Reviews
Recent Editions
This annual bibliography of documentary editions recently published in the fields of American and British history, literature, and culture is generally restricted to scholarly first editions of English-language works. In addition to the bibliographical references, Internet addresses are provided for the editorial project or the publisher.
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ADAIR, LYLE G. "They Have Left Us Here to Die": The Civil War Prison Diary of Sgt. Lyle G. Adair, 111th U.S. Colored Infantry. Edited by Glenn Robins. Kent State University Press. 2011. 72 pp. $19.95. ISBN: 9781606351017. Adair was captured by Confederate cavalry and spent the last seven months of the war in five different Confederate prison camps. This edited and annotated version of the diary Adair kept reflects his strong allegiance to the Union cause and provides insights into the breakdown of the prisoner exchange system between the Union and Confederacy. A white soldier serving in an African American regiment, Adair also provided revealing observations about the influence of race on the experience of captivity.
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ADAMS FAMILY. Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 10: January 1794–June 1795. Edited by Margaret A. Hogan, C. James Taylor, Sara Martin, Hobson Woodward, Sara B. Sikes, Gregg L. Lint, and Sara Georgini. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 2011. 608 pp. $105. ISBN: 978067405845. In this volume's over 300 letters, the Adams family offers important observations and commentary on a contentious period of American history, as tensions with Great Britain and France sparked political factionalism. Other highlights of the volume include the birth of Abigail and John Adams's first granddaughter and John Quincy's appointment as resident minister at the Hague, where he and his brother Thomas Boylston witnessed the French invasion of the Netherlands and the impact of the French Revolution on the broader European society.
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AMERICAN REVOLUTION. Captured at Kings Mountain: The Journal of Uzal Johnson, a Loyalist Surgeon. Edited by Wade S. Kolb III and Robert M. Weir. University of South Carolina Press. 2011. 248 pp. $39.95. ISBN: 9781570039614. A New Jersey native, Johnson traveled with the American Volunteers, a Loyalist unit, to South Carolina. His journal recounted his experiences and observations during a critical year that culminated in the American victory at Kings Mountain. The journal advances our understanding of the social, medical, and military history of the Revolution in the southern theater.
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AMERICAN SOUTH. See BROWN, WILLIAM WELLS; HEYWARD FAMILY.
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ANGLICANISM. The Letters of George Davenport, 1651-1677. Edited by Brenda M. Pask. Boydell & Brewer. 2011. 312 pp. $90. ISBN: 9780854440702. Consisting largely of letters from Davenport to fellow Anglican William Sancroft, this collection sheds considerable light on efforts of committed Anglicans to sustain their faith during the Commonwealth period and also on the Restoration settlement in and around Durham. Also included is a list of manuscripts that Davenport contributed to the famous library of John Cosin, bishop of Durham.
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AUDEN, W. H. The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue. Edited by Alan Jacobs. Princeton University Press. 2011. 200 pp. $22.95. ISBN: 9780691138152. First published in 1947, Auden's book-length poem struck an immediate chord, winning the Pulitzer Prize and inspiring a symphony and ballet, but later fell out of critical favor. This critical edition introduces the poem to a new generation of readers and provides thorough annotations that will encourage appreciation of Auden's accomplishment.
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BACHMAN, JOHN. Selected Writings on Science, Race, and Religion. Edited by Gene Waddell. University of Georgia Press. 2011. 400 pp. $39.95. ISBN: 9780820338187. Bachman was a Lutheran minister in Charleston and the world's leading authority on North American mammals. In arguing that humans constituted a single species, he challenged the polygenetic views of Louis Agassiz. This is the first collection of his writings and includes selections from his three major books, letters, and his articles on a wide range of subjects.
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BARTRAM, WILLIAM. William Bartram: The Search for Nature's Design: Selected Art, Letters, and Unpublished Writings. Edited by Thomas Hallock and Nancy E. Hoffmann. University of Georgia Press. 2010. 608 pp. $50. ISBN: 9780820328775. This work assembles a selection of letters, presented chronologically, various manuscripts, and other material by the famous naturalist and travel writer. Over 100 illustrations by Bartram bring to life his correspondence and the manuscripts, which include horticultural texts, poetry, and philosophical and ethnographic reflections.
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BALL, AUGUSTUS V. Love and War: The Civil War Letters and Medicinal Book of Augustus V. Ball. Edited by Donald S. Frazier and Andrew Hillhouse. Compiled by Anne Ball Ryals. Texas A&M University Press. 2011. 528 pp. $59.95. ISBN: 9781933337425. The letters between Ball, his wife, and other friends and acquaintances depict his growing disillusionment as a Confederate doctor in the trans-Mississippi theater. His medicinal recipe book, the first of its kind to appear in print completely annotated, will introduce readers to the medical and herbal lore of the Civil War era.
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BECKETT, SAMUEL. The Letters of Samuel Beckett, Volume 2: 1941-1956. Edited by George Craig, Martha Dow Fehsenfeld, Dan Gunn, and Lois More Overbeck. Cambridge University Press. 2011. 886 pp. $50. ISBN: 9780521867948. Opening with the War years, when Beckett could conduct little correspondence, this volume includes a surge of letters beginning in 1945, which illuminate his transformation from a little-known author to an international literary figure. Contextual information includes discussions of Beckett's move into the French language, translations, profiles of correspondents, and chronologies.
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BENTHAM, JEREMY. Church of Englandism and Its Catechism Explained. Edited by James E. Crimmins, Catherine Fuller, and Philip Schofield. Oxford University Press. 2011. 668 pp. $160. ISBN: 9780199590254. Published in 1818, this work was part of Bentham's sustained attack on English political, legal, and ecclesiastical establishments. Bentham argued that the purpose of the Anglican educational system was to instill habits of insincerity and protect abuses that were useful to the church and the ruling classes in general. Published here for the first time is an appendix based on original manuscripts.
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BRADBURY, RAY. The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury: A Critical Edition. Volume 1, 1938-1943. Edited by William F. Touponce and Jonathan R. Eller. Kent State University Press. 2011. 544 pp. $65. ISBN: 9781606350713. Using texts that reflect Bradbury's earliest settled intention for each tale, this edition presents for the first time the author's stories in chronological order. The first volume includes 13 stories and examines Bradbury's relationships with his agent, editor, and publisher, thereby documenting the transformations of the stories from their original forms to the versions known today.
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BROWN, WILLIAM WELLS. My Southern Home: The South and Its People. Edited by John Ernest. University of North Carolina Press. 2011. 288 pp. $69.95. ISBN: 9780807835111. The culmination of Brown's long writing career, My Southern Home recounted his efforts to find a home in the chaotic and racist social landscape of the American South after the Civil War. Presenting the text in its original form, this edition illuminates the work's complexity and documents the many instances in which Brown borrows from his previous writings and the writings of others to form an underlying dialogue.
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY. The Palfrey Notebook: Records of Study in Seventeenth-Century Cambridge. Edited by C. J. Cook. Boydell & Brewer. 2011. 818 pp. $99. ISBN: 9781843836667. Compiled by George Palfrey of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, about 1623, this study notebook is a unique survival of the period. The fully annotated transcription covers many of the widely used texts of the period, filtered through the moderate Calvinism of Palfrey's principal instructor. It also includes a survey of the literature on magic, records of orations, personal notes, and an anti-papal diatribe.
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CATHOLICISM. Testamentary Records of the English and Welsh Episcopate, 1200-1413: Wills, Executors' Accounts & Inventories, & the Probate Process. Edited by C. M. Woolgar. Boydell & Brewer. 2011. 418 pp. $45. ISBN: 9780907239741. Consisting of the probate material of almost 300 English or Welsh individuals overseen by the late medieval episcopate, this fully annotated collection illustrates common patterns of living, customary and devotional practices, and the efforts to keep ecclesiastical property out of the hands of the Crown.
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CIVIL WAR. Tejanos in Gray: Civil War Letters of Captains Joseph Rafael de la Garza and Manuel Yturri. Edited by Jerry Thompson. Translations by Jos Roberto Jurez. Texas A&M University Press. 2011. 160 pp. $29.95. ISBN: 9781603442435. Gathered for the first time, these letters between two members of San Antonio's Tejano elite reveal the intricate and intertwined relationships that characterized the Mexican Texas community in the years leading up to and including the Civil War. The letters complicate readers' understanding of Confederate allegiance and loyalty.
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CIVIL WAR. See also ADAIR, LYLE G.; BALL, AUGUSTUS V.; CYPERT, THOMAS JEFFERSON; HAYWARD, AMBROSE HENRY; HEYWARD FAMILY; REYNOLDS, DANIEL HARRIS.
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CODY, WILLIAM F. The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill. Edited by Frank Christianson. University of Nebraska Press. 2011. 456 pp. $27.95. 9780803232914. Based on Cody's original edition of 1879, when Cody was 33, this volume offers the frontiersman and showman's mythical take on his career as a trapper, buffalo hunter, Army scout, and Indian fighter. Christianson's annotations reveal both Cody's personal history and the Buffalo Bill of American myth, as well as the aspects of his life that lived up to both myth and the harsher realities of the American West.
www.nebraskapress.unl.edu
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CONGRESS. Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, March 4, 1789-March 3, 1791. Correspondence: Second Session. Edited by Charlene Bangs Bickford, Kenneth R. Bowling, William Charles diGiacomantonio, and Helen E. Veit. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 2011. Volume 18: 952 pp. $125. ISBN: 9780801894459. Volume 19: 1136 pp. $125. ISBN: 9780801894466. Volume 20: 992 pp. $125. ISBN: 9780801894473. Three new volumes present letters written by and to members of the First Federal Congress during its second session, as well as communications from other informed individuals at the seat of government in New York City. Bringing to life the legislation and debates of this most important and productive Congress, the volumes provide a rich source of information about the members of Congress. Many of the documents will be incorporated into The Early Republic, an online reference.
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CONSTITUTION. The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, Volume 24, Ratification by the States: Rhode Island, No. 1. Edited by John P. Kaminski, Gaspare J. Saladino, Jonathan M. Reid, Charles H. Schoenleber, Richard Leffler, Margaret R. Flamingo. Wisconsin Historical Society Press. 2011. 424 pp. $95. ISBN: 9780870204685. The first of three volumes documenting Rhode Island's private and public debates about the Constitution, it brings together the convention Journal and Debates, the correspondence and notes of delegates, the notes of the secretary of the convention, and contemporary newspaper accounts.
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COREY, ELIZABETH. An Iowa Schoolma'am: Letters of Elizabeth "Bess" Corey, 1904-1908. Edited by Philip L. Gerber and Charlotte Wright. University of Iowa Press. 2011. 216 pp. $25. ISBN: 9781587299605. As a teenager, Elizabeth Corey received a certificate to teach, which she did during the first decade of the twentieth century in a series of rural schools in Shelby and Cass Counties, Iowa. Her letters of this period reveal her lighthearted attitude and provide insights into the teaching profession as it was practiced in the rural Midwest.
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CROCKER, HANNAH MATHER. Reminiscences and Traditions of Boston by Hannah Mather Crocker. Edited by Eileen Hunt Botting and Sarah L. Houser. New England Historic Genealogical Society. 2011. 539 pp. $39.95. ISBN: 9780880822534. Crocker descended from some of Boston's most important families and was a writer and women's rights advocate. Her early nineteenth-century reminiscences, published here for the first time, present a unique history of the Boston area from the 1620s to the 1820s and chronicle such subjects as Puritan law, church history, and women's work and culture.
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CROMMELIN, CLAUDE AUGUST. A Young Dutchman Views Post-Civil War America: Diary of Claude August Crommelin. Translated by Augustus J. Veenendaal, Jr. Edited by Augustus J. Veenendaal, Jr., and H. Roger Grant. Indiana University Press. 2011. 208 pp. $29.95. ISBN: 9780253356093. A wealthy young Dutchman, Crommelin used family connections to meet important people in his travels through New England, the Middle Atlantic states, the South, and the upper Mississippi Valley. Published in English for the first time, his journal reveals an astute observer of industry and politics, as well as an engaging writing style.
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CYPERT, THOMAS JEFFERSON. Tried Men and True, or Union Life in Dixie. Edited by Margaret M. Storey. University of Alabama Press. 2011. 184 pp. $26. ISBN: 9780817317508. A staunch Unionist of Wayne County, Tennessee, Cypert helped organize a regiment of loyalist white Southerners enlisted to combat Confederate cavalry in west Tennessee and northern Alabama. He later served two terms in the Tennessee state senate. Never before published, Cypert's memoir reflected his Unionist beliefs and advanced loyalists' claims for post-war power.
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DUNCAN, ROBERT. The H.D. Book: The Collected Writings of Robert Duncan. Edited by Michael Boughn and Victor Coleman. University of California Press. 2011. 704 pp. $49.95. ISBN: 9780520260757. A major figure in the San Francisco literary community, Duncan, through an examination of the modernist poet H.D. and other modernist figures, sought to develop a unique poetics. Formerly existing only as chapters in out-of-print magazines, Duncan's meditation on modernism is now published in its entirety, as its author originally intended.
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EDISON, THOMAS A. The Papers of Thomas A. Edison, Volume 7: Losses and Loyalties, April 1883-December 1884. Edited by Paul B. Israel, Louis Carlat, Theresa M. Collins, and David Hochfelder. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 2011. 864 pp. $95. ISBN: 9781421400907. This volume captures Edison's efforts to replicate the success of his New York electric central system, which required him to forego the lab in favor of expanding his business interests. The volume also includes the unexpected death of Edison's wife and concludes with his return to the lab to develop new communications technology.
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ELIOT, T. S. The Letters of T. S. Eliot. Edited by Valerie Eliot and Hugh Haughton. Yale University Press. 2011. Volume 1: 1898-1922, Revised Edition. 912 pp. $45. ISBN: 9780300176452. Volume 2: 1923-1925. 912 pp. $45. ISBN: 9780300176865. Volume 1, first published in 1988, covers the years of Eliot's childhood through his relocation to England, marriage, and the publication of The Waste Land. It now includes 200 newly discovered documents. Volume 2 includes about 1,400 letters, which shed light on Eliot's developing thought about poetry, his embrace of Anglicanism, and his transition from banking to publishing.
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EMERSON, RALPH WALDO. The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume 9: Poems. Edited by Albert J. von Frank and Thomas Wortham.Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 2011. 864 pp. $95. ISBN: 9780674049154. This edition of all the poems Emerson published during his lifetime allows readers to situate Emerson's poetry alongside his celebrated essays and to consider their interrelationship. Although his reputation as an essayist has long since eclipsed his reputation as a poet, Emerson self-identified as a writer of verse and worked out his transcendental philosophy in this genre. Also included in the annotated edition are chronological lists of variants and texts constituting the historical collation, and public and private writings that reveal Emerson's own estimation of his poetry.
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FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN. The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 40: May 16 through September 15, 1783. Edited by Ellen R. Cohn, Jonathan R. Dull, Kate M. Ohno, Karen Duval, Alicia K. Anderson, Adrina M. Garbooshian, Michael Sletcher, and Philipp Ziesche. Yale University Press. 2011. 784 pp. $100. ISBN: 9780300165463. This volume covers the final phase of the negotiations that culminated in the peace treaty between the United States and Great Britain. In addition to correspondence with Franklin's fellow peace commissioners, the volume includes documents related to his many scientific and literary interests, as well as a discussion of the slave trade with a British abolitionist.
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GARDENING. Becoming Elizabeth Lawrence: Discovered Letters of a Southern Gardener. Edited by Emily Herring Wilson. John F. Blair, Publisher. 2010. 315 pp. $19.95. ISBN: 9780895873750. The first woman to receive a degree in landscape architecture from what is now North Carolina State University, Lawrence wrote extensively on gardening in horticultural journals and for the Charlotte Observer. She also published several books, some that remain in print. This volume consists of letters Lawrence wrote to a close friend that extend from 1934 to 1966 and reveal much about Lawrence's development as a gardener and writer, as well as the mores of a woman of her class and Episcopal faith.
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GARVEY, MARCUS. The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, Volume 11: The Caribbean Diaspora, 1910-1920. Edited by Robert A. Hill, John Dixon, Mariela Haro Rodriguez, and Anthony Yuen. Duke University Press. 2011. 1128 pp. $120. ISBN: 9780822346906. This volume reveals the connections between the major African-American mass movement of the interwar era and the struggles of Caribbean people for independence. It includes letters, speeches, and writings of Caribbean Garveyites and their opponents, as well as documents and speeches by Garvey. Highlights include a 1920 strike by Panama Canal workers sponsored by the UNIA.
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GORDON, MARGARET E. P. Pansy's History: The Autobiography of Margaret E. P. Gordon, 1866-1966. Transcribed and Edited by Claudia L. Bushman. Utah State University Press. 2011. 344 pp. $34.95. ISBN: 9780874217841. Margaret "Pansy" Gordon's career took her from England to an Anglican mission among the Tsimshian Indians in British Columbia to Salt Lake City to an Ojibway village on Georgian Bay, and finally to Los Angeles, where she was a Mormon missionary. Gordon's well-written, engaging memoir of her many travels and adventures reveals the economic challenges and religious service that defined her long life.
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HAYWARD, AMBROSE HENRY. Last to Leave the Field: The Life and Letters of First Sergeant Ambrose Henry Hayward, 28th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Edited by Timothy J. Orr. University of Tennessee Press. 2011. 320 pp. $52. ISBN: 978157233729x. A native of Massachusetts, Hayward saw action in five states, including the Battles of Antietam, Gettysburg, and Atlanta, before his death at the Battle of Pine Knob in Georgia. His correspondence highlights many of the war's most significant developments and reveal his continued devotion to the Union cause, despite the brutality of the war.
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HEMINGWAY, ERNEST. The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, Volume 1: 1907-1922. Edited by Sandra Spanier and Robert W. Trogdon. Cambridge University Press. 2011. 516 pp. $40. ISBN: 9780521897334. This volume encompasses Hemingway's youth, experience in World War I, and his arrival in Paris, and reveals a more complex individual than the hyper-masculine persona Hemingway presented publicly. The letters afford insight into his creative process and reveal his opinions of his own work and that of his contemporaries.
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HEYWARD FAMILY. Twilight on the South Carolina Rice Fields: Letters of the Heyward Family, 1862-1871. Edited by Margaret Belser Hollis and Allen H. Stokes. University of South Carolina Press. 2010. 427 pp. $39.95. ISBN: 9781570038945. This edited collection of letters of one of South Carolina's wealthiest families traces the decline in their fortunes resulting from the Civil War, and their efforts to preserve their standing in an altered political and economic environment. Most of the letters included were from Barnwell Heyward to his wife Catherine and reflect his experiences as an engineer during the war and his efforts to rebuild the family's plantations after the war in the face of devastation and an African-American work force claiming new rights.
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JACKSON, ANDREW. The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume 8, 1830. Edited by Daniel Feller, Thomas Coens, and Laura Eve Moss. University of Tennessee Press. 2010. 853 pp. $80. ISBN: 987157233715x. This volume presents more than 500 documents, many never published, in a tumultuous year in his presidency. In 1830, Jackson pursued his Indian removal policy, concluding treaties to force the Choctaws and Chickasaws to resettle west of the Mississippi, nurtured his opposition to the Second Bank of the United States, and pronounced his ban on nullification. Meanwhile the scandal surrounding Peggy Eaton continued to divide his cabinet and hinder his administration.
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JAMES, HENRY. The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1872-1876. Volume 3. Edited by Pierre A. Walker and Greg W. Zacharias. University of Nebraska Press. 2011. 296 pp. $95. ISBN: 9780803234574. The letters in this volume find James settling in Paris, where he befriended the Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev and mixed with other writers, such as Zola, Flaubert, and Alphonse Daudet. During this time he published travel essays, critical notices, and the novels Roderick Hudson and The American.
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JAMES, HENRY. A Small Boy and Others: A Critical Edition. Edited by Peter Collister. University of Virginia Press. 2011. 400 pp. $55. ISBN: 9780813930817. James's memoir of his boyhood in Albany and New York City, as well as his first travels in Europe, illuminated his initiation into the world of art. This critical edition guides readers through James's allusive prose and offers insights into his formative years.
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JAMES, HENRY. Notes of a Son and Brother and The Middle Years: A Critical Edition. Edited by Peter Collister. University of Virginia Press. 2011. 600 pp. $75. ISBN: 9780813930831. The first fully researched, critical edition of James's memoirs of his youth and development as a writer in New England, and his middle years, when he was residing in London, illuminates the context in which James developed a characteristic voice. Annotations provide rich biographical details on James and his literary circle.
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JEFFERS, ROBINSON. The Collected Letters of Robinson Jeffers, with Selected Letters of Una Jeffers. Volume 2, 1931-1939. Edited by James Karman. Stanford University Press. 2011. 1128 pp. $95. ISBN: 9780804777032. The second volume of Jeffers's annotated correspondence documents his struggles and rising fame as a poet, the growth and maturation of his twin sons, and his network of friends and acquaintances. The volume also provides an intimate portrait of his relationship with his wife Una Jeffers, including the 1938 controversy that nearly destroyed their marriage.
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JEFFERSON, THOMAS. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 37: 4 March 1802 to 30 June 1802. Edited by Barbara B. Oberg, James P. McClure, Elaine Weber Pascu, Martha J. King, Tom Downey, and W. Bland Whitley. Princeton University Press. 2010. 844 pp. $99.50. ISBN: 9780691150017. Opening on the one year anniversary of Jefferson's first inauguration as president, this volume includes a conference with the Seneca Indians, a treaty with the Choctaw nation to allow a wagon road across their land, and worries about French control of New Orleans, worries strong enough to force Jefferson to contemplate an alliance with the British. Among other documents are a list of books purchased for the new Library of Congress and several letters related to the ongoing renovations at Monticello.
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JEFFERSON, THOMAS. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, Volume 7: 28 November 1813 to 30 September 1814. Edited by J. Jefferson Looney, Susan Holbrook Perdue, Robert F. Haggard, Julie L. Lautenschlager, Ellen C. Hickman, and Christine Sternberg Patrick. Princeton University Press. 2010. 832 pp. $99.50. ISBN: 9780691149752. The 526 documents of this volume include Jefferson's review of the extant sources on the 1765 Stamp Act Crisis, his largely favorable appraisal of George Washington, and an updated reading list he drew up for law students. During this time, he became a trustee of Albemarle Academy, a forerunner of the University of Virginia, replied to queries on religion and abolition, and offered to sell his massive book collection to Congress to replace the library destroyed by the British.
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JOHNSON, SAMUEL. The Works of Samuel Johnson, Volumes 21-23: The Lives of the Poets. Edited by John H. Middendorf. Yale University Press. 1,696 pp. $350. ISBN: 9780300123142. Initially planned as a series of short prefaces introducing separate volumes on English poets, Johnson's project evolved into a comprehensive biographical and critical survey of English poetry. This definitive edition reflects Johnson's final wishes for its wording and includes explanatory annotations.
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KAZIN, ALFRED. Alfred Kazin's Journals. Selected and Edited by Richard M. Cook. Yale University Press. 2011. 512 pp. $45. ISBN: 9780300142037. Kazin contributed almost daily to his journals, which trace his journey from Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood to his position as a leading figure in American letters. In addition to insights into Kazin's searching intellect and reflections on literature, history, and politics, readers will encounter an array of interesting and notable individuals.
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MADISON, JAMES. The Papers of James Madison, Secretary of State Series, Volume 9: 1 February-30 June 1805. Edited by Mary A. Hackett, J. C. A. Stagg, Anne Mandeville Colony, Mary Parke Johnson, and Katherine E. Harbury. University of Virginia Press. 2011. 616 pp. $85. ISBN: 9780813930985. During the months covered in this volume, Madison attended Jefferson's second inauguration, continued staffing the governments of the Orleans and Louisiana Territories, and observed growing factionalism within his Republican Party. The expansion of the Napoleonic Wars following the declaration of war between Spain and Great Britain hindered Madison's efforts to obtain settlements with both countries and ultimately to the failure to gain a favorable interpretation of Louisiana's boundaries. The correspondence also reveals the toll that the war had on American shipping.
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MANUMISSION. The Having of Negroes Is Become a Burden: The Quaker Struggle to Free Slaves in Revolutionary North Carolina. Edited by Michael J. Crawford. University Press of Florida. 2010. 248 pp. $69.95. ISBN: 9780813034706. Embedding primary documents within his own analysis, Crawford presents the story of North Carolina Quakers' efforts to free their slaves in the midst of rampant fears of slave insurrection. Diaries, petitions, and other materials reveal the personal motivations of individual Quakers and the ways that their activism impacted local, state, and even national developments.
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MILITARY HISTORY. Reminiscences of Conrad S. Babcock: The Old U.S. Army and the New, 1898-1919. Edited by Robert H. Ferrell. University of Missouri Press. 2011. 176 pp. $30. ISBN: 9780826219817. A shortened, edited version of Babcock's original manuscript, until now only available in the archives of the Hoover Institute, this memoir by a second generation army officer offers invaluable insights into the transition the U. S. army underwent during the first decades of the twentieth century. Babcock graduated from West Point in 1898 and saw action in the Philippines during the Spanish American War and subsequent Filipino anti-colonial insurrection and in World War I. In addition, he led a troop of cavalry into San Francisco after the devastating earthquake and fires of 1906 and served along the border in Arizona. Filled with astute observations, Babcock's memoir tracks a military forced to adapt to new technology and weaponry in the cauldron of warfare.
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MILITARY HISTORY. Roi Ottley's World War II: The Lost Diary of an African American Journalist. Edited by Mark A. Huddle. University of Kansas Press. 2011. 200 pp. $29.95. ISBN: 9780700617692. Journalist Vincent "Roi" Ottley covered the experiences of African American soldiers that neither white reporters nor the American military were willing to report. His personal diary, now published for the first time, reveals a war effort even more hampered by racism than that portrayed in Ottley's reportage. Mess hall brawls between white southern and black soldiers, the casual indifference of Britons toward their own black soldiers, and other personal accounts make Ottley's diary a fine resource for scholars of World War II and of the long struggle for racial justice.
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MILITARY HISTORY. Letters from a War Bird: The World War I Correspondence of Elliot White Springs. Edited by David K. Vaughan. University of South Carolina Press. 2011. 392 pp. $39.95. ISBN: 9781611170405. Ranked among America's best flying aces during World War I, Springs went on to become executive of a textile company in his native South Carolina and a writer. Enlisting out of Princeton University, Springs served in both British and American flying corps. His wartime letters reveal his deep attraction to the wartime culture of England and France, while annotations explore his complex relationships with his family and connect his firsthand experiences with his later writings.
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MORMONS. In the Whirlpool: The Pre-Manifesto Letters of President Wilford Woodruff to the William Atkin Family, 1885-1890. Edited by Reid L. Neilson. The Arthur H. Clarke Company. 2011. 240 pp. $29.95. ISBN: 9780870623905. As Utah's statehood grew imminent, pressure against Mormons who practiced plural marriage intensified. Woodruff, who became church president in 1887, went into hiding in 1879 to avoid prosecution. The letters in this volume between Woodruff and the family that had provided him sanctuary, never before published, highlight the spiritual and political conflicts that led ultimately to Woodruff's 1890 manifesto, which officially disallowed polygamy.
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MORRIS, GOUVERNEUR. The Diaries of Gouverneur Morris: European Travels, 1794-1798. Edited by Melanie R. Miller. University of Virginia Press. 2011. 784 pp. $99.50. ISBN: 9780813929491. As American minister to France, Morris witnessed the unraveling of the French Revolution into terror and war. After the French government forced his removal as minister in 1794, Morris spent the next four years traveling through Europe. This newly transcribed and annotated edition of the diaries Morris kept during his journey brings to life his surprisingly modern voice and humor and is filled with vivid descriptions of the people and places he encountered.
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MURDOCH, IRIS. Iris Murdoch, a Writer at War: Letters and Diaries, 1939-1945. Edited by Peter J. Conradi. Oxford University Press. 2011. 304 pp. $35. ISBN: 9780199756032. These never before published writings include a journal Murdoch kept as a touring actor in 1939 and wartime correspondence with two early intimates, Frank Thompson, a poet and brother of the historian E. P. Thompson, and David Hicks, with whom Murdoch was engaged during a short, passionate affair.
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NATURAL HISTORY. The Codex Canadensis and the Writings of Louis Nicolas: The Natural History of the New World, Histoire Naturelle des Indes Occidentales. Edited by Franois-Marc Gagnon, Nancy Senior, and Ral Quellet. McGill-Queen's University Press. 2011. 676 pp. $65. ISBN: 9780773538764. The Codex Canadensis was a seventeenth-century illustrated work on the flora and fauna of Canada, while The Natural History of the World was a literary natural history. Gagnon argues that both were produced by Louis Nicolas, a Jesuit priest who traveled throughout Canada between 1664 and 1675, and has had them translated from the classical French in which they were written into modern French, and also into English. The work presents a pre-Linnaean botany and pre-Darwinian account of living things and illuminates how early-modern Europeans perceived the natural world they encountered in America.
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NEHRU, JAWAHARLAL. Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru (1 January-31 March 1958). Second Series, Volume 41. Edited by Aditya Mukherjee and Mindula Mukherjee. Oxford University Press. 2011. 968 pp. $75. ISBN: 9780198070665. This volume includes lectures, writings, letters, speeches, and other works from three months of Nehru's prime ministership. His writings reveal his wide range of interests in national and international affairs. A highlight of the volume involves the infamous LIC scandal, or "Mundhra Affair," which prompted the resignation of the Indian government's finance minister.
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REYNOLDS, DANIEL HARRIS. Worthy of the Cause for Which They Fought: The Civil War Diary of Brigadier General Daniel Harris Reynolds, 1861-1865. Edited by Robert Patrick Bender. University of Arkansas Press. 2011. 343 pp. $34.95. ISBN: 9781557289711. A lawyer in Chicot County, Arkansas, Reynolds enlisted as a captain in 1861, and served throughout the war in the western theater. His articulate journal described the harsh realities of battle and the personal and political difficulties that sometimes divided his soldiers. It offers a view of the nature of command at the company and brigade levels.
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RIX, ALFRED AND CHASTINA W. New England to Gold Rush California: The Journal of Alfred and Chastina W. Rix, 1849-1854. Edited by Lynn A. Bonfield. The Arthur H. Clarke Company. 2011. 356 pp. $45. ISBN: 9780870623929. After marrying in a town in northern Vermont, schoolteachers Alfred and Chastina Rix began keeping a joint journal. After Alfred's departure for gold rush era California, Chastina maintained the journal, summarizing her husband's frequent letters home. Chastina and their young son joined Alfred in California after recording the journey by ship via Panama, and the couple resumed their life together, as well as alternating journal entries. Bonfield's edition is enlivened with photographs and insightful historical annotations.
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ROOSEVELT, ELEANOR. The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Volume 1: The Human Rights Years, 1945-1948. Edited by Allida Black. University of Virginia Press. 2010. 1200 pp. $99.50. ISBN: 9780813929248. The 410 documents in this volume chronicle Roosevelt's impact on American politics and the United Nations, for which she served as chair of the commission drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Letters, speeches, columns, committee transcripts, and other material illuminate the actions Roosevelt took to define, implement, and promote the twentieth-century conception of human rights.
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SANTAYANA, GEORGE. The Works of George Santayana, Volume 7: The Life of Reason or the Phases of Human Progress. Introduction and Reason in Common Sense. Edited by Martin A. Coleman. The MIT Press. 2011. 408 pp. $75. ISBN: 9780262016742. Santayana's Life of Reason was inspired by Aristotle's De Anima, Darwin's evolutionary theory, and William James's Principles of Psychology, and traced the development of the human capacity for appreciating and cultivating the ideal. This critical edition of the first of the five books includes a chronology, notes, textual commentary, and other tools useful to scholars.
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SANTAYANA, GEORGE. George Santayana's Marginalia, A Critical Selection: Book One, Abell-Lucretius, Volume 6. Edited by John McCormick. The MIT Press. 2011. 524 pp. $65. ISBN: 978026201629x. Book Two, McCord-Zeller. 518 pp. $65. ISBN: 9780262016308. Santayana was an inveterate maker of notes in the margins of his books. Transcribed from books in Santayana's library, the notes in these volumes present Santayana's comments, which illuminate, contest, or expand the authors' thoughts.
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SMITH, JOSEPH. Journals, Volume 2: December 1841-April 1843. Edited by Andrew H. Hedges, Alex D. Smith, and Richard Lloyd Anderson. Church Historian's Press. 2011. 558 pp. $54.95. ISBN: 9781609087371. This volume features Smith's first Nauvoo, Illinois, journal and part of the second. It chronicles such developments as the organization of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, proxy baptisms, publication of the Book of Abraham, construction of the Nauvoo temple, the dissent of John C. Bennett, the attempt by Missouri and Illinois authorities to extradite Smith, and the maturing of Smith as a religious and political leader.
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SMITH, JOSEPH. Revelations and Translations, Volume 2: Published Revelations. Edited by Dean C. Jessee and Ronald K. Esplin. Church Historian's Press. 2011. 726 pp. $69.95. ISBN: 9781606419090. This volume presents Smith's revelations in the form that most early Latter-day Saints read and experienced them. Included are photographic reproductions of the Book of Commandments (1833), the Doctrine and Covenants (1835), transcripts of 26 revelation texts published in the church newspaper, and a proposed reconstruction of what would have likely been added to the final 32 pages of the Book of Commandments.
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TAFT, WILLIAM HOWARD. My Dearest Nellie: The Letters of William Howard Taft to Helen Herron Taft, 1909-1912. Edited by Lewis L. Gould. University Press of Kansas. 2011. 320 pp. $39.95. ISBN: 9780700618002. This collection of letters, written during Taft's one term as president and most previously unpublished, reveal the close personal and political relationship that the Tafts enjoyed. The letters, at once gossipy and incisive, open a window into the Progressive Era and indicate a Taft who was far more thoughtful a chief executive than scholars have previously portrayed.
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THURMAN, HOWARD WASHINGTON. The Papers of Howard Washington Thurman, Volume 2: Christian, Who Calls Me Christian?, April 1936-August 1943. Edited by Walter Earl Fluker, Kai Jackson Issa, Quinton H. Dixie, Peter Eisenstadt, and Catherine Tumber. University of South Carolina Press. 2011. 496 pp. $59.95. ISBN: 9781611170436. This volume documents Thurman's return from South Asia, where he had met with Gandhi, and his final years as professor of philosophy and religion at Howard University. The documents reflect the maturation of Thurman's theological and social vision and his embrace of radical non-violence.
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TRANSLATED WORKS. See CROMMELIN, CLAUDE AUGUST; NATURAL HISTORY.
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TRAVEL NARRATIVES. See CROMMELIN, CLAUDE AUGUST; MORRIS, GOUVERNEUR
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WARREN, ROBERT PENN. Selected Letters of Robert Penn Warren, Volume 5: Backward Glances and New Visions, 1969-1979. Edited by James A. Perkins and Randy Hendricks. Louisiana State University Press. 2011. 584 pp. $90. ISBN: 9780807138274. In these turbulent years, Warren produced Audubon: A Vision, Or Else—Poem/Poems, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Now and Then, and the revised version of Brother to Dragons, securing his place in the canon of American literature.
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WASHINGTON, GEORGE. The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, Volume 16: 1 May–30 September 1794. Edited by David R. Hoth and Carol S. Eber. University of Virginia Press. 2011. 848 pp. $85. ISBN: 9780813930992. During the months covered by this volume, Washington faced concerns that arose from the ongoing war in Europe. Embargo evasions, privateers, and the formation of a league of armed neutrality by Denmark and Sweden all required responses. Problems with restive citizens on the southern frontier and with Native Americans were dwarfed in early August by the open rebellion against the excise tax on whiskey in western Pennsylvania. Washington called up the militia after negotiations failed and left Philadelphia on 30 September to join the troops, the same day that news of General Anthony Wayne's victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers reached the city.
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WASHINGTON, GEORGE. The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, Volume 20: 8 April–31 May 1779. Edited by Edward G. Lengel. University of Virginia Press. 2010. 846 pp. $85. ISBN: 9780813930244. As this volume opens, Washington is gathering intelligence for an expedition against the Iroquois Confederacy, which enables him to develop a campaign plan. He views with concern the worsening situation in the southern theater, where the British had captured Savannah and were pressing on Charleston. He is forced to respond instead, however, to a British raid on Portsmouth, Virginia. Intelligence gathered in New York allows Washington to block a British attack up the Hudson River.
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WILLIAMS, RALPH VAUGHAN. Letters of Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1895-1958. Edited by Hugh Cobbe. Oxford University Press. 2010. 668 pp. $55. ISBN: 9780199587643. A selection of about 750 letters from an extant corpus of about 3,300, this chronological volume provides a picture of the famous composer in his own words. The letters reflect Williams's major preoccupations: musical, personal, and political. Although Williams was reluctant to discuss his creative process, the letters include many discussions of his music.
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WOMEN'S HISTORY. See COREY, ELIZABETH; CROCKER, HANNAH MATHER; GORDON, MARGARET E. P.; RIX, ALFRED AND CHASTINA W.
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WORCESTERSHIRE. Little Malvern Letters I: 1482-1737. Edited by Aileen M. Hodgson and Michael Hodgetts. Boydell & Brewer. 2011. 296 pp. $80. ISBN: 9780902832268. A selection of family letters and other documents in the Worcestershire Record Office, this volume relates to the family that has occupied the dissolved priory of Little Malvern since 1538 and illustrates the impact of the Reformation and English Civil War on this area of England.