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A Summer of Hummingbirds by Christopher Benfey
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A Summer of Hummingbirds

By Christopher Benfey

By Christopher Benfey

By Christopher Benfey

By Christopher Benfey

Best Seller
Paperback $16.00

Mar 31, 2009 | ISBN 9780143115083

Ebook $9.99

Apr 17, 2008 | ISBN 9781440629532

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    A Summer of Hummingbirds by Christopher Benfey
    Paperback $16.00
    Mar 31, 2009 | ISBN 9780143115083

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    • Paperback $16.00

      Mar 31, 2009 | ISBN 9780143115083

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      Apr 17, 2008 | ISBN 9781440629532

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    About A Summer of Hummingbirds

    The country’s most noted writers, poets, and artists converge at a singular moment in American life, a great companion to fans of the film A Quiet Passion, starring Cynthia Nixon as Emily Dickinson. 

    At the close of the Civil War, the lives of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade intersected in an intricate map of friendship, family, and romance that marked a milestone in the development of American art and literature. Using the image of a flitting hummingbird as a metaphor for the gossamer strands that connect these larger-than-life personalities, Christopher Benfey re-creates the summer of 1882, the summer when Mabel Louise Todd-the protégé to the painter Heade-confesses her love for Emily Dickinson’s brother, Austin, and the players suddenly find themselves caught in the crossfire between the Calvinist world of decorum, restraint, and judgment and a new, unconventional world in which nature prevails and freedom is all.

    About A Summer of Hummingbirds

    The country’s most noted writers, poets, and artists converge at a singular moment in American life, a great companion to fans of the film A Quiet Passion, starring Cynthia Nixon as Emily Dickinson. 

    At the close of the Civil War, the lives of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade intersected in an intricate map of friendship, family, and romance that marked a milestone in the development of American art and literature. Using the image of a flitting hummingbird as a metaphor for the gossamer strands that connect these larger-than-life personalities, Christopher Benfey re-creates the summer of 1882, the summer when Mabel Louise Todd-the protégé to the painter Heade-confesses her love for Emily Dickinson’s brother, Austin, and the players suddenly find themselves caught in the crossfire between the Calvinist world of decorum, restraint, and judgment and a new, unconventional world in which nature prevails and freedom is all.

    Also by Christopher Benfey

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    See all books by Christopher Benfey

    Also by Christopher Benfey

    If
    Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay
    The Great Wave
    See all books by Christopher Benfey

    About Christopher Benfey

    Christopher Benfey is Mellon Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College. A frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review and The New York Review of Books, he has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the… More about Christopher Benfey

    About Christopher Benfey

    Christopher Benfey is Mellon Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College. A frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review and The New York Review of Books, he has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the… More about Christopher Benfey

    Product Details

    Category: Arts & Entertainment Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Figure Biographies & Memoirs | Historical Figure Biographies & Memoirs

    Paperback | $16.00
    Published by Penguin Books
    Mar 31, 2009 | 304 Pages | 5-1/2 x 8-7/16 | ISBN 9780143115083

    Category: Arts & Entertainment Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Figure Biographies & Memoirs | Historical Figure Biographies & Memoirs

    Ebook | $9.99
    Published by Penguin Books
    Apr 17, 2008 | 304 Pages | ISBN 9781440629532
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    Praise

    “A highly engaging and deftly written sequence of intertwined vignettes. . . . [A Summer of Hummingbirds] reads like a dream sequence, and should not be missed.”
    -Michael Kammen, The Boston Globe

    Awards

    Ambassador Book Award WINNER

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