Stone Breaker : The Poet James Gates Percival and the Beginning of Geology in New England / Kathleen L. Housley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Housley, Kathleen L., author.

Series:

Driftless Connecticut series.

Garnet books.

The Driftless Connecticut Series and Garnet Books

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Poets, American--19th century--Biography.

Poets, American.

Geologists--United States--Biography.

Geologists.

Linguists--United States--Biography.

Linguists.

Percival, James Gates, 1795-1856.

Percival, James Gates.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxix, 169 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations (some color), maps

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Middletown, CT : Wesleyan University Press, [2023]

Summary:

"Percival probed the volcanic origins of rock via geology and the seething nature of his psyche via poetry. Stone Breaker is an in-depth, accessible biography of a true American polymath, James Gates Percival. A poet, linguist, and unstable savant Percival was also a brilliant geologist who walked thousands of miles crisscrossing first Connecticut and then Wisconsin to lay the foundation for the work of generations of Earth scientists. Exploring the confluences of literature, art, and geology, Kathleen L. Housley reveals how one of most famous poets of the 1820's became a renowned geologist with his groundbreaking 1843 work Report on the Geology of the State of Connecticut. 35 color images include historic photographs and paintings of the Connecticut landscape"-- Provided by publisher.

"First biography of nineteenth-century poet, linguist, model for the main character in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher," and brilliant geologist whose seven arduous years walking back and forth across the entire state of Connecticut lay the foundation for the work of generations of Earth scientists"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

1. A Tranquil and Tumultuous Childhood

2. Benjamin Silliman Brings Science to Yale

3. Physician, Heal Thyself

4. Poetry as a Way of Being

5. The Shift to Geology

6. The Connecticut Geological Survey

7. An Intermezzo of Music and Language

8. West to the Frontier of Wisconsin

Epilogue

Appendix 1: Selected Poetry of James Gates Percival

Appendix 2: The Art of Nelson Augustus Moore.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780819500298

0819500291

OCLC:

1355223009