Beneath the second sun : a cultural history of Indian summer / Adam Sweeting.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sweeting, Adam W., 1963-

Series:

Revisiting New England

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--New England--History and criticism.

American literature.

Summer.

History.

Autumn.

Climatology.

New England.

Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862--Knowledge and learning--New England.

Thoreau, Henry David.

Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862.

Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886--Knowledge and learning--New England.

Dickinson, Emily.

Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886.

New England--Climate--History--19th century.

Autumn--New England--History--19th century.

Summer--New England--History--19th century.

Indians of North America--New England.

Indians of North America.

New England--In literature.

Weather in literature.

Indians in literature.

Autumn in literature.

Summer in literature.

Physical Description:

xii, 191 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Hanover : University Press of New England [for] University of New Hampshire, [2003]

Summary:

Indian summer, the succession of warm, fair days gracing New England in autumn, is at once a flourishing and magical period signaling the end of fall, a meteorological event, a vernacular cultural construction, and a literary metaphor. In this appealing and elegant book, Adam Sweeting plumbs Indian summer's use in literature as a symbol of second chance, rebirth, or reprieve before the onset of a harsher season. Well researched and charmingly written, Beneath the Second Sun is the first book to system-atically treat the history and uses of Indian summer imagery in American life. The author focuses on the ways in which New Englanders traditionally have embraced the season, and he places the celebration of its beauty and its melancholy qualities within the context of Anglo-Native American relations. Sweeting does not try to locate the original definition of Indian summer, rather he explores the more interesting ways in which the season has been imagined and described in American culture.

Nineteenth-century authors such as Philip Freneau, Susan Cooper, Lydia Sigourney, John Greenleaf Whittier, Francis Parkman, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and, especially, Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, and William Dean Howells freely employed Indian summer imagery in their works. In the context of modern American Studies, Sweeting's book is part of a "post-modern" scholarly discussion of how tangible realities such as climate are mediated, even forged, by social needs. Sweeting further investigates the imaginative, early-nineteenth-century "invention" of New England regional identity and integrates traditional American Studies literary and historical concerns with a contemporary interest in the environment and sense of place. Sweeting's graceful and lively style beckons not only scholars of American literature and the nineteenth century but any traveler seeking the glories of autumn in New England.

Contents:

1. The Birth of a Season: Indian Summer Before 1820 11

2. Science and Sentiment: Indian Summer in Nineteenth-Century Popular Culture 29

3. Fighting Words: Native Americans and the Naming of Indian Summer 49

4. Indian Summer and the Creation of New England 73

5. With Faith as in Spring: Thoreau's Indian Summer 97

6. Emily Dickinson and Indian Summer: Beneath the Second Sun 126

7. Coda: Indian Summer in the Twentieth Century 156.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [165]-186) and index.

ISBN:

1584653140

OCLC:

51799389