Earth, Air, Fire, and Water: A Memoir of the Sixties and Beyond

by Mary Susannah Robbins

Overview

This memoir chronicles the life of Mary Susannah Robbins—poet, activist, and devoted daughter of famous mathematician Herbert E. Robbins. Her antiwar activism, beginning with her experiences during the Vietnam War and continuing into the present with the Iraq War, has given her a perspective from which to tell a unique story of American life.

Her childhood having been spent surrounded by such luminaries of the twentieth century as Albert Einstein, Aldous Huxley, and Alan Lomax, Robbins writes of the early influence that her parents and their colleagues had on her later call to activism in the 1960s. She discusses the relationships that guided her to become involved with various antiwar movements. Her personal reflections within this book form a powerful tribute to the many lives that have touched and been touched by her.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739127919
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	10/03/2008
Pages:	170
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Mary Susannah Robbins has taught English literature at Vassar College and runs her own editorial services company in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her poems, stories, and prints have appeared in various magazines including Ploughshares and Confrontation, and she is the editor of the book Against the Vietnam War: Writings by Activists Revised Edition.

Table of Contents

1 Contents
2 Acknowledgments
Chapter 3 1. Earth and Air and Fire and Water
Chapter 4 2. Herbert Robbins
Chapter 5 3. Little Hollow
Chapter 6 4. The Party
Chapter 7 5. Loss
Chapter 8 6. Klee
Chapter 9 7. Wayne
Chapter 10 8. Clio
Chapter 11 9. Keith
Chapter 12 10. A Question of Style
Chapter 13 11. At Home Abroad
Chapter 14 12. Hanoi
Chapter 15 13. An Electron
Chapter 16 14. Debris
Chapter 17 15. Why I Love Mistletoe
Chapter 18 16. "Miss American Pie"
Chapter 19 17. A Matter of Taste
Chapter 20 18. You'll Never Be the Same
Chapter 21 19. Fish
Chapter 22 20. What It Isn't
Chapter 23 21. That Night
Chapter 24 22. The Last Happy Man
Chapter 25 23. Yard Sale
Chapter 26 24. "Old Men Should Be Explorers"
Chapter 27 25. His Neck
Chapter 28 26. Tiananmen Square
Chapter 29 27. Thanksgiving
Chapter 30 28. Staughton Lynd and Howard Zinn
Chapter 31 29. Peace
Chapter 32 30. Home

What People are Saying About This

Howard Zinn

I am enormously impressed with the quality of the writing and the extraordinary portraits she has drawn of the people who crossed her life's path.

Editorial Reviews

I am enormously impressed with the quality of the writing and the extraordinary portraits she has drawn of the people who crossed her life's path.

Howard Zinn

I am enormously impressed with the quality of the writing and the extraordinary portraits she has drawn of the people who crossed her life's path.--Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States and professor emeritus of Political Science, Boston University

From the Publisher