American Broadside Verse

American Broadside Verse
Author: Ola Elizabeth Winslow
Publisher:
Total Pages: 260
Release: 1930
Genre: American poetry
ISBN:
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"The specimens reproduced in this volume illustrate the several kinds of verse printed in broadside in America from about the middle of the seventeenth century, the date of the first extant imprints, to the end of the eighteenth century, when the newspaper had put an end to this type of imprint as a vital response to contemporay life. A few later imprints are included, but only of verses known to have been printed in broadside before the end of the eighteenth century. For convenience of reference and comparison, the broadsides included are grouped according to their general subject matter. The selections chosen represent the earliest available imprint in each of the several groups, and enough later specimens to indicate range and diversity of treatment." -- Preface.

Empowering Words

Empowering Words
Author: Karen A. Weyler
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2013-05-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0820343234
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Standing outside elite or even middling circles, outsiders who were marginalized by limitations on their freedom and their need to labor for a living had a unique grasp on the profoundly social nature of print and its power to influence public opinion. In Empowering Words, Karen A. Weyler explores how outsiders used ephemeral formats such as broadsides, pamphlets, and newspapers to publish poetry, captivity narratives, formal addresses, and other genres with wide appeal in early America. To gain access to print, outsiders collaborated with amanuenses and editors, inserted their stories into popular genres and cheap media, tapped into existing social and religious networks, and sought sponsors and patrons. They wrote individually, collaboratively, and even corporately, but writing for them was almost always an act of connection. Disparate levels of literacy did not necessarily entail subordination on the part of the lessliterate collaborator. Even the minimally literate and the illiterate understood the potential for print to be life changing, and outsiders shrewdly employed strategies to assert themselves within collaborative dynamics. Empowering Words covers an array of outsiders including artisans; the minimally literate; the poor, indentured, or enslaved; and racial minorities. By focusing not only on New England, the traditional stronghold of early American literacy, but also on southern towns such as Williamsburg and Charleston, Weyler limns a more expansive map of early American authorship.

A Dictionary of American Proverbs

A Dictionary of American Proverbs
Author: Wolfgang Mieder
Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 1348
Release: 1992
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0195053990
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Americans have a gift for coining proverbs. "A picture is worth a thousand words" was not, as you might imagine, the product of ancient Chinese wisdom -- it was actually minted by advertising executive Fred Barnard in a 1921 advertisement for Printer's Ink magazine. After all, Americans are first and foremost a practical people and proverbs can be loosely defined as pithy statements that are generally accepted as true and useful. The next logical step would be to gather all of this wisdom together for a truly American celebration of shrewd advice.A Dictionary of American Proverbs is the first major collection of proverbs in the English language based on oral sources rather than written ones. Listed alphabetically according to their most significant key word, it features over 15,000 entries including uniquely American proverbs that have never before been recorded, as well as thousands of traditional proverbs that have found their way into American speech from classical, biblical, British, continental European, and American literature. Based on the fieldwork conducted over thirty years by the American Dialect Society, this volume is complete with historical references to the earliest written sources, and supplies variants and recorded geographical distribution after each proverb.Many surprised await the reader in this vast treasure trove of wit and wisdom. Collected here are nuggets of popular wisdom on all aspects of American life: weather, agriculture, travel, money, business, food, neighbors, friends, manners, government, politics, law, health, education, religion, music, song, and dance. And, to further enhance browsing pleasure, the editors have provided a detailed guide to the use of the work. While it's true that many of our best known proverbs have been supplied by the ever-present "Anonymous," many more can be attributed to some very famous Americans, like Ernest Hemingway, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, J. Pierpont Morgan, Thomas Alva Edison, Abigail Adams, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, to name but a few offered in this fascinating collection.Who wouldn't want to know the origin of "the opera ain't over till the fat lady sings?" This uniquely American proverb and many more are gathered together in A Dictionary of American Proverbs. A great resource for students and scholars of literature, psychology, folklore, linguistics, anthropology, and cultural history, this endlessly intriguing volume is also a delightful companion for anyone with an interest in American culture.

On the Walls and in the Streets

On the Walls and in the Streets
Author: James Donal Sullivan
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 222
Release: 1997
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780252066245
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James Sullivan presents a brief history of American poetry broadsides from the seventeenth through twentieth centuries. He then explores the extensive use of the broadside during one era, the 1960s, showing how it refigured the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Lowell, Allen Ginsberg, and others and situating it for specific cultural uses within the social and political struggles of the times. Sullivan's introduction lays out the project's theoretical groundwork in the cultural studies movement and surveys the history of the broadside in North America since the advent of printing.

The Broadside Ballad

The Broadside Ballad
Author: Leslie Shepard
Publisher:
Total Pages: 232
Release: 1978
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN:
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Broadside ballads were the printed sheets of verse that were sold in the streets from the early 16th to the late 19th century. They were the documents of the folk ballad, the forerunner of the popular newspaper. Through four centuries such sheets have been eagerly bought and the songs sung by the common people. The whole field of street literature has begun to emerge as a subject in its own right, with great relevance to mass culture. For such study, this work is an original, and primary source. -- Provided by publisher.

The Crossroads of American History and Literature

The Crossroads of American History and Literature
Author: Philip F. Gura
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2004-06-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780271024837
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The Crossroads of American History and Literature collects two decades' worth of the best-known essays of Philip F. Gura. Beginning with a definitive overview of studies of colonial literature, Gura ranges through such subjects in colonial American history as the intellectual life of the Connecticut River Valley, Cotton Mather's understanding of political leadership, and the religious upheavals of the Great Awakening. In the nineteenth century, he visits such varied topics as the history of print culture in rural communities, the philological interests of the Transcendentalist Elizabeth Peabody, the craft and business of the early Amerian music trades, and Thoreau's interest in exploration literature and in the Native American. Displaying remarkable sophistication in a variety of fields that, taken together, constitute the heart of American Studies, this collection illustrates the complexity of American cultural history.