Ohio Books

An author of immense popularity, Dawn Powell (1896-1965) wrote satiric, witty, sharply written and observant fiction that went out of print following her death. Then in the early 1990s a renewed awareness of this major literary figure saw the reissuing of her work, only to have it fall back into obscurity once again. Now The Library Of America has brought her work back into print again and in a format that will insure that her fiction will continue to be available to both scholarship and the general reading public for decades to come. Volume 1: Novels 1930-1942 includes Dance Night; Come Back to Sorrento; Turn, Magic Wheel; Angels on Toast; and A Time To be Born. Volume 2: Novels 1944-1962 features My Home Is Far Away; The Locusts Have No King; The Wicked Pavilion; and The Golden Spur. Dawn Powell: Volumes 1 & 2 is a very highly recommended addition to both academic and community library literary fiction collections.

If you are unacquainted with Dawn Powell, as I was until just recently, this is an excellent means to begin your acquaintance, with five of her early novels arranged chronologically in one volume. Powell draws the reader along as she unwinds the thread of her narrative, slowing her pace for extended dialogue and description let her stories breath and speeding it to keep the narrative moving and reader engaged. A major benefit of having these five novels together is that the reader can trace the development of Powell's satiric style as it progresses from a spot here and there in "Dance Night" to all pervading in "Angels on Toast" and "A time to be Born".

The earlier works "Dance Night" and "Come Back to Sorrento", both of which have Midwestern small-town settings, have elements of Willa Cather, while the latter three, all New York satire, fall somewhere between Dorothy Parker and P.G. Woodhouse with punchy, sarcastic dialogue and vivid description. Like Woodhouse, Powell understands the humor of being anthropomorphic in describing inanimate objects.

The brief chronology at the end of the book, which I recommend readers unfamiliar with Powell read first, explains some of Powells returning motifs: absent parents, children farmed out to relatives, traveling salesmen, dysfunctional families and American class consciousness. She is masterful in presenting the "happily" part of the ending, but at the same time, registering misgivings about the "ever after."

"Dance Night", set in a generic Lamptown, is the story of Morry Abbot, a young man coming to maturity and sexual awareness. Powell sets this against the story of his dysfunctional parents, an absentee traveling salesman father and a mother who falls in love with the dance instructor. A whole set of fully-fleshed minor characters fill out the narrative.

In "Come Back to Sorrento", another small town narrative, Connie Benjamin's life changes when a new music teacher comes to teach at the school in Dell River. Connie, who has shown great promise as a singer, but who was restrained by her domineering grandfather who had raised her, has lived alone in her dream world for almost two decades. Professor Decker, who lives in his own artificial world, arrives and the two become fast friends. Although their pretensions, played out for before a spinster school teacher pass well into the realm of embarrassing, Powell deftly keeps them sympathetic simply by keeping the reader fully aware that these characters are lost in a world they only partly created.

Dennis Orphen, the hero of "Turn, Magic Wheel", a New York satire, has written a novelized book in which he satirizes a world-famous novelist, Andrew Callingham, having gleaned most of his information from Callingham's ex-wife, Effie. Dennis, an inveterate womanizer, has unbeknownst to himself, fallen in love with Effie and she with him.

The traveling salesman motif returns in "Angels on Toast", a story of the contrasting marital infidelities of Lou and Jay, who are continually on the road. Replete with wives, girlfriends, and at least one ex-wife, this is the fastest paced of the five novels in this volume.

"A Time to be Born", reportedly based on Clare Booth Luce, is the most complex of the five. Interspersed within the interwoven narratives of Amanda Evans and Vicky Haven are the workplace politics at Peabody Publications, the riotous family life of the McElroy's, (one of Vicky's colleague in the office) and a return of Dennis Orphen from "Turn, Magic Wheel", along with his writing and drinking buddy, Ken Saunders. Although Powell fully exploits her satiric wit in this novel, it does turn grim, especially towards the end.

These are all excellent reads and well worth the investment in this Library of America edition which has the same quality of their other publications. Library of America has also produced a second volume of Powell's works that include later novels.

Dawn Powell (1896-1965) wrote 15 novels which received little notice during her lifetime. Powell was born in rural Ohio. After college, she moved to Grenwich Village in New York City where she lived most of her life. Her novels have a strong element of autobiography. She wrote novels of her early experience in Ohio and novels of her life in New York City and often contrasted the different pacings and values of life in the Midwest and in New York. Her later books are sharply satirical and often cynical. She wrote of love and of affairs and of loss in unconventional situations.

In the 1990s, many people discovered Powell's works, sparked largely by the biography and other writings on Powell by Tim Page. In 2001, the Library of America published a two volumes of Dawn Powell, with notes by Tim Page, including 9 of her novels. The LOA is a wonderful and ambitious project which aims to capture the best in American writing, novels, poetry, history, philosophy. It is a record of American thought and of the American experience.

This volume consists of five novels that Powell wrote between 1930 and 1952. The first two books center upon life in the Midwest while the latter three books are satires of urban life.

The first novel in the book, Dance Night (1930), was Powell's fourth published novel and her own favorite of her works. It is a coming-of-age novel set in a town called Lamptown, Ohio. It deals with the restlessness of adolescence in a small town and with sexual frustration. The book points the way for its hero to leave Lamptown on a train bound, presumably, to seek his chance in New York City.

"Come Back to Sorrento", Powell's next novel was written in 1932 and sold very poorly. But the novel is a gem. It is set in a small midwestern town and its two main characters are a woman, trapped in an unhappy marriage who had dreamed in her youth of becoming a singer, and the town music teacher who had aspired to become a concert pianist and who is likely homosexual. The book is on the whole subdued and understated and centers upon the frustrating relationship between the two protagonists.

The next book in the collection, "Turn, Magic Wheel" (1936), is the first of Powell's novels satirizing life in New York City. Its characters are a young man who has published one successful novel lampooning a literary idol of the day, the literary idol himself, (modelled on Earnest Hemingway), and the women who are involved with both of them. There are great descriptions of the streets, bars and sites of New York City. The story is sharply, but compassionately, told. The book, I think, is ultimately a love story with an ambiguous message about the possiblity of happiness.

"Angels on Toast" (1940) is a satire of the world of business with its two main characters commuting by train from Chicago to New York City in search of money and mistresses. It is sharp and engaging, if one-dimensional. I don't think it as good as the other four novels in this volume.

The final work in this collection, "A Time to be Born" (1942) was one of Powell's few novels to achieve commercial success during her lifetime. One of the main characters in this book is modelled in part on Clare Boothe Luce. In this book, Powell juxtaposes life in midwest Ohio with life in New York City. The two major women characters in the book move to New York from the same small town in Ohio with very different results. This book is satirical but it is also -- actually primarily -- a coming-of-age novel for its young woman heroine. It gives an unforgettable picture of life in New York City just at the eve of United States entry into WW II.

Powell is best known as a satirist, but the books in this series show she was that and more. Her themes as a novelist are somewhat limited, but they are developed well and embroidered in each successive work. Her writing style develops with time until in her final novels (the second volume of the series) it becomes beautiful. She offers a vision of New York City and of the loss of innocence that is her own. The Library of America series is to be commended for finding writers describing American experience in somewhat unexpected places. Powell deserves her place in this series and in American literature. This volume will give the reader a good exposure to the work of Dawn Powell.

This is a must for anyone who desires a better understanding of eschatology from a Dispensational perspective. It is an accurate, articulate, easy to use reference that can be used by scholar and laymen alike.

I've read this book cover to cover and found that this book is long over due for the serious disciple. The authors give a fair and complete treatment of the topics discussed with opposing views taken into consideration. I found this read to be very enjoyable and informative. I would highly recommend this book to seminary students and bible scholars as well as the committed Christian as a must have. I paid full price at the time of publishing, and it was worth every penny...amazon's price is fair and reasonable for a long over due reference treatment of premillenial theology. Absolutely excellent book (but get the hard bound edition, this is no paper back by any means), you'll refer to it time and again.... enjoy. bob

A concise but complete reference. Quickly becoming a "frequently used" eschatology source which does not sit idle on my shelf. Definitely a 'must buy' for those studying the Rapture. John O'Brien Baptist Missionary in Kharkov, Ukraine

As its title suggests, this scrupulously researched tome portrays Emerson as perhaps the most stable and secure (and kindly) among a group of eccentric, sometimes borderline crazy writers and thinkers. A must for any interested in the transcendental movement, or in perhaps its most distinguished man of letters.

In the Epilogue, Carlos Baker writes, "Biography is the study of the whole man in the context of time." Strange, then, that Baker's biography of Emerson begins when Emerson was already in his late twenties. One wonders what happened to Emerson during his first three decades. Nevertheless, Emerson Among the Eccentrics is well worth your time.

In Chapter 31, Baker describes the decision, by Emerson, James Freeman Clarke, and W. H. Channing to write a biography of the late Margaret Fuller, "America's first feminist," who drowned at sea on a return tour of Europe. Emerson, writes Baker, "was certain that whoever undertook the task must pay the closest attention to the personalities who had surrounded Margaret. 'Leave them out,' said he, 'and you leave our Margaret.'"

Emerson's perceptive insight about writing Margaret Fuller's biography is taken to heart by Carlos Baker. His thesis is that one cannot know Ralph Waldo Emerson without paying the closest attention to the personalities who had surrounded him. Therefore, Emerson Among the Eccentrics: A Group Portrait is a biography not only of Emerson, but also of numerous others with whom he associated, such as Margaret Fuller, Henry David Thoreau, Ellery Channing, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Bronson Alcott, Jones Very, Theodore Parker, and Herman Melville.

The most famous of the New England "Transcendentalists," Emerson resigned his position as a clergyman when his first wife died. He believed that ethics, not theology, metaphysics, or religious doctrine, was the heart of Christianity, and he argued throughout his long life (1803-1882) for self-reliance, nonconformity to superannuated dogmas and liturgies, and for the "priesthood" of the lone individual who needs no mediator between himself and the "World-Soul." He proclaimed that "God" was immanently accessible both in nature and in man's soul.

Emerson's writings are brilliantly provocative, but one often is puzzled by the obscurity of his metaphysics. What exactly IS the "World-Soul"? Although Emerson spoke often of "God," one gets the feeling that his concept of deity was more radically "protestant" than often believed. Was it pantheism, or perhaps even atheism in clever disguise? He certainly rejected traditional forms of faith and praxis.

Indeed, one might ask, To what extent was Emerson truly a "Transcendentalist"? Was this a brand of philosophical idealism, a la the "two-worlds" dichotomy of Platonism? Or was it more like Paul Tillich's "God above the god of theism"? ... a humanistic seeking for wisdom, truth, love, and justice that was more anthropocentric than theocentric? Different readers of Emerson will doubtless come to quite different conclusions.

Carlos Baker, who is perhaps best known for his biography and criticism of Ernest Hemingway, died in 1987. Emerson Among the Eccentrics: A Group Portrant is his swan song, and a beautiful volume it is, a fitting tribute to one of the greatest thinkers, moralists, and philosophers that America has produced.

I read this book after final exams for some reason Emerson and the whole American Renassiance mystic was calling to me...I finished the novel packed my bags and drove straight to Concord, Mass...The tour guides at the various sites I visited where perplexed by my numerous inquires...This book drove such a desire in me to learn and love literature from that period...Well worth the time and the read...and make every effort to visit Concord when your done it adds to the experience...

I read this book over two years ago and still vividly remember it. It is a wonderful, lyrical story that connects deeply within the reader and evokes such vivid imagery that it would be easy to believe we have been there as the scenes unfold in the story.

I was stunned when I learned this is Joan Chase's first novel. What a beautiful gift she has given us all with this most unique and wonderful book. Definitely worth buying and re-reading.

I have given this novel to countless friends and relatives, particularly those who say "What should I read?" Beautiful, lyrical prose that still tells a story (sometimes beautiful, lyrical prose doesn't). I love the collective voice of the narrator(s) -- two sets of sisters, all cousins. A masterpiece.

Years ago when I definitely couldn't afford to buy books, much less hard cover books, I bought this book after reading it at the libary. It remains one of my all time favorite books. The characters are unforgettable and the author's style and voice just stunning. I reread it every so often just because it gives me such pleasure and joy. I will always be grateful that Ms. Chase wrote this book.

The Queen of Persia refers to the matriarch of a rural midwest family fifty or so years ago. If you enjoy a book that is at least equally concerned with its moments as it is with where it is going, then this book will probably be good for you. It has been over two years since I read this book and I can still see and feel what Joan Chase wrote ... the overall atmosphere and setting as well as the individuals involved.

When I discovered this book, Professor Dell was suffering from dementia, and did not understand that his manuscript of some 50 years earlier had been published. His daughter discovered it, dust-coverd in the attic. Dr. Dell was best known for his poetry, which like his prose, is clear, true and compelling. He was a man who used simple words to express complex emotions. I have always aspired to follow his lead. George Dell taught forever at Capital University, a small Lutheran college about eight miles from Ohio State in Columbus. Reading The Earth Abideth, you realize you are experiencing the work of a great American writer, who is great at writing about America. In the book's first sentence, his description of the osage orange tree is so well-crafted that you will remember it long after you forget what the trees look like in your own front yard. The story is about a man and his family, not unlike any of us and our families. As you begin to live his life along with Thomas Linthorne, you might as well be in his house, in the barn, in the fields. The events and emotions are basic, raw, believeable. You won't be able to put the book down. Thank you George Dell.

George Dell took me on a a 299-page trip back in Ohio time, and I never wanted to come back. From his no-nonsense introduction to Thomas Linthorne's Sunday afternoon in April, 1866 on page 3, to Thomas' death on another Sunday afternoon in June,about 50 years later, Dell's writing is just right: not too thick, not too thin; just enough to fill you up, and make you wish there was more than just this 1986 story from the 85 year old, smooth-writing Dell.

I started Dell's post-civil War Ohio story of his returning veteran on the Wednesday night after book club, falling asleep around the time the first baby was born. The book called to me at work the next day; I had to leave at noon, taking half a vacation day to finish it. Thomas, wife Kate, and children Hocking, Charlotte, Faith, and Grover are a typical Ohio farm family of the late 19th century - but touched by the same struggles of any family of the this century. Religious faith versus agnosticism, career versus family, and the challenges of neighbors and children all touch the same nerves.

Dell's language has a hint of the Homeric - his "frost-blanched sky" on page 3 signals the epic journey to come. It is a odyssey worth taking, filled with temptations, truth, and consequences. Rnjoy the scenery; the pace is perfect, and the company outstanding. I hope my Ohio ancestors lived lives half as thoughtful, and at least as hopeful, as Dell's Linthorne family.

I have read this book over, and over, and over again, and I never tire of it. It truly is a treasure. By reading it, you absorb a bit of history, and you benefit from experiencing triumph, joy, heartache and sadness, religion, even humor. Almost like 'Little House on The Prairie' with quite a bit of spice.

_Feminism in the Heartland_ will give young women a feel for the joys and sorrows of second wave feminism. As a community activist, I learned a lot from this readable study on how people, with little political clout, came together and built a movement that changed the fabric of American society.

_Feminism in the Heartland_ will give young women a feel for the joys and sorrows of second wave feminism. As a community activist, I learned a lot from this readable study on how people, with little political clout, came together and built a movement that changed the fabric of American society.

In the fall of 1969, some 20 women from all walks of life gathered in the living room of a middle class family home in Dayton, Ohio, to learn about the birth of a new idea: women's liberation. They ranged in age from 20 to 40. Among them were a minister, a journalist, several stay-at-home moms, a college student, a clerical union organizer, a social worker and a retail clerk. Like the women who initiated the "first wave" of the women's movement when they met in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, many of the Dayton women were first awakened to their own oppression while working for the liberation of others. The Dayton feminists were as inspired by the civil rights and black liberation movements of the 1960s as the 19th century feminists were by abolitionism.

Within a year, the women in that room inspired hundreds of others throughout the city and suburbs of that quintessential Middle American town to reexamine their own lives and communities in small consciousness raising groups. By the end of the 1970s, close to a dozen women's organizations ranging from a socialist feminist collective to a pro-choice coalition had brought profound changes to the lives of thousands of their sisters in Dayton and beyond.

This is the story Judith Ezekiel tells in Feminism in the Heartland. An impeccably researched scholarly work that is must reading for serious students of women's studies, this book also offers a fascinating collection of personal stories told by 58 of the women who were involved. As one of those women, I can attest to the author's fairness, thoroughness and accuracy. The stories are as fresh and inspirational today as they were when they first unfolded.

Final Exam is a compelling mystery. It is a brilliant exploration of what drives people with the best-- and worst-- intentions.

Great story, great characters (especially college security guard and investigator Billy Hoover). I really enjoyed this book. I picked this up on a whim, not knowing what to expect, and I have to say, I was really drawn into it and I would highly recommend it.

While I normally don't pick up mystery-like novels, Final Exam immediately drew me in. Kluge writes a fast-paced, exciting novel that I would recommend to everyone.

The service was prompt, the merchandise was as advertised, and this purchase saved me time & money!

Thanks!

I'm a Sports Science major with a concentration in Physical Therapy and this book was used for a undergrad Lifetime physical fitness class. Man, a lot of books lack key information needed in this field but this book is right on. The chapters are well put together in a great order. No skipping around chapters. It's a great beginners good. two thumbs up!

This is a solid book for teaching you the basics of leading a healthy life. For people not well educated on basic wellness ideas, this can be a godsend: it will guide you through many topics that are considered common knowledge but, unfortunately, probably aren't as well-known and properly understood as they should be.

Topics covered here include:
- basic methods to studying and eliminating unhealthy habits
- stress sources and management
- strength exercises, including photos and descriptions of many common ones: good for an exercise novice who'd like to avoid the embarrassment of looking totally confused at the gym (though there's no substitute to a trainer who knows what he's doing)
- healthy eating habits, and detailed analysis of carbs, fats, and other things food is made up of
- coverage of diseases, including STDs and other chronic illnesses

This book is great for independent study, which was the method I used it. Augmenting it with help from a teacher could highlight other areas the book doesn't go quite as in-depth into; in my class's studies, many web sites had to be visited, which added some good knowledge outside the book's scope. Also, each chapter seems to be a little long; splitting some chapters up into shorter sections would have made me feel like I was moving through the book quicker.

However, this is a quality-written book from McGraw Hill. It could be good for anyone, young or old, who doesn't know much but wants to learn how to live a healthy life. If you're looking to get into shape for the summer, but have never paid attention to your health habits before, this book can actually be quite a good starting point: it can help point out how certain foods will affect your body, and give you a quick overview of many common, effective, good exercises. Very recommended for either class or independent study.

This book was written by expert professional paleontologists to describe the fossils of one of the most paleontologically-diverse states in the USA. The illustrations are excellent, the systematics are accurate, and the descriptions are succinct and readable. Anyone interested in fossils anywhere will want a copy of this book. The price is extraordinarily low for the value!

This book includes dichotomous keys and full plate photos of all major fossil groups in Ohio--from Ordovician trilobites to Pleistocene mammals. If you are interested in Paleontology in Ohio or nearby states, this book can't be beat. In addition, this book is an amazing VALUE. You can purchase this book directly from the Ohio Geological Survery for $30 + shipping (http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/geosurvey/pub/bulletin/b70/tabid/7329/Default.aspx) . I encourage you to order directly and save yourself tons of money compared to retail dealers.

We hunt fossils all over Ohio. This book is great for identifying the fossils we are finding around Ohio. I would highly recommend this book. It's very educational and has great pictures.

Set in Cincinnati during the summer of 1942, Roger Karshner's splendidly crafted novel, Getting Sentimental Over You, is a nostalgic story of a love found on the top deck of the "Island Queen," an old boat chugging slowly down the Ohio River. Getting Sentimental Over You is a highly recommended and original work of innocence, growth, and unrequited love set against a background of World War II's earliest days.

I couldn't find "Getting Sentimental Over You" in my local bookstores, so I had to order it. It was worth the wait.
The book is a marvellous portrait of a bygone time and the feelings experienced by those who lived it. Not only did the author awaken memories from my very young childhood, but he also created pleasurable experiences for me that might have been. The book is wonderfully "old timey," in the sense that the writing appears to be contemporaneous with the period about which it is written. Every description - music, clothing, behavior, personal insights about well known personalities - seem to be observed in the course of real life experiences.
When "Getting Sentimental Over You" is made into a movie, the filmmakers will have an easy time of it because the author has already created all the images for them.

A beautifully written love story that will take you back to the Big Band days of Tommy Dorsey. This book is a quick read that will fill your heart and soul. I truly enjoyed it and recommend it highly for the romantic in all of us!