Background
James Hutchisson was bom on June 6, 1961, in Washington, DC, the United States. He is the son of James T. and Mary K. Hutchisson.
(The Rise of Sinclair Lewis examines the making of Lewis’ ...)
The Rise of Sinclair Lewis examines the making of Lewis’ s best-selling novels Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith, and Elmer Gantry—their sources, composition, publication, and subsequent critical reception. Drawing on thousands of pages of material from Lewis’s notes, outlines, and drafts—most of it never before published—James M. Hutchisson shows how Lewis selected usable materials and shaped them, through his unique vision, into novels that reached and remained part of the American literary imagination. Hutchisson also describes for the first time how large a role was played by Lewis’s wives, assistants, and publishers in determining the final shape of his books.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0271015039/?tag=2022091-20
1996
(Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American original---a ...)
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American original---a luminous literary theorist, an erratic genius, and an analyst par excellence of human obsession and compulsion. The scope of his literary achievements and the dramatic character of Poe's life have drawn readers and critics to him in droves. And yet, upon his death, one obituary penned by a literary enemy in the New York Daily Tribune cascaded into a lasting stain on Poe's character, leaving a historic misunderstanding. Many remember Poe as a difficult, self-pitying, troubled drunkard often incapable of caring for himself. Poe reclaims the Baltimore and Virginia writer's reputation and power, retracing Poe's life and career. Biographer and critic James M. Hutchisson captures the boisterous worlds of literary New York and Philadelphia in the 1800s to understand why Poe wrote the way he did and why his achievement was so important to American literature. The biography presents a critical overview of Poe's major works and his main themes, techniques, and imaginative preoccupations. This portrait of the writer emphasizes Poe's southern identity; his existence as a workaday journalist in the burgeoning magazine era; his authority as a literary critic and cultural arbiter; his courtly demeanor and sense of social propriety; his advocacy of women writers; his adaptation of art forms as diverse as the so-called "gutter press" and the haunting rhythms of African American spirituals; his borrowing of imagery from such popular social movements as temperance and freemasonry; and his far-reaching, posthumous influence.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002I616DY/?tag=2022091-20
2005
(To many, the life of Ernest Hemingway has taken on mythic...)
To many, the life of Ernest Hemingway has taken on mythic proportions. From his romantic entanglements to his legendary bravado, the elements of Papa’s persona have fascinated readers, turning Hemingway into such an outsized figure that it is almost impossible to imagine him as a real person. James Hutchisson’s biography reclaims Hemingway from the sensationalism, revealing the life of a man who was often bookish and introverted, an outdoor enthusiast who revered the natural world, and a generous spirit with an enviable work ethic. This is an examination of the writer through a new lens—one that more accurately captures Hemingway’s virtues as well as his flaws. Hutchisson situates Hemingway’s life and art in the defining contexts of the women he loved and lost, the places he held dear, and the specter of mental illness that haunted his family. This balanced portrait examines for the first time in full detail the legendary writer’s complex medical history and his struggle against clinical depression. The first major biography of Hemingway in over twenty years, this monumental achievement provides readers with a fresh, comprehensive look at one of the most acclaimed authors of the twentieth century.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0271075341/?tag=2022091-20
2016
(In 1924 DuBose Heyward (1885-1940) was a businessman abso...)
In 1924 DuBose Heyward (1885-1940) was a businessman absorbed in his Charleston heritage. One year later he was the world-famous author of Porgy, the first major southern novel to portray blacks without condescension. Just a decade later George Gershwin had transformed Heyward's book into an opera that would become one of the most enduring masterworks of American music. As a young man Heyward was immersed in the Gullah culture of his city. Especially through his mother, a performer and interpreter of Gullah life in folktale and song, he discovered the gateway into the fascinating world he would immortalize in the characters of Porgy, Bess, Maria, and other denizens of Charleston's Catfish Row. In this full-dress biography Heyward is seen for the first time as a southerner who overcame social restrictions to perceive humanity beyond the class and color lines. Drawing on nearly fifty years of private papers and on previously untapped personal correspondence, this book places Heyward in the social and cultural framework of his time and marks the power and empathy of his extraordinary achievement. Until now, Heyward's role in the writing of George Gershwin's acclaimed opera Porgy and Bess has remained almost unknown. He wrote the libretto singlehandedly, and nearly half the arias are by him. Long thought to have been merely an assistant to Gershwin, he actually was involved in most phases of the production. Although the opera eclipsed Heyward's book, it was Gershwin's foundation stone. Mainly known today as the author of Porgy, Heyward was a versatile artist equally at ease with verse, short fiction, novels, plays, and Hollywood screenwriting. He and his wife Dorothy helped to energize the nascent black theater movement in New York. A cofounder of the Poetry Society of South Carolina, the first regional poetry circle in America, Heyward became a vigorous promoter of southern writing that was to peak in the great southern literary renaissance. Pulled by tradition into a way of life he did not completely accept, he developed a growing social conscience through writing. He began as a social conservative but ended his life as a staunch progressive committed to the advancement of African Americans.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/149681309X/?tag=2022091-20
2017
James Hutchisson was bom on June 6, 1961, in Washington, DC, the United States. He is the son of James T. and Mary K. Hutchisson.
Hutchisson earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Radford University in 1982, Master of Arts degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1984 and received his doctorate at University of Delaware in 1987.
Hutchisson started his career as an assistant professor of English at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania in 1987. Two years later he went to the faculty of The Citadel - the Military College of South Carolina and works there as an associate professor.
Dr. Hutchisson has written widely on American and southern literatures with 10 books and more than 60 articles of literary and historical criticism and nonfiction to his credit. His most recent book is biography "Ernest Hemingway: A New Life."
James has also been interviewed by the BBC, ETV, and the Voice of America and has been featured in articles in newspapers and magazines ranging from the Boston Globe to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
(The Rise of Sinclair Lewis examines the making of Lewis’ ...)
1996(Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American original---a ...)
2005(In 1924 DuBose Heyward (1885-1940) was a businessman abso...)
2017(To many, the life of Ernest Hemingway has taken on mythic...)
2016Hutchisson has "left-leaning moderate" political views.
Hutchisson is a member of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association, the Society for the History of Authorship and the Reading, & Publishing, International Dreiser Society.
