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Bronx Accent
Lloyd Ultan
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Description for Bronx Accent
Paperback. .
For the last three hundred years, and through all its social and economic transformations, The Bronx has been a major literary center that many prominent writers have called home.
Bringing together a variety of past literary figures as well as emerging talents, this comprehensive book captures the Zeitgeist of the neighborhood through the eyes of its writers. Included are selections from the writings of Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain, James Baldwin, James Fenimore Cooper, Tom Wolfe, Herman Wouk, Theodore Dreiser, Washington Irving, Clifford Odets, Cynthia Ozick, Grace Paley, Edgar Allan Poe, Chaim Potok, Kate Simon, Leon Trotsky, and Sholem ... Read moreAleichem.
Lloyd Ultan and Barbara Unger place the literature of these and other writers in historical context and reproduce one hundred vintage photographs that bring the writings to life. Filtered through the imaginations of authors of different times, ethnic groups, social classes, and literary styles, the borough of The Bronx emerges not only as a shaper of destinies and lives, but as an important literary mecca. Show Less
Product Details
Publisher
Rutgers University Press United States
Place of Publication
Piscataway, United States
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
About Lloyd Ultan
LLOYD ULTAN is the author of six books, including The Beautiful Bronx, 1930-1950 and The Bronx in the Innocent Years: 1890-1925. He is a professor of history at Fairleigh Dickinson University and has been appointed the Bronx Borough Historian. BARBARA UNGER is a poet, author, and retired professor of English and creative writing at The State University of ... Read moreNew York at Rockland. She is the author of a book of short fiction plus five poetry collections and is working on a novel. Show Less
Reviews for Bronx Accent
Gouverneur Morris fights the new American government in vain to prevent a road from cutting through his large farm. Edgar Allan Poe takes refuge in the village of Fordham, which is so isolated it has no post office. . . . Clive Campbell and Joseph Saddler are reborn as the hip-hop artists Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash. Through such moments ... Read moreLloyd Ultan and Barbara Unger tell the history of the borough in Bronx Accent: A Literary and Pictorial History of the Borough. . . . The result is a vibrant mix of historical and contemporary voices; at one point an excerpt from E. L. Doctorow's novel Billy Bathgate is followed by an account from Kate Simon's Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood.
New York Times Book Review
Anyone interested in urban history, in American literature or, more generally, in how people shape and, in turn, are shaped by place, will find Bronx Accent a fascinating book. Like some ingenious choral arrangement, the book contains scores of voices recounting, in fact and fiction, how life was lived in the Bronx from colonial times to the end of the 20th century. The authors . . . provide a well-constructed narrative that frames the story of New York City's northernmost borough. But like good straight men in a comedy act, they do an excellent job of setting things up and then stepping out of the way, leaving all the high notes to poets, novelists, letter-writers, diarists, urban scholars and journalists. Part comedy, part tragedy, part cautionary tale, the book conjures up the early years of the Bronx as a woodsy retreat from the rigors of life in the great city to the south; the Bronx heyday, which lasted from about the beginning of the last century to its mid-point; and the borough's chaotic decline and recent rise from the ashes.
New York Observer
The authors take a novel approach: By placing examples of classic writing (Poe, Twain, Baldwin, Kerouac, Wolfe and Wouk, among others) and vintage photographs of da boogie down in historical context, Bronx Accent gives the reader unique insights into the kaleidoscopic shifts in life in the Bronx over the centuries.
New York Post
[Bronx Accent] celebrates its subject. The editorsùa historian who knows more about the borough than anyone living and a poet born and reared in it streetsùembrace the stubborn triumph of a Bronx now on the verge of a renaissance. . . . It is as if each writer included in the book is a friend or family, a literary Bronx meshpochah.
Forward
Ultan and Unger chronicle the rise, fall, and rebirth of New York City's northernmost borough in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by people who live or lived in the Bronx, or who simply chose to write about it. . . . Taken together the pieces, with additional explanatory text by the authors give a good narrative ranging from the Bronx's colonial period through the various waves of immigration and consolidation with Manhattan and the other boroughs. What's more, you get a good sense of how the many destructive forces converged to wreck the area, and how the people's stubborn spirit would not let all of their beloved neighborhoods turn to wasteland. . . . As the subtitle declares, it's also a pictorial history, and the majority of the 97 black-and-white illustrations give you a good idea of what the Bronx looked like way back in its heyday.
Booklist
Bronx Accent is particularly strong in explaining the twentieth century, when the population of The Bronx was at its highest and most of the writers cited resided in the borough. The book is adroitly arranged and provides hours of good and interesting reading. For $32.00, this publication of Rutgers University Press is a bargain. No where else can anyone find a survey of the Bronx past in one volume that can be so easily and enjoyably digested.
Bronx Press
The embattled Bronx and upscale Riverdale have been portrayed, analyzed and sometimes autopsied by journalists, sociologists and historians. But nobody has ever listened to its beating heart through its literatureùthe novels, stories, poetry and memoirs that capture the essence and excitement of Bronx life. Nobody has done it, that is, until now. . . . As an added bonus, the book features nearly 100 vintage photographs and postcard views, the postcards, some almost a century old. . . . Bronx Accent should have a far wider readership than just in the Bronx, since the Bronx, and writing like this, reflect so much of urban America, and its story in many ways is the story of America itself.
Bronx Press-Review and the Riverdale Review
The book is full of insights and very readable. It does justice to the colonies and rural Bronx of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, it is especially rich in describing the twentieth-century urban scene, where there are so many different communities. . . . Ultan and Unger's work is both good history and good literature. Based on extensive research with scholarly selection of representative sources, it gives voice to the enduring spirit of The Bronx. If you would understand this place, start here.
Bronx County Historical Journal
Ultan and Unger emphasize and literary history of the Bronx, providing ample quotations to illustrate literature about the Bronx. They also have almost a hundred interesting photos. The material is organized chronologically, beginning with Jonas Bronck who, in the early 17th century, became the first European settler of the area that today bears is name.
Jewish Journal
Through three hundred years, the people of the Bronx speak out about their lives, joys, tribulations, and aspirations. Lloyd Ultan and Barbara Unger's skillfully arranged anthology combines letters, diaries, memoirs, and literary sources with an insightful historical narrative. The book is particularly rich on the recent decades when the Bronx went from success to collapse and then rebirth. It is good reading and good history.
Roger Wines
professor of history, Fordham University
Bronx Accent is an entertaining, surprising revelation of New York's borough of the Bronx, an unexpected center of literature where some of America's most famous authors lived, and which provided the setting and inspiration for their works. Their novels, poems, stories, and essays reveal the colorful, ever-changing history of this often underappreciated part of the city. Ultan and Unger are insightful chroniclers of the vast variety of their urban experiences. You will be delighted and astonished by the riches to be found in this literary treasure house.
Gerald Gross
Editor of Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know About What
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