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Loading... Radiant truths : essential dispatches, reports, confessions, and other essays on American belief (edition 2014)by Jeff Sharlet (Editor)
Work InformationRadiant Truths: Essential Dispatches, Reports, Confessions, and Other Essays on American Belief by Jeff Sharlet (Editor)
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Beginning with Walt Whitman singing hymns at a wounded soldier's bedside during the Civil War, this surprising and vivid anthology ranges straight through to the twenty-first century to end with Francine Prose crying tears of complicated joy at the sight of Whitman's words in Zuccotti Park during the brief days of the Occupy movement. The first anthology of its kind, Radiant Truths gathers an exquisite selection of writings by both well-known and forgotten American authors and thinkers, each engaged in the challenges of writing about religion, of documenting "things unseen." Their contributions to the genre of literary journalism-the telling of factual stories using the techniques of fiction and poetry-make this volume one of the most exciting anthologies of creative nonfiction to have emerged in years. Jeff Sharlet presents an evocative selection of writings that illuminate the evolution of the American genre of documentary prose. Each entry may be savored separately, but together the works enrich one another, engaging in an implicit and continuing conversation that reaches across time and generations. Including works by: Walt Whitman℗ ́Ø℗ Henry David Thoreau℗ ́Ø℗ Mark Twain℗ ́Ø℗ Meridel Le Sueur℗ ́Ø℗ Zora Neale Hurston℗ ́Ø℗ Mary McCarthy℗ ́Ø℗ James Baldwin℗ ́Ø℗ Norman Mailer℗ ́Ø℗ Ellen Willis℗ ́Ø℗ Anne Fadiman℗ ́Ø℗ John Jeremiah Sullivan℗ ́Ø℗ Francine Prose℗ ́Ø℗ Garry Wills℗ ́Ø℗ and many others ℗ No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)200.973Religions Religion Religion History, geographic treatment, biography North America United StatesLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Radiant Truths: Essential Dispatches, Reports, Confessions, and Other Essays on American Belief, edited by Jeff Sharlet (Yale University Press, $30).
Opening and closing with Walt Whitman, our most spiritual national poet, Jeff Sharlet has assembled some powerful texts about what it means to believe in America—or, as he notes in the introduction, “what happens when we say ‘religion’ out loud.”
If it leans toward a disaffected reaction to traditional religion—for instance, H.L. Mencken’s take on the Scopes “monkey” trial—it also includes spirituality found in unusual, purely American places—the too-often overlooked Meridel Le Seur writing about a strike in Minneapolis in the ’30s, or Francine Prose on hearing Whitman quoted at Zuccotti Park during the Occupy movement.
This is a surprising and uniquely American collection of writings on belief, from a chronicler of the intersection of religion and political life. Sharlet is one of the founders of the Killing the Buddha website, where one always finds thought-provoking and insightful pieces on spirituality and religion.
Reviewed on Lit/Rant: www.litrant.tumblr.com ( )