“The Kids’ Books are All Right”

admin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:31:02 +0000

Adults, try this article from the NY Times by Pamela Paul and see how young adult books can inspire adults as well as teens.

“American Bloomsbury” by Susan Cheever

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:17:07 +0000

American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau: Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work by Susan Cheever. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2006.
Adult nonfiction.
Booktalk: Who are the Transcendentalists? In the 1850s, a group of intellectuals challenged the norms of American society. They debated education, ecology, feminism and marriage. Their questions are still being asked today. Find out whyLittle Women’s author, Louisa May Alcott, was the sole support of her family. Was Louisa May Alcott in love with Henry Thoreau, the writer of Walden? Why was Ralph Waldo Emerson the benefactor of this strange group?
Note: Author Susan Cheever has written a fascinating collective biography that reads like fiction. She calls the group the “American Bloomsbury, ”an appropriate appellation. Some are geniuses (like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thoreau), but all are revolutionary in their religion, sexual politics and point of view. The unknown Margaret Fuller has the most interesting (and tragic) life; Cheever calls her “the sexy muse.”

Carol Littlejohn » Adult Booktalk

“The Kids’ Books are All Right”

“American Bloomsbury” by Susan Cheever