Posted by BEN BEAUMONT – Author Jay Parini spoke at the Clinton School last night about his book “The Promised Land: Thirteen Books that Changed America,” which discusses texts that played an important role in shaping American ideas and culture.
From the shaping of American democracy by “The Federalist Papers” and the idea of American independence inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden,” to Mark Twain’s great American novel “Huckleberry Finn” and W.E.B. Du Bois’ meditation on race in America in “The Souls of Black Folk,” Parini discussed books he believed best influenced, represented and defined the complexity of American life.
The 13 books he chose are:
– Of Plymouth Plantation (1620-47), by William Bradford
– The Federalist Papers (1787-88)
– The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1793)
– The Journals of Lewis and Clark (1803-06)
– Walden (1854), by Henry David Thoreau
– Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), by Harriet Beecher Stowe
– Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), by Mark Twain
– The Souls of Black Folk (1903), by W.E.B. DuBois
– The Promised Land (1912), by Mary Antin
– How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), by Dale Carnegie
– The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1946), by Benjamin Spock
– On the Road (1957), by Jack Kerouac
– The Feminine Mystique (1963), by Betty Friedan
CLICK HERE for more on Parini’s book. Video of his lecture will be posted soon at Clinton School Speakers
A poet, novelist and non-fiction author, Parini teaches at Middlebury College in Vermont. He has written biographies of John Steibeck, Robert Frost and William Faulkner. His essays and reviews appear regularly in The New York Times Book Review, The Guardian, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Harper’s and elsewhere.
Jay Parini at the Clinton School.
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