In the late 1870s, this gifted writer of hilarious, bad verse had a national following. Mark Twain even wrote that he always carried with him a copy of Julia's first book of poems, The Sentimental Song Book (1876). "I find in them the same grace and melody that attracted me when they were first published twenty years ago, and have held me in happy bonds ever since," he explained. Twain attributed the "deep charm" of Julia's poems to her innocent habit of making "an intentionally humorous episode pathetic and an intentionally pathetic one funny." Twain immortalized Julia's style in the writings of Emmeline Grangerford, a character in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. She also influenced the writing--in fact, the career--of the doggerel poet Ogden Nash, who reportedly said that her example convinced him to try to become "a great bad poet" rather than "a bad good poet." The late Walter Blair, a highly respected professor of American literature at the University of Chicago, put it like this in his introduction to the last published collection of Julia's poems in 1928: If these songs [as Julia called her poems] were only a little closer to the conventional modes of meter, rhyme, thought, and expression they would not impress us at all. Touched, however, by the magic wand of genius, the novel works of this great poet cause readers to slump down in their chairs, hold their agitated and aching sides, wipe tears from brimming eyes, and fill the air with the sound of distinctly raucous laughter. Mortal Refrains is the first complete, published collection of Julia Moore's work--poetry, short stories, songs (including sheet music), and newspaper interviews--compiled from the earliest published versions found in various public libraries, rare book collections, museums, and archives.

Voice connects our embodied existence with the theoretical worlds we construct. This book argues that the voice is a crucial element of mortal identity in the tragedies of Aeschylus. It first presents conceptions of the voice in ancient Greek poetry and philosophy, understanding it in its most literal and physical form, as well as through the many metaphorical connotations that spring from it. Close readings then show how the tragedies and fragments of Aeschylus gain meaning from the rubric and performance of voice, concentrating particularly on the Oresteia. Sarah Nooter demonstrates how voice - as both a bottomless metaphor and performative agent of action - stands as the prevailing configuration through which Aeschylus' dramas should be heard. This highly original book will interest all those interested in classical literature as well as those concerned with material approaches to the interpretation of texts.

This work deals at length with various theories about relgion prevalent at the time when Megasthenes visited India very interesting and scholarly views have been put forth regarding investigations of Megasthenes their reliability and the reliability of his reporters.

The Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, Volume One, surveys the lives and writings of nearly 400 Midwestern authors and identifies some of the most important criticism of their writings. The Dictionary is based on the belief that the literature of any region simultaneously captures the experience and influences the worldview of its people, reflecting as well as shaping the evolving sense of individual and collective identity, meaning, and values. Volume One presents individual lives and literary orientations and offers a broad survey of the Midwestern experience as expressed by its many diverse peoples over time.Philip A. Greasley's introduction fills in background information and describes the philosophy, focus, methodology, content, and layout of entries, as well as criteria for their inclusion. An extended lead-essay, "The Origins and Development of the Literature of the Midwest," by David D. Anderson, provides a historical, cultural, and literary context in which the lives and writings of individual authors can be considered.This volume is the first of an ambitious three-volume series sponsored by the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature and created by its members. Volume Two will provide similar coverage of non-author entries, such as sites, centers, movements, influences, themes, and genres. Volume Three will be a literary history of the Midwest. One goal of the series is to build understanding of the nature, importance, and influence of Midwestern writers and literature. Another is to provide information on writers from the early years of the Midwestern experience, as well as those now emerging, who are typically absent from existing reference works.

A thorough analysis of the mechanics of the language of Homer as used in the Iliad and the Odyssey.

The fight against child mortality that transformed parenting, doctoring, and the way we live. Only one hundred years ago, in even the world’s wealthiest nations, children died in great numbers—of diarrhea, diphtheria, and measles, of scarlet fever and tuberculosis. Throughout history, culture has been shaped by these deaths; diaries and letters recorded them, and writers such as Louisa May Alcott, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Eugene O’Neill wrote about and mourned them. Not even the powerful and the wealthy could escape: of Abraham and Mary Lincoln’s four children, only one survived to adulthood, and the first billionaire in history, John D. Rockefeller, lost his beloved grandson to scarlet fever. For children of the poor, immigrants, enslaved people and their descendants, the chances of dying were far worse. The steady beating back of infant and child mortality is one of our greatest human achievements. Interweaving her own experiences as a medical student and doctor, Perri Klass pays tribute to groundbreaking women doctors like Rebecca Lee Crumpler, Mary Putnam Jacobi, and Josephine Baker, and to the nurses, public health advocates, and scientists who brought new approaches and scientific ideas about sanitation and vaccination to families. These scientists, healers, reformers, and parents rewrote the human experience so that—for the first time in human memory—early death is now the exception rather than the rule, bringing about a fundamental transformation in society, culture, and family life. Previously published in hardcover as A Good Time to Be Born.

Paperback reissue of one volume of the English Dominicans' Latin/English edition of Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae.

The special character of Paul's interpretation is marked by his ability to embody in his thought and praxis the movement of the incarnation, that is, the condescension of God into the depth of the human condition, so that the eternal Word of the gospel is able to become ever anew a word on target for the people to whom the gospel is addressed.

"From his earliest verses (the Latin verses written at Cambridge) to his first original English poem (the Infant ode), to his masterpiece (Lycidas) and its sad echo (Epitaphium Damonis), through his mature trilogy (Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes), Milton repeatedly seeks to explain why people die. Though Milton frequently changed his mind on important subjects, his fundamental view of death did not change. Milton throughout his life insists that death, both physical and spiritual, is caused by sin. In attempting to understand the significance of this belief, Death in Milton's Poetry will suggest some major re-evaluations of old assumptions." "This book is divided into two parts. The first part contains examples of death that support Milton's belief that death is caused by sin. The second part contains poems that focus on deaths that appear to violate this belief. Since Milton illustrates his belief in his mature works, Part 1 includes Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. As the pattern of death emerges in these poems, the reader is able to see that Paradise Regained is as much about the death of Satan as it is about the life of Jesus and that Milton's drama focuses on an unregenerate Samson whose tragedy is his inability ever to reconcile with God." "The poems examined in Part 2 explain deaths that appear to violate Milton's, belief. In vindicating Milton's view of death, the Latin funeral elegies and "On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough" form a pattern that culminates in Lycidas. Recognizing this pattern in Lycidas is indispensible to understanding the radical statement of Epitaphium Damonis, a poem that records Milton's temporary disillusionment with Christianity." "In addition to new insights into the individual poems, two patterns are highlighted. In Milton's earlier poems, readers usually have seen classicism as complementing Christianity. When Milton turns to death, however, he opposes classicism to Christianity, contrasting (except in the case of Epitaphium Damonis) the limited pagan gods of classicism with the providence of an omnipotent God. This antagonism is reinforced by another pattern that emerges in the poems. Though all sins tend to death, some sins are more fatal than others. In much of Milton's poetry, perhaps the most consistently fatal of sins was lust; and Milton frequently represents this lust as a characteristic of classicism."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved