A Journey Through Literary America by Thomas R. Hummel / photographs by Tamra L. Dempsey
Release date: 2010 / 277 pages
Synopsis (from back cover): “Rags to riches. Forbidden loves. Supernatural experiences. Narrow escapes. some of the greatest stories of American literature are the stories of the authors themselves and the places that sparked their imaginations.”
First line: “In the beginning, there were the woods.”
Review: Well, I think I may be hard-pressed to find another book that suits my interests and past experiences so perfectly! A Journey Through Literary America is just what the title proclaims — a gorgeous work filled with stunning photographs of our country, paired with the words and perspective of the writers who were shaped by this geography.
Twenty-seven writers are highlighted — from Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper (the Catskills, New York) to Emerson, Hawthorne, and Melville (Massachusettes) to Cather (Nebraska) and Hemingway (Michigan) to Morrison, Dove, Anderson (Ohio) to Proulx (Wyoming) and many more… Note that the states the above writers are paired with are not necessarily their state of birth, but the state they either brought to life most vividly or felt most informed by.
When I wrote my 50 States 50 Books series, I struggled with this distinction — whether or not writers should represent the geography that most defined them by birth or by art. I tried to do the latter — as has Hummel — since our birth is an accident of geography, whereas our chosen home is intentional. And, since we are dealing with artists, I wanted to highlight how their words reflected a landscape – which is easier to do when they are directly writing about home rather than try to riddle out or surmise how they were subtley influenced by the land of their birth. Hummel approached this topic as I did and, in addition to the writers’ actual words, provides wonderful, interesting, informative background on the connection each writer has to their chosen geography.
Travel was a formative aspect of my childhood — I have been to all 50 states at least once and spent many of those miles (nearly all by car) with my nose in a book. I then grew up to teach American literature to adolescents for a number of years. As the daughter of a mother with insatiable wanderlust and a father who loves his home state of Michigan over all other lands, I have a far-reaching perspective that realizes one’s own home is not better — or worse — than other lands. For this, I am eternally grateful.
However, as I get older, I find myself becoming more and more of a “nester,” content to stay home and enjoy where I have placed my roots, (currently in Minnesota but soon in Colorado), preferring to travel within the pages of a book. I think my sense of home is much wider – yet more intimate — than simple geography and am sure this is an effect of having travelled to so many wonderful places in my formative years. I truly do not understand the fervent loyalty and passion that one’s place of birth tends to engender — especially in sports — and am actually grateful for this disconnect. On the other hand, I so easily envisioned the various places highlighted in this book – in part because I had visited them myself, but also as a result of the writers’ prisms.
So, do I have any reservations? Not really, although the occasional “editorial” comment by the author would take me a bit off guard:
“The same year he [Emerson] left the ministry because he had grave doubts about his religion’s emphasis on the ‘Lord’s Supper.’ He had little regard for his talents. He lacked the common touch. ‘What is called a warm heart I have not,’ he said. And perhaps he thought too much, or too critically, to be a minister.” (20)
“Reading Hawthorne, so eloquent on the page, was different than knowing him. In person, his beauty and his presence promised much and left much unrequited.”
But overall I thoroughly enjoyed this lovely coffee table book and think it would be a great present for any literary traveller!
This does sound wonderful! I love “traveling” via books and movies, especially when photographs are part of the trip.
I, too, traveled extensively through the states, as a child, via road trips. However, I more thoroughly enjoyed my later trips, when I’ve gone to one destination and then immersed myself in that place for days or a week.
Here’s my salon:
http://laurel-rainsnowsaccidentallife.blogspot.com/2010/06/sunday-salon-june-6.html