The American Spirit in LiteratureA chronicle of great interpreters. E-book. Formato EPUB Bliss Perry   -  Gaeditori, 2023  - 

An extraordinary piece of American history."We are but strangers in an inn, but passengers in a ship," said Roger Williams. This sense of the transiency of human effort, the perishable nature of human institutions, was quick in the consciousness of the gentleman adventurers and sober Puritan citizens who emigrated from England to the New World. It had been a familiar note in the poetry of that Elizabethan period which had followed with such breathless interest the exploration of America. It was a conception which could be shared alike by a saint like John Cotton or a soldier of fortune like John Smith. Men are tent-dwellers. Today they settle here, and tomorrow they have struck camp and are gone. We are strangers and sojourners, as all our fathers were".

The Amateur Spirit. E-book. Formato PDF Bliss Perry   -  Forgotten Books, 2017  - 

The half dozen essays that are printed in this volume have sufficient unity, I hope, to justify their publication as a book. The emotions of the author who discovers that he has produced a treatise when he intended only a series of essays may be likened to the surprise of the child who observes that his blocks, piled almost at random, make something that looks like a castle after all. My castle is indeed but a modest one. Yet the essays which make up this volume have all been written, I find, with some reference to the cen tral theme: namely, the significance of the ama teur spirit in carrying forward the daily work of our modern world. I have endeavored to illus trate from many fields from sports and poli tics, from science and letters the possibility of combining the professional's skill with the zest and enthusiasm of the amateur.

A Study of Prose Fiction. E-book. Formato PDF Bliss Perry   -  Forgotten Books, 2017  - 

On the contrary, wherever an allu sion to the writings of masters like Scott and Thackeray and Hawthorne would serve the purpose, I have given myself the pleasure of such illustration, knowing that their books will continue to be read long after the novels of the year have faded out of memory.