbeth To Cordelia, It Is An Achievement Far Beyond The Scope Of An Extraordinary Intellectual Exercise.By And Large, Dowden Adheres To The Chronological Method Of Studying Shakespeare S Writings. This Makes The Task Of The Student And Reader Easier. References Can Be Made To The Individual Plays And To Their Group Affiliations As Tragedies, Comedies And Historics Readily.Dowden Is Free From Modern Day Tendency To Overuse Academic Jargon. There Is No Rigid Theoretical Framework To Which Shakespeare Has Been Made To Bend And Bow. On The Other Hand, We Notice An Interesting Pattern Of What The Author Himself Describes As The Struggle Between Blood And Judgement Through His Study Of Shakespeare S Plays Which Was Also A Great Affair Of Shakespeare S Life. Dowden Shows Us Decisively That Shakespeare S Creative Response To Life Rested Upon A Purely Human Basis And He Refused To Render Into Art The Dogmas Of Either Catholicism Or Protestantism Even Though He Lived In An Age Marked With Religious Controversies And His Personal Sympathies Were With Protestantism.The Chapter Growth Of Shakespeare S Mind And Art Is An Unmatched Contribution To The Critical Understanding Of Shakespeare S Personality As The Greatest Dramatist And Playwright Of The World.Dowden S Critical Commentary On Shakespeare Is Comprehensive And Wide-Ranging And Full Of Insights. No Important Aspect Of His Dramatic Art Has Remained Untouched As Is Evident From His Treatment Of Shakespeare S Humour. He Insightfully Observes That The Character And Spiritual History Of A Man Who Is Endowed With A Capacity For Humorous Appreciation Of The World Must Differ Throughout And In Every Particular From That Of The Man Whose Moral Nature Has Never Rippled Over With Gerid Laughter. And In This Distinctive Endowment Dowden Seeks The Source Of Shakespeare S Unique Genius.Abandoning Metaphysics And Abstractions, Dowden Turns To Actual Life Of The World As Viewed And Depicted By Shakespeare, To The Real Men And Women Of His Plays And Explores The Sources Of Their Emotion, Thought And Action.Shakespeare-His Mind And Art Has Carved For Itself A Permanent Niche In The Shakespearean Critical Canon.
