Four Americans

Public reputation and literary achievement meet in Henry A. Beers's four essays on Roosevelt, Hawthorne, Emerson and Whitman. The opening considers Theodore Roosevelt as a writer, weighing his many books against the demands of his public career. Beers admires his energy and feeling for wild landscapes, yet challenges his judgments about courage, greatness and the value of criticism. The result is a personal assessment, with room for disagreement as well as appreciation.

The Hawthorne essay brings literary discussion into the streets of Salem and the small academic world of early New England. Beers traces connections with Longfellow and Emerson, then examines Hawthorne's interest in chance encounters and the turns of fate. Readers interested in American literary history can follow a critic moving between places, personalities and particular stories, showing how a writer's imagination gives familiar incidents an unsettling meaning.