In this Book
- The Unwritten War: American Writers and the Civil War
- Book
- 2015
- Published by: The University of Alabama Press
In The Unwritten War, Daniel Aaron examines the literary output of American writers—major and minor—who treated the Civil War in their works. He seeks to understand why this devastating and defining military conflict has failed to produce more literature of a notably high and lasting order, why there is still no "masterpiece" of Civil War fiction.
In his portraits and analyses of 19th- and some 20th-century writers, Aaron distinguishes between those who dealt with the war only marginally—Henry Adams, Henry James, William Dean Howells, Mark Twain-and those few who sounded the war's tragic import—Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and William Faulkner. He explores the extent to which the war changed the direction of American literature and how deeply it entered the consciousness of American writers. Aaron also considers how writers, especially those from the South, discerned the war's moral and historical implications.
The Unwritten War was originally published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1973. The New Republic declared, [This book's] major contribution will no doubt be to American literary history. In this respect it resembles Edmund Wilson's Patriotic Gore and is certain to become an indispensable guide for anyone who wants to explore the letters, diaries, journals, essays, novels, short stories, poems-but apparently no plays-which constitute Civil War literature. The mass of material is presented in a systematic, luminous, and useful way.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- pp. xiii-xx
- 1. Writers and Politics
- pp. 4-13
- 2. The "Wholesome Calamity"
- pp. 14-38
- Part Two: A Philosophical View of the Whole Affair
- 3. Hawthorne: Lonely Dissenter
- pp. 41-55
- 4. Whitman: The "Parturition Years"
- pp. 56-74
- Part Three: The "Malingerers
- 6. Henry Adams
- pp. 93-105
- 7. Henry James
- pp. 106-120
- 8. William Dean Howells
- pp. 121-132
- 9. Mark Twain
- pp. 133-146
- Part Four: Drawing-Room Warriors and Combatants
- 10. Gentlemen of Peace and War
- pp. 149-163
- 11. John W. De Forest
- pp. 164-180
- 12. Ambrose Bierce
- pp. 181-192
- 13. Albion W. Tourgée
- pp. 193-206
- Part Five: The War at Second Hand
- pp. 207-209
- 14. Stephen Crane and Harold Frederic
- pp. 210-226
- Part Six: The South: Onlookers and Participants
- 15. Writers in the Confederacy
- pp. 229-243
- 16. The Unwritten Novel
- pp. 244-262
- 17. Sidney Lanier
- pp. 263-271
- 18. George Washington Cable
- pp. 272-282
- Part Seven: Reconstructing the Southern Past
- 19. The Neo-Confederates
- pp. 285-309
- 20. William Faulkner
- pp. 310-326
- Conclusion "Such Was the War"
- pp. 327-342
- Supplement 1. The War Prefigured
- pp. 343-348
- Supplement 2. Lincoln and the Writers
- pp. 349-352
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 387-388
- About the Author
- p. 403
Additional Information
Copyright
2003