Constellation of Genius Contributor(s): Jackson, Kevin (Author) |
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ISBN: 0374717869 ISBN-13: 9780374717865 Publisher: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux-3pl
WE WILL NOT BE UNDERSOLD! Click here for our low price guarantee Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions Published: May 2017 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh - History | Modern - 20th Century - History | Social History |
Dewey: 809.911 |
Physical Information: 0.99" H x 6" W x 9" L (1.43 lbs) 442 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century - Cultural Region - British Isles - Chronological Period - 1920's - Cultural Region - Ireland |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Ezra Pound referred to 1922 as Year One of a new era. It was the year that began with the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses and ended with the publication of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, two works that were arguably the sun and moon of modernist literature, some would say of modernity itself. In Constellation of Genius, Kevin Jackson puts the titanic achievements of Joyce and Eliot in the context of the world in which their works first appeared. As Jackson writes in his introduction, On all sides, and in every field, there was a frenzy of innovation. It is in 1922 that Hitchcock directs his first feature; Kandinsky and Klee join the Bauhaus; the first AM radio station is launched; Walt Disney releases his first animated shorts; and Louis Armstrong takes a train from New Orleans to Chicago, heralding the age of modern jazz. On other fronts, Einstein wins the Nobel Prize in Physics, insulin is introduced to treat diabetes, and the tomb of Tutankhamun is discovered. As Jackson writes, the sky was blazing with a 'constellation of genius' of a kind that had never been known before, and has never since been rivaled. Constellation of Genius traces an unforgettable journey through the diaries of the actors, anthropologists, artists, dancers, designers, filmmakers, philosophers, playwrights, politicians, and scientists whose lives and works--over the course of twelve months--brought a seismic shift in the way we think, splitting the cultural world in two. Was this a matter of inevitability or of coincidence? That is for the reader of this romp, this hugely entertaining chronicle, to decide. |
Contributor Bio(s): Jackson, Kevin: - Kevin Jackson has written for The New Yorker, Granta, The Sunday Times (London), The Guardian, and Vogue, among other publications. His books include The Worlds of John Ruskin, The Book of Hours, and Invisible Forms: A Guide to Literary Curiosities. He lives in Cambridge, England. |
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