Writing America: Literary Landmarks from Walden Pond to Wounded Knee (A Reader's Companion)

by Shelley Fisher Fishkin

Overview

Winner of the John S. Tuckey 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award for Mark Twain Scholarship from The Center for Mark Twain Studies

American novelist E.L. Doctorow once observed that literature “endows places with meaning.” Yet, as this wide-ranging new book vividly illustrates, understanding the places that shaped American writers’ lives and their art can provide deep insight into what makes their literature truly meaningful.
 
Published on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Historic Preservation Act, Writing America is a unique, passionate, and eclectic series of meditations on literature and history, covering over 150 important National Register historic sites, all pivotal to the stories that make up America, from chapels to battlefields; from plantations to immigration stations; and from theaters to internment camps. The book considers not only the traditional sites for literary tourism, such as Mark Twain’s sumptuous Connecticut home and the peaceful woods surrounding Walden Pond, but also locations that highlight the diversity of American literature, from the New York tenements that spawned Abraham Cahan’s fiction to the Texas pump house that irrigated the fields in which the farm workers central to Gloria Anzaldúa’s poetry picked produce. Rather than just providing a cursory overview of these authors’ achievements, acclaimed literary scholar and cultural historian Shelley Fisher Fishkin offers a deep and personal reflection on how key sites bore witness to the struggles of American writers and inspired their dreams. She probes the global impact of American writers’ innovative art and also examines the distinctive contributions to American culture by American writers who wrote in languages other than English, including Yiddish, Chinese, and Spanish.   
 
Only a scholar with as wide-ranging interests as Shelley Fisher Fishkin would dare to bring together in one book writers as diverse as Gloria Anzaldúa, Nicholas Black Elk, David Bradley, Abraham Cahan, S. Alice Callahan, Raymond Chandler, Frank Chin, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Countee Cullen, Frederick Douglass, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Jessie Fauset, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Allen Ginsberg, Jovita González, Rolando Hinojosa, Langston Hughes,  Zora Neale Hurston, Lawson Fusao Inada,  James Weldon Johnson,  Erica Jong, Maxine Hong Kingston, Irena Klepfisz, Nella Larsen, Emma Lazarus, Sinclair Lewis, Genny Lim, Claude McKay, Herman Melville, N. Scott Momaday, William Northup, John Okada, Miné Okubo, Simon Ortiz, Américo Paredes, John P. Parker, Ann Petry, Tomás Rivera, Wendy Rose, Morris Rosenfeld, John Steinbeck, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain, Yoshiko Uchida, Tino Villanueva, Nathanael West, Walt Whitman, Richard Wright, Hisaye Yamamoto, Anzia Yezierska, and Zitkala-Ša.
 
Leading readers on an enticing journey across the borders of physical places and imaginative terrains, the book includes over 60 images, and extended excerpts from a variety of literary works. Each chapter ends with resources for further exploration. Writing America reveals the alchemy though which American writers have transformed the world around them into art, changing their world and ours in the process.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813575988
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	04/17/2017
Edition description:	First Paperback Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	14 Years

About the Author

SHELLEY FISHER FISHKIN is the Joseph S. Atha Professor of Humanities, professor of English, and director of American studies at Stanford University. She is also the award-winning author, editor or co-editor of over forty books and over one hundred articles, essays, columns, and reviews. She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University and is a former president of the American Studies Association.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Literary Landscape

1          Celebrating the Many in One
Walt Whitman Birthplace, Huntington, Long Island, New York

2          Living in Harmony with Nature
Walden Pond, Concord, Massachusetts

3          Freedom’s Port
The New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, New Bedford, Massachusetts

4          The House that Uncle Tom’s Cabin Built
Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Hartford, Connecticut

5          The Irony of American History
The Mark Twain Boyhood Home, Hannibal, Missouri, and the Mark Twain House, Hartford, Connecticut

6          Native American Voices Remember
Wounded Knee, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota

7          “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”
The Paul Laurence Dunbar House, Dayton, Ohio

8          Leaving the Old World for the New
The Tenement Museum, New York City

9          The Revolt from the Village
The Original Main Street, Sauk Centre, Minnesota

10        Asian American Writers and Creativity in Confinement
Angel Island Immigration Station, San Francisco, California, and Manzanar National Historic Site, Independence, California

11        Harlem and the Flowering of African American Letters
The 135th Street Library / The Schomburg Center for Research on Black Culture, New York City

12        Mexican American Writers in the Borderlands of Culture
Roma, La Lomita, San Agustin de Laredo, and San Ygnacio Historic Districts, Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas

13        American Writers and Dreams of the Silver Screen
Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District, Los Angeles, California

Index of Authors
Index of Historic Sites

Interviews

General trade audience: American Studies, US literature, US history. Literary and hsorory tourism. regional special interest.
Classes in Cultural Heritage, Tourism, Public History, Museum Studies, and Historic Preservation
Selected chapters might be assigned in courses in ethnic studies and in literary history, regional literature and history.

Editorial Reviews

"Shelley Fisher Fishkin is the best guide you could have through American literature and the places that inspired it. She writes like an angel. She appreciates the diversity and humor of the American spirit. Read her!"

poet and author - Erica Jong

"Filled to the brim with literary treasures; it is a fine traveling companion for those with a little time to wander - and to wonder about America's literary past."

Book Chase

Published on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Historic Preservation Act, [Writing America] traces the footsteps of William Faulkner, Allen Ginsberg, Zora Neale Hurston, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe and many others. With more than 60 illustrations, it's a fascinating trek.” 

San Jose Mercury News

"This book cuts straight to the soul of America in all its shades and colors. I don't think anyone has ever put together a book that’s quite so extraordinary.  I certainly have never read one."

actor, Mark Twain Tonight!, author, Harold - Hal Holbrook

When landscape and literature meet in Writing America, the life and work of great authors light up as in vivid Technicolor.” 

Stanford Report

"Writing America presents us with an exquisitely rendered geography, in word and image alike, of the nation's diverse literary heritage."

Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, Johns Hopkins University - Eric J. Sundquist

"Writing America is designed for those who love not only literature, but also history and landscape, and the conversation they have with one another.  I could not stop reading."

author of Playing Indian - Philip Deloria

"An excellent companion for any lover of American literature."

New Jersey Monthly

"Big, handsome, well-illustrated ... A book to own and read over and over again."

Booklist online

"Just when you thought you knew American literature, along comes Shelley Fisher Fishkin to show you what you've missed . . . and to make you think about it. She ushers us into both familiar and unusual spaces with prose as accessible as it is learned, observations that are clear and sometimes quirky, and quotations that prove the synergy between literature and place. She takes American literature out of the library and relocates it in the public square, revealing its essence as the most eloquent tour guide imaginable."

author of South Street and The Chaneysville Incident - David Bradley

"Through the prism of more than 150 National Register historic sites, this eclectic, essential work honors authors’ voices both mainstream and underrepresented. Thought- and even tear-provoking, Writing America will leave you in awe of the writers whose worlds and words comprise our country’s canon. Lovers of American lit, commence salivating."

Swarthmore College Bulletin

"What a fine, informative, and welcome book by Professor Fishkin. In brief, a first class piece of work that has been long in coming. It not only deserves a warm reception, it is also to be treasured by professionals as well as by beginners."

novelist and essayist - Rolando Hinojosa

"Writing America is a triumph of scholarship and passion, a profound exploration of the many worlds which comprise our national canon . . . a book that redraws the literary map of the United States."

author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Díaz

"A splendid travel guide for readers."

Yale Magazine

"Compared to the lavishly costumed usual suspects appearing just in time for holiday buyers, [Writing America] can be seen as a tribute to the taste and intelligence of both the giver and the receiver ... Look inside Writing America and you find a scholar who, according to Erica Jong, 'writes like an angel' about the 'diversity and humor of the American spirit,' including not only familiar figures like Whitman and Twain, but Jewish, Mexican and Asian American writers, and luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance."

Princeton Magazine

"Writers will find useful insight in Fishkin's book."

Washington Independent Review of Books

08/10/2015
America’s literary landscape proves both vast and interconnected in Stanford professor Fishkin’s (Lighting Out for the Territory) newest book, which shines a light on the relationships between American authors and the places where they live and work. Using the National Register of Historic Places as her guide, the author sparks interesting questions regarding how writers influence, and are influenced by, place. The locations discussed include Walden Pond, Angel Island in San Francisco Bay (the onetime site of a processing center for Asian immigrants depicted in Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men), and the Brooklyn Ferry (discussed in relation to Walt Whitman). Chapters on Mark Twain and the massacre at Wounded Knee deal with the difference between history and memory. The influence of the writers included is far-reaching: Fishkin shows Paul Laurence Dunbar and Kingston tearing through racial barriers and Whitman helping to redefine the literary landscape, not just for other Americans but for writers such as Federico García Lorca, Jorge Luis Borges, and Pablo Neruda who read Whitman from afar. With passages by the various authors, Fishkin’s book offers a diverse look at our nation’s literary landscape and history. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"A splendid travel guide for readers."

Yale Alumni Magazine

"The depth of Fishkin's knowledge and the dynamism of her enthusiasm elevate this 'reader's companion' from superb resource to lustrous and delectable."

starred review Booklist journal

"A vibrant and thoughtful guide through American literary history."

Chicago Tribune

"There is no one better suited to illuminate the connections between America’s great authors and the places in which they built their writing and their lives than Shelley Fisher Fishkin; give yourself a thoughtful treat and keep this book by your bedside to dip in and out of as the mood strikes." 

Harper's Bazaar

Winner of the John S. Tuckey 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award for Mark Twain Scholarship from The Center for Mark Twain Studies

The Center for Mark Twain Studies

"Meeting at the intersection of physical place, history and literature, Writing America brings readers along for the ride, pinpointing the locales that fueled the imaginations of some of our most important writers."

Ms. Magazine

"Smartly introduced, lavishly illustrated, and beautifully designed, Writing America treats the reader to sites associated with American authors and puts houses, landmarks, memorials, and museums into a vivid relationship with texts."

coeditor with Greil Marcus of A New Literary History of America - Werner Sollors

"This absorbing and wondrous book is a glorious cornucopia of America's literary memory. Writing America is necessary, delicious, and nourishing food for the American artist, reader and writer."

author of Free Food for Millionaires - Min Jin Lee

"Writing America is a triumph of scholarship and passion, a profound exploration of the many worlds which comprise our national canon . . . a book that redraws the literary map of the United States."

author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Díaz

"The Langston Hughes House, the Angel Island Immigration Station, and Hollywood Boulevard…they're all here, having influenced the writing of America's great literary geniuses. But the most poignant and memorable pages aren't about buildings and places; they're about the daily lives, crises, and interactions that motivated these writers to record fascinating, beautiful, and painful passages of history."

American Road

"Shelley Fisher Fishkin's Writing America is an uncommon travel narrative. Fishkin takes the National Register of Historic Places as a starting point to develop a diverse literary itinerary for the nation … For Fishkin and those who travel with her, literature makes these places and their histories come to life - and this can inspire us all to look anew at the historic places around us."

The Journal of American History

"Perfect for the armchair traveler or the reader who enjoys hitting the road, Shelley Fisher Fishkin’s Writing America is a meticulously researched, beautifully written survey of the nation’s most beloved literary sites ... A vivid mosaic of the cultures, voices and geographies that inform America’s literary inheritance ... It’s the ultimate trip advisor for lovers of literature and history."

BookPage

"Writing America is an intelligent, meandering look at the rich interplay between writers and their places… Fishkin writes like a favorite college professor speaks: throwing out quotable lines, grabbing our attention with revelatory anecdotes, making us laugh at the human comedy, making us cry at inhumane injustice - while all the time, whetting our appetite to read more American literature. Highly recommended."

The Journal of American Culture

Shelley Fisher Fishkin talks literature, place, and what it means to be American with Josh Logue (https://goo.gl/W1dgt7)

Inside Higher Ed

"An impressive body of exceptional and detailed scholarship. Highly recommended."

Midwest Book Review

"What a fine, informative, and welcome book by Professor Fishkin. In brief, a first class piece of work that has been long in coming. It not only deserves a warm reception, it is also to be treasured by professionals as well as by beginners."

novelist and essayist - Rolando Hinojosa

"A vibrant and thoughtful guide through American literary history."

Chicago Tribune

"Writing America presents us with an exquisitely rendered geography, in word and image alike, of the nation's diverse literary heritage."

From the Publisher

Starred review: "The depth of Fishkin's knowledge and the dynamism of her enthusiasm elevate this 'reader's companion' from superb resource to lustrous and delectable."

Booklist journal

"Big, handsome, well-illustrated ... A book to own and read over and over again."

Booklist

★ 01/01/2016
Fishkin (English, director of American studies, and Joseph S. Atha Professor of Humanities, Stanford Univ.; Mark Twain's Book of Animals) offers lengthy essays on literature-related places that book lovers can add to their travel plans. Around half of the entries are dedicated to locations in the northeastern United States, such as Walden Pond in Massachusetts and New York's Tenement Museum. Also profiled are, for example, Angel Island Immigration Station, San Francisco, and Manzanar National Historic Site in Independence, CA. The essays, which are complemented by large black-and-white photos, chronicle the life of the place in question and provide detail on its literary connection. "The House That Uncle Tom's Cabin Bought," for example, which covers the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Hartford, CT, describes its construction and architecture, Stowe's purchase and decoration of the home after the worldwide success of her novel, additional places where the author lived, and more. Some of the other essays describe a larger area and multiple related literary works; both styles of essay will be valuable tourist guides. VERDICT A must for book-loving travelers of the armchair and more intrepid kinds.

Library Journal