|
|
|
 |
 |
||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||
|
Foreign Rights: Available Now: MemoirThe Americanist by Daniel Aaron A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt by Toyin Falola My Body Politic by Simi Linton Ordinary Life by Kathlyn Conway The AmericanistDaniel Aaron Rights: World The Americanist is author and critic Daniel Aaron's anthem to nearly a century of public and private life in America and abroad. Aaron, who is widely regarded as one of the founders of American Studies, graduated from the University of Michigan, received his Ph.D. from Harvard, and taught for over three decades each at Smith College and Harvard. Aaron writes with unsentimental nostalgia about his childhood in Los Angeles and Chicago and his later academic career, which took him around the globe, often in the role of America's accidental yet impartial critic. When Walt Whitman, whom Aaron frequently cites as a touchstone, wrote, "I am large, I contain multitudes," he could have been describing Daniel Aaron—the consummate erudite and Renaissance individual whose allegiance to the truth always outweighs mere partisan loyalty. Not only should Aaron's book stand as a resplendent and summative work from one of the finest thinkers of the last hundred years, it also succeeds on its own as a first-rate piece of literature, on a par with the writings of any of its subjects. The Americanist is a veritable Who's Who of twentieth-century writers Aaron interviewed, interacted with, or otherwise encountered throughout his life: Ralph Ellison, Robert Frost, Lillian Hellman, Richard Hofstadter, Alfred Kazin, Sinclair Lewis, Malcolm Muggeridge, John Crowe Ransom, Upton Sinclair, Edmund Wilson, Leonard Woolf, and W. B. Yeats, to name only a few. Aaron's frank and personal observations of these literary lights make for lively reading. As well, scattered throughout The Americanist are illuminating portraits of American presidents living and passed—miniature masterworks of astute political observation that offer dazzlingly fresh approaches to well-trod subjects. Daniel Aaron is Professor in the Department of English at Harvard University. His many books include Men of Good Hope: A Story of American Progressives; Writers on the Left; The Unwritten War: Writers of the Civil War; Studies in Biography; and The Inman Diary: A Public and Private Confession. February 2007 A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt: An African MemoirToyin Falola Rights: World "A splendid coming-of-age story so full of vivid color and emotion, the words seem to dance off the page. But this is not only Falola's memoir; it is an account of a new nation coming into being and the tensions and negotiations that invariably occur between city and country, tradition and modernity, men and women, rich and poor. A truly beautiful book." A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt gathers the stories and reflections of the early years of Toyin Falola, the grand historian of Africa and one of the greatest sons of Ibadan, the notable Yoruba city-state in Nigeria. Redefining the autobiographical genre altogether, Falola miraculously weaves together personal, historical, and communal stories, along with political and cultural developments in the period immediately preceding and following Nigeria's independence, to give us a unique and enduring picture of the Yoruba in the mid-twentieth century. This is truly a literary memoir, told in language rich with proverbs, poetry, song, and humor. Falola's memoir is far more than the story of one man's childhood experiences; rather, he presents us with the riches of an entire culture and community—its history, traditions, pleasures, mysteries, household arrangements, forms of power, struggles, and transformations. The preeminent scholar of Africa, Toyin Falola is the Frances Higginbothom Nalle Centennial Professor of History and member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at the University of Texas at Austin. Author or editor of over fifty books and countless articles, he has written extensively on subjects ranging from culture, political economy, nationalism, development, violence, religion, governance, knowledge production, pan-Africanism, and diaspora, among numerous others. He is a member of the prestigious Nigerian Academy of Letters, and has received numerous awards for his scholarship and teaching. His colleagues and former students presented him with two volumes of a festschrift in honor of his unparalleled contributions, The Transformation of Nigeria and The Foundations of Nigeria. His recent publications include The Power of African Cultures and Nigeria in the 20th Century. August 2004 My Body Politic: A MemoirSimi Linton Rights: World While hitchhiking from Boston to Washington D.C. in 1971 to protest the war in Vietnam, Simi Linton was involved in a car accident that paralyzed both of her legs and took the lives of her young husband and her best friend. She spent the first few years following the accident in rehab and psychotherapy, trying to adjust to these enormous losses, eventually emerging to resume her life in the world. This memoir follows her from Boston to Berkeley to Manhattan, and traces her growing awareness of what it means to be a disabled person in this country. She eventually entered graduate school at Columbia, remarried, and began teaching at Hunter College, where she gradually became deeply committed to the cause of disability activism. My Body Politic's colorful and well-told stories are populated with unforgettable characters. The memoir also includes encounters with public spaces—classrooms, hotels, airplanes, busses, sidewalks, and even roller rinks—as witnessed from the seat of a wheelchair. Throughout, the reader encounters moments of moving testimony, penetrating insight, righteous anger, and celebratory (and sometimes lusty) humor. Simi Linton holds a PhD from Columbia University and until 1998 taught Psychology at Hunter College. She is author of a scholarly book, Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity, now in its third printing. She currently gives about twenty public lectures a year, in sites such as the Smithsonian and the American Museum of Natural History, and works as a consultant to cultural and academic institutions. She is a prominent activist and is also the author of numerous articles about disability. Fall 2005 Ordinary Life: A Memoir of IllnessKathlyn Conway Rights: World Ordinary Life: A Memoir of Illness is one women's narrative of her ordeal with breast cancer. Kathyln Conway refuses to participate in what she calls the literature of the "triumph narrative." Instead, the memoir acknowledges that when encountering illness there are other acceptable reactions, including fear pain and anger. Such honesty and frankness appeals o readers who want to understand the heart of the experience of illness without preachiness or sentimentality. Kathlyn Conway is a practicing psychotherapist who lives in New York City with her husband and two children. April 2007 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Copyright © University of Michigan. University of Michigan Press homepage. ESL/ELT Michigan homepage. |
|||
