Brief Mention

Editions

 

The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau: Journal, Volume 6: 1853. Ed. William Rossi and Heather Kirk Thomas. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press. 2000. 467 pp. $65.00.

This edition of Thoreau’s journal, written between 9 March and 18 August 1853, is filled with the author’s naturalist writings, accounts of his professional surveying, and revisions of the Walden manuscript. Annotations and a historical introduction follow the text.  

Whitman in His Own Time, rev. ed. Ed. Joel Myerson. Iowa City: Univ. of Iowa Press. 2000. xvi, 348 pp. Paper, $19.95.

Originally published in 1991, this expanded edition of interviews, commentaries, and recollections of Whitman’s contemporaries presents a vivid picture of the writer’s many controversial personae in his own era, demonstrating that he was, as Bronson Alcott comments, “a majestic presence, and worthy of his fame.” John Burroughs, Henry David Thoreau, and private citizens are among those who recall their encounters with Whitman.  

The Correspondence of William James, Volume 8: 1895–June 1899. Ed. Ignas K. Skrupskelis and Elizabeth M. Berkeley, with the assistance of Wilma Bradbeer. Charlottesville: Univ. Press of Virginia. 2000. lxiii, 762 pp. $80.00.

Letters in this volume of James’s correspondence address the reception of The Will to Believe, the controversy surrounding pragmatism, and James’s dismay at U.S. imperialism. During this period, Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller and Booker T. Washington join James’s prodigious list of correspondents.  

The Collected Plays of Theodore Dreiser. Ed. Keith Newlin and Frederic E. Rusch. Albany, N.Y.: Whitston. 2000. xxxvii, 353 pp. $49.00.

Although Dreiser is best known as a writer of fiction, this collection demonstrates his contribution to the symbolist and expressionist tradition in the American theatre. It includes all of Dreiser’s one-act plays (including The Voice, previously unpublished), his only four-act play (The Hand of the Potter), an introduction, and notes detailing textual changes.  

“The Fall of the Republic” and Other Political Satires. By Ambrose Bierce. Ed. S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz. Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press. 2000. xxx, 271 pp. Cloth, $40.00; paper, $18.95.

Whether he turned his sharp eye and tongue to the dilemmas of republicanism or to his fellow citizens’ seemingly insatiable appetite for material success, Bierce’s observations often cut to the bone of what he perceived to be an ailing society. Joshi and Schultz’s edition pays tribute to Bierce’s shorter fictional and nonfictional writings, many of which have not been reprinted since their original publication.  

The Collected Fables of Ambrose Bierce. Ed. S. T. Joshi. Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press. 2000. xxiv, 389 pp. $65.00.

Ambrose Bierce wrote almost 850 fables over the course of his career, and they are presented here, including 400 never reprinted before. Joshi’s introduction and annotations, which explain the cultural and political commentary in Bierce’s fables, contend that the work in this volume can be considered “the ultimate American homage to Aesop,” or even a “contribution to the literature of fantasy.”  

The Princess with the Golden Hair: Letters of Elizabeth Waugh to Edmund Wilson, 1933–1942. Ed. John B. Friedman and Kristen M. Figg. Cranbury, N.J.: Associated Univ. Presses. 2000. 189 pp. $35.00.

This annotated collection of letters recounts Waugh’s and Wilson’s intellectual companionship, romance, and intermittent friendship after Wilson’s marriage. The letters are framed by an introduction and afterword that provide biographical information and explore the ways these letters facilitate critical readings of Waugh’s Fugue and Wilson’s Memoirs of Hecate County, novels that detail the couple’s intimacy.  

A World to Win. By Jack Conroy. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press. 1935; reprint, 2000. xxxv, 348 pp. Paper, $17.95.

This latest reissue in the series “The Radical Novel Reconsidered” tells the story of proletarian antihero Leo Hurley, who comes to embrace social consciousness in spite of his foolish sensibilities and blundering behavior. The significance of this 1935 novel, Douglas Wixson’s thorough introduction asserts, “lies both in permitting us to view ways that historical knowledge becomes [End Page...