RECENT

BOOKS

Poe (2005), xvii. 290 pages. Jackson: Univ. Press of Mississippi.

"In addition to restoring Poe's place in the Southern literary canon,
Hutchisson . . . erase[s] the fallacies, both personal and professional, that surround the author's life story, and underline Poe's position as a key figure in the establishment of a uniquely American literary tradition." -- Baltimore City Paper

"No little courage is required to storm the substantial barricades of previous work on Poe. The new biography . . . by James M. Hutchisson . . . is to be admired all the more for its bracing emphasis on aspects of Poe perhaps previously given short shrift, chiefly his life as a working literary journalist, his heritage and identity as Southerner, and his humanity. ." -- The Boston Globe (review) The Boston Globe (column)

"In this splendid critical biography, critic Hutchisson demonstrates just how deeply indebted American letters remains to Edgar Allan Poe's craft and style. . . . .Hutchisson performs brilliant close readings of Poe's work . . . [and] provides a fresh reading of his literary contributions that will not soon be surpassed. " - Library Journal

Peter Ashley (2004)

by DuBose Heyward (1932) reissued in "The World's Classics" series of The History Press. With a new introduction by James M. Hutchisson

"extremely good reading . . . made poignant by a sense of irony that would have pleased Stephen Crane." --New York Times

Renaissance in Charleston: Life and Art in the Carolina Lowcountry, 1900-1940, ed. with Harlan Greene. xi. 259 pp. 26 illustrations. Univ. of Georgia Press, 2003.

"captures the complex spirit of the women and men whose creative talents made Charleston between the world wars such an intriguing city" -- Walter B. Edgar, author of South Carolina: A History

"A fascinating book, important to our understanding of the literature and culture of the American South, well researched and filled with new and sometimes startling material." -- Louis D. Rubin, Jr., author of My Father's People: A Family of Southern Jews

"captures the joie de vivre present in the 1920s and early 1930s . . . and adds much to our body of knowledge on the literature and culture of the American South."
--Journal of Southern History

A DuBose Heyward Reader, ed. xliii. 296 pp. Univ. of Georgia Press, 2003.

"lively and well considered . . . . and should help to assert [Heyward's] status as an important American author."
--Columbia State

DuBose Heyward: A Charleston Gentleman and The World of Porgy and Bess. xix. 225 pp. 19 illustrations. Jackson: Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2000. (Reviews...)

"a fine biography, fair in its judgments of the man and his work, and judicious in its handling of the issue of race relations, a subject that dominated Heyward's artistic life." -- Washington Times

"an engrossing and intensely readable study of an often forgotten southern writer." - Richmond Times-Dispatch

"Hutchisson's way with words makes his biography of a wordsmith a compelling one. . . . [his] writing is succinct and straightforward." - Charleston Post and Courier

"It seems likely that future studies of Heyward will have to begin with this book." - Columbia State

"Hutchisson strives mightily to give Heyward his due and succeeds admirably. The work is well-proportioned and always of interest, giving a true sense of the man and his times." --Jewish Exponent

 

Porgy., ed. with an "Afterword." Foreword by Dorothy Heyward. Jackson: Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2001.

"the first major Southern novel to portray blacks without condescension and with scenes focusing on dignity and heroic triumph."
-- Oxford American