Carlos Baker (1909–1987)

Selections --some non-fiction prose, some short stories, about Ameruicans seeing Europe (including Emerson, Robetr Benchley, Hemingway. Mark Twain, Thomas Wolfe), Africa/Near East (W>E>B> Du Bois), the Far East (Pearl Buck, Margaret Mead), Latin America (B. Traven, T.B. Ybarra0, and te US itself -- (Henry Adams, Mencken.) One iontersting leser-known piecev is Henry Doud's Six Months with the Jap Infantry, by an US Arm officer who served six months as an observer with the Japanese army in 1934-35.… (mehr)

2927 Emerson Among the Eccentrics: A Group Portrait, by Carlos Baker (read 15 Nov 1996) This 1996 book begins in the 1830's, after the death of Emerson's first wife, and goes to his death on April 27, 1882, at the age of 72. There were parts of the book which were not too interesting, especially in the early part. I have never been too interested in Emerson's prose or poetry (the one poem of his I know by heart - his "Concord Hymn" - gets only the fleetest of mentions in this book) and this book is more scholarly than popular and it uses few of the popular biographers' devices to whet interest. When Emerson was about 70 he began losing his memory and when he went to Longfellow's funeral on March 27, 1882, he looked in the casket and asked "Where are we? What house? And who is the sleeper?" One is amazed at how much contact Emerson had with famous people--Concord, Mass., in his day was a veritable wellspring of literature.… (mehr)