{"product_id":"9780472025800","title":"American Audacity: Literary Essays North and South","description":"One of the foremost critics in contemporary American letters, Christopher Benfey has long been known for his brilliant and incisive essays. Appearing in such publications as the \u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eNew Republic\u003c\/i\u003e, and the \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e, Benfey's writings have helped us reimagine the American literary canon. In \u003ci\u003eAmerican Audacity\u003c\/i\u003e, Benfey gathers his finest writings on eminent American authors (including Emerson, Dickinson, Whitman, Millay, Faulkner, Frost, and Welty), bringing to his subjects---as the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e has said of his earlier work---\"a scholar's thoroughness, a critic's astuteness and a storyteller's sense of drama.\"   Although Benfey's interests range from art to literature to social history, this collection focuses on particular American writers and the various ways in which an American identity and culture inform their work. Broken into three sections, \"Northerners,\"\"Southerners,\" and \"The Union Reconsidered,\" \u003ci\u003eAmerican Audacity\u003c\/i\u003e explores a variety of canonical works, old (Emerson, Dickinson, Millay, Whitman), modern (Faulkner, Dos Passos), and more contemporary (Gary Snyder, E. L. Doctorow).   Christopher Benfey is the author of numerous highly regarded books, including \u003ci\u003eEmily Dickinson: Lives of a Poet\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eThe Double Life of Stephen Crane\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eDegas in New Orleans\u003c\/i\u003e: \u003ci\u003eEncounters in the Creole World of Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable\u003c\/i\u003e; and, most recently, \u003ci\u003eThe Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan\u003c\/i\u003e. Benfey's poems have appeared in the \u003ci\u003eParis Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePequod\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003ePloughshares\u003c\/i\u003e. He has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Currently he is Mellon Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College.   \"In its vigorous and original criticism of American writers, Christopher Benfey's \u003ci\u003eAmerican Audacity\u003c\/i\u003e displays its own audacities on every page.\"\u003cbr\u003e ---William H. Pritchard","brand":"University of Michigan Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47081099100400,"sku":"9780472025800","price":13.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780472025800_p0.jpg?v=1763707112","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780472025800","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}