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In September 1897 Yone Noguchi (1875–1947) contemplated crafting a poem to his new love, western writer Charles Warren Stoddard. Recently arrived in California, Noguchi was in awe of the established writer and the two had struck up a passionate correspondence. Still, he viewed their relationship as doomed—not by the scandal of their same-sex affections, but their introverted dispositions and differences in background. In a poem dedicated to his “dearest Charlie,” Noguchi wrote: “Thou and I, O Charles, sit alone like two shy stars, east and west!” While confessing his love to Stoddard, Noguchi had a child (future sculptor Isamu Noguchi) with his editor, Léonie Gilmour; became eng...
Scores of birthplace monuments and historic childhood homes dot the American landscape. These special places, many dating to the early years of the last century, have enshrined nativity alongside patriotism and valor among the key pillars of the nation's popular historical imagination. The essays in this volume suggest that the way Americans have celebrated famous births reflects evolving expectations of citizenship as well as a willingness to edit the past when those hopes go unfulfilled. The contributors also demonstrate that the reinvention of origin myths at birthplace monuments still factors in American political culture and the search for meaning in an ever-shifting global order. Beyon...
Yone Noguchi, the first writer of Japanese ancestry to publish books of English poetry and fiction, was also a ground-breaking essayist who introduced international readers to many Japan-related subjects. His earliest essays, published from 1903 to 1906, are collected for the first time in this volume.
The story of Léonie Gilmour (1873-1933)—partner of Japanese writer Yone Noguchi, mother of artist Isamu Noguchi and dancer Ailes Gilmour—a woman who chose a unique path to achieving her personal and professional goals, rising above poverty, racism and an ill-fated marriage to take up the challenge of raising two mixed-race children alone in distant Japan. Bringing together extensive research and lively storytelling, Leonie Gilmour: When East Weds West is the first complete portrait of the unique, pioneering American educator, editor and writer whose story inspired Hisako Matsui's acclaimed film Leonie, starring Emily Mortimer and Shido Nakamura. Gilmour's fascinating tale is told here through her own writings and those of her associates, including rare and unpublished stories and intimate correspondence, along with a detailed biographical account by Edward Marx.
The Forest Hills neighborhood is set within a heavily treed, rolling landscape adjoining Rock Creek Park and was first home to the Piscataway Indian tribe and later to Civil War encampments. Threshing mills and large rural estates gradually gave way in the early 1900s to a residential community in close proximity to the National Bureau of Standards where many of the residents worked. Diplomats, politicians, and many prominent Washingtonians now inhabit many of the splendidly designed houses found in Forest Hills today. 0Images of America: Forest Hills includes nearly 200 vintage images that document the long and fascinating history of the community. Etchings, maps, and photographs combine to illustrate Native American settlers; architect-designed residences; and the homes of Presidents Truman and Johnson, infamous FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, and Post cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post. The book also highlights Connecticut Avenue, the neighborhood's main street; apartment buildings; and well-known artists and authors who have called Forest Hills home.
Diamonds in the Rough reconstructs the historical moment that defined the Cahaba Coal Field, a mineral-rich area that stretches across sixty-seven miles and four counties of central Alabama. Combining existing written sources with oral accounts and personal recollections, James Sanders Day’s Diamonds in the Rough describes the numerous coal operations in this region—later overshadowed by the rise of the Birmingham district and the larger Warrior Field to the north. Many of the capitalists are the same: Truman H. Aldrich, Henry F. DeBardeleben, and James W. Sloss, among others; however, the plethora of small independent enterprises, properties of the coal itself, and technological conside...
Former White House speechwriter Jonathan Horn reveals how the officer most associated with Washington went to war against the union that Washington had forged.
Yone Noguchi: The Stream of Fate, by Edward Marx, is the first full-length biography of the pioneering international Japanese poet Yone Noguchi (1875-1947). Volume One, The Western Sea begins in the last year of Noguchi's life with his postwar effort to reconnect with his estranged son, the famous artist Isamu Noguchi. The story then takes up Noguchi's childhood and years abroad in America and England, until his return to Japan at the time of the Russo-Japanese War. The volume includes a lavish selection of over 200 illustrations and an introduction charting the dimensions of Noguchi's posthumous reputation.