Paperback / softback
January 29, 1998
9780801858109
English
344
48
9.00 Inches (US)
6.00 Inches (US)
1.125 Pounds (US)
$30.00 USD, £25.00 GBP
v2.1 Reference

Maryland Wits and Baltimore Bards

A Literary History with Notes on Washington Writers

A lively account of Maryland's long-overlooked but substantial contribution to American letters.

In this first comprehensive literary history of Baltimore and Maryland (with notes on Washington writers), Frank R. Shivers, Jr., explores the region's long-overlooked but substantial contribution to American letters. In picture and story, Shivers's lively account ranges from the colonial satire of Ebenezer Cook, to the National Anthem of Francis Scott Key, to the acclaimed works of Poe, Mencken, and Fitzgerald. Here are surprising stories of Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, Dashiel Hammett, Gertrude Stein, John Dos Passos, and other writers influenced by Chesapeake culture—an influence still fresh in the work of such contemporary writers as John Barth, Anne Tyler, and Russell Baker. "Nothing," wrote Gertrude Stein, "really can stop anyone living and feeling as they do in Baltimore." As entertaining as it is informative, Maryland Wits and Baltimore Bards shows us why.

About the Author

Frank R. Shivers, Jr. teaches in the School of Continuing Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of Bolton Hill: Baltimore Classic and Walking in Baltimore, the latter available from Johns Hopkins.

Reviews

"Local treasure Frank Shivers Jr. wields his prodigious knowledge of Baltimore's past in this first literary history of the region."

"Baltimore, Shivers explains, with its courtly charm, crabby cuisine, and proximity to the Chesapeake Bay, lures writers for life, whether its Mencken and Poe or Barry Levinson and John Waters."

"Is there a special quality in our Maryland way of life that is conducive to creative writing and to writers?... Frank Shivers has put together a well-researched, carefully documented, and entertaining study that focuses on these and other questions... The range of this study is extensive but well-managed."

"Shivers has done the Maryland literary community, and literary historians in general, a tremendous service with this book... His eye for important detail, as well as the interestingly trivial, is more than just commendable. He reveals why Baltimore is called 'Mobtown,' where the expression 'hooker' originated, and where the story of George Washington and the cherry tree can first be found... A book any serious lover of Maryland literary history must read."

- Stephen J. Vicchio - Maryland Historical Magazine
Johns Hopkins University Press
Maryland Paperback Bookshelf
From 17

9780801858109 : maryland-wits-and-baltimore-bards-shivers
Paperback / softback
344 Pages
$30.00 USD

Other Titles by Frank R. Shivers, Jr.

Bolton Hill, Blue Plaque Edition

Frank R. Shivers Jr.
Jun 2010 - The Maryland Center for History and Culture
$37.00 USD - Hardback

The Architecture of Baltimore

edited by Mary Ellen Hayward and Frank R. Shivers Jr. - foreword by Richard Hubbard Howland and Robert L. Alexander
Jul 2004 - Johns Hopkins University Press
$64.00 USD - Hardback

Walking in Baltimore

Frank R. Shivers Jr.
May 1995 - Johns Hopkins University Press
$27.00 USD - Paperback / softback

Other Titles from Maryland Paperback Bookshelf

The Dawn's Early Light

Walter Lord - with a new foreword by Scott S. Sheads
Jul 2012 - Johns Hopkins University Press
$29.00 USD - Paperback / softback

Baltimore

Letitia Stockett - with an introduction by Harold A. Williams
Jun 1997 - Johns Hopkins University Press
$30.00 USD - Paperback / softback

Chesapeake Boyhood

William H. Turner
Apr 1997 - Johns Hopkins University Press
$28.00 USD - Paperback / softback

Other Titles in HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Middle Atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA)

The Jim Crow North

Matthew George Washington
Jun 2024 - University Press of Kentucky
$80.00 USD - Hardback
$40.00 USD - Electronic book text
$40.00 USD - Paperback / softback

Chessie

Eric A. Cheezum
May 2024 - Johns Hopkins University Press
$22.95 USD - Paperback / softback

Under the Dome

Hantman
Apr 2024 - Georgetown University Press
$39.95 USD - Paperback / softback

Other Titles in Local history

Chessie

Eric A. Cheezum
May 2024 - Johns Hopkins University Press
$22.95 USD - Paperback / softback

I Dread the Thought of the Place

D. Scott Hartwig
Aug 2023 - Johns Hopkins University Press
$54.95 USD - Hardback
$54.95 USD - Electronic book text

Leading the Change

Karen Nitkin
Jun 2023 - Johns Hopkins University Press
$75.00 USD - Hardback