The Bohemians
by Tarnoff, Ben
The unforgettable story of the birth of modern America and the western writers who gave voice to its emerging identity The Bohemians begins in 1860s San Francisco. The Gold Rush has ended; the Civil War threatens to tear apart the country. Far from the front lines, the city at the western edge roars. A global seaport, home to immigrants from five continents, San Francisco has become a complex urban society virtually overnight. The bards of the moment are the Bohemians: a young Mark Twain, fleeing the draft and seeking adventure; literary golden boy Bret Harte; struggling gay poet Charles Warren Stoddard; and beautiful, haunted Ina Coolbrith, poet and protectorate of the group. Ben Tarnoff’s elegant, atmospheric history reveals how these four pioneering western writers would together create a new American literature, unfettered by the heavy European influence that dominated the East. Twain arrives by stagecoach in San Francisco in 1863 and is fast drunk on champagne, oysters, and the city’s intoxicating energy. He finds that the war has only made California richer: the economy booms, newspapers and magazines thrive, and the dream of transcontinental train travel promises to soon become a reality. Twain and the Bohemians find inspiration in their surroundings: the dark ironies of frontier humor, the extravagant tales told around the campfires, and the youthful irreverence of the new world being formed in the west. The star of the moment is Bret Harte, a rising figure on the national scene and mentor to both Stoddard and Coolbrith. Young and ambitious, Twain and Harte form the Bohemian core. But as Harte’s star ascendsdrawing attention from eastern taste makers such as the Atlantic MonthlyTwain flounders, questioning whether he should be a writer at all. The Bohemian moment would continue in Boston, New York, and London, and would achieve immortality in the writings of Mark Twain. San Francisco gave him his education as a writer and helped inspire the astonishing innovations that radically reimagined American literature. At once an intimate portrait of an eclectic, unforgettable group of writers and a history of a cultural revolution in America, The Bohemians reveals how a brief moment on the western frontier changed our country forever.
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The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature
by Tarnoff, Ben
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The Bohemians : Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature
by Ben Tarnoff
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Penguin Publishing Group, 2014. Hardcover. Very Good. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed. Item Price
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The Bohemians : Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature
by Ben Tarnoff
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The Bohemians : Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature
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New York: Penguin Press, 2014. 322 pages, illustrations; 25 cm. Tight, clean copy. Light shelfwear. Dust jacket, with a little wear on the back cover, protected in a mylar cover.. "In the 19th century, it wasn't just East Coast imagination shaping and reshaping American literature. San Francisco-born author/journalist Tarnoff (A Counterfeiter's Paradise) starts in the 1860s in his hometown, introducing… Read more about this item Item Price
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Penguin Press, New York, 2014. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. Hardcover. 319 pages. *** PUBLISHING DETAILS: Penguin Press, New York, 2014. First Edition. *** CONDITION: The book itself is in fine condition and comes in fine dust jacket. More specifically: Boards have no wear, rubbing or soiling. Dust jacket is in excellent condtion. . Pages are… Read more about this item Item Price
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The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature
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The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco writers who reinvented American literature / Ben Tarnoff
by Tarnoff, Ben
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New York: The Penguin Press, 2014. 2nd edition. Hardcover. Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dust-wrapper. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. Physical description; 322 pages: illustrations; 25 cm. Notes; Includes bibliographical references (pages [261]-310) and index. Subjects; Twain, Mark 1835-1910. Harte, Bret 1836-1902. Stoddard, Charles Warren 1843-1909. Coolbrith, Ina D. (Ina Donna) 1841-1928.… Read more about this item Item Price
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The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature
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The Bohemians : Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature
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Bohemians, The : Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature
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