Letters from America (Hesperus Modern Voices)

By Rupert Brooke and Henry James

Book Overview

In May 1913, Rupert Brooke embarked on a year-long expedition of North America, visiting the United States, Canada, and finally the South Seas. He sent his impressions home in a series of letters, written for publication in the Westminster Gazette, describing all his various experiences and reflections: the beauty of arriving by boat at night in New York; the novelties of a baseball game; the awesome grandeur of Niagara Falls and the Canadian wilderness; and "the full deliciousness of traveling in an American train by night through new scenery." He is blunt in his judgments on society, business, and cities; playful in his accounts of Anglo-American relations; and finally humbled by the vastness of the landscape in which he finds himself. Henry James's foreword to the collection on its publication in 1916 is included here as an afterword.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1843914336
• ISBN13: 9781843914334
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Hesperus Press
• Length: 124 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

America in the early 20th century

A fascinating picture of North America in the first years of the 20th century seen through the eyes of a young Englishman from the establishment making a grand tour of America rather than Europe. It is in the tradition of 'travel books' of the period - his impressions of a strange land - and thus also tells us something about people of his class and country.

More people should know Brooke for his prose; it is elegant.

Although "Letters From America" was actually a series of articles that represents the only time in Rupert Brooke's life when he had a paying job,they work well as a book. Written at a juncture in the poet's life when he suffered from considerable emotional strain in his personal relationships, "Letters" is his record of the world beyond England. It is perceptive, elegant writing. Very personal, very interesting (not only for its picture of North America in the early part of this century, but also for its picture of Brooke, with all of his foibles and prejudices).Had he lived through WWI, Rupert Brooke could have been an outstanding prose writer, as "Letters" suggests. Unfortunately, it was not to be.