More Lights Than One

Fred Chappell belongs to a small company of writers renowned equally for their poetry and their prose fiction. In American literature, only Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Penn Warren have won acclaim in both genres. Chappell's fictional work ranges from realism to fantasy and is startling in its documentary detail, often biting in its ever-present humanity, and consistently humorous. This new volume presents a superb assemblage of commentators who cast light on Chappell's remarkable artistry. They make clear why - from It Is Time, Lord to Look Back All the Green Valley - the fictional oeuvre of this western North Carolina author has won the hearts of readers and the praises of critics. Contributors include R. H. W. Dillard, Kelly Cherry, George Hovis, Shelby Stephenson, Patrick Bizzaro, J. Spencer Edmunds, Rebecca Smith, Traci Lazenby, Rosemary Cox, Peter Makuck, Warren Rochelle, John Lang, Karen Janet McKinney, and James W. Kirkland.

Under their interpretive gaze, all of Chappell's work shows a concern with the relationship between the spiritual and material in people's lives, the moral development of the human race, and the flawed, enigmatic, and yet enlightening interaction between men and women. Robert Morgan provides a thoughtful and illuminating foreword, citing both the liveliness of Appalachian storytelling and the subtlety of modern fiction in Chappell's works. Fred Chappell himself has the final word in a wise and wry response to his critics. Few living authors merit the early critical consideration given Fred Chappell in More Lights Than One. A worthy companion to Dream Garden. The Poetic Vision of Fred Chappell, this book will only appreciate over time.

ISBN 0807129399   Pages 312 ISBN13 9780807129395 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Louisiana State University Press   Weight (grammes) 603 Imprint Louisiana State University Press   Published in Baton Rouge Format Hardback   Series title Southern literary studies Publication date 01 Apr 2004   Height (mm) 229 Writer of foreword Robert Morgan   Width (mm) 152 Library of Congress PS3553.H29   Spine width (mm) 28 DEWEY 813.54   Academic level General, Professional / Scholarly, Tertiary education DEWEY edition DC22

		Foreword : the birth of music from the spirit of comedy by Robert Morgan
		Acknowledgments
		Chappell's community of commentators : an introduction by Patrick Bizzaro		1
1		Letters from a distant lover : the novels of Fred Chappell by R. H. W. Dillard		6
2		On reading The inkling by Fred Chappell in a building on the UNC-G campus by Kelly Cherry		27
3		Darker vices and nearly incomprehensible sins : the fate of Poe in Fred Chappell's early novels by George Hovis		28
4		Chappell's women : models from the early novels by Shelby Stephenson		51
5		"Growth of a poet's mind" and the problem of autobiography : distance and point of view in the writings of Fred Chappell by Patrick Bizzaro		72
6		Metanarrative and the story of life in the Kirkman tetralogy by J. Spencer Edmunds		92
7		The search for moral order in Moments of light by Rebecca Smith		119
8		Myth and mundane in More shapes than one by Traci Lazenby		132
9		The shape of truth : men and women in Fred Chappell's More shapes than one by Rosemary Cox		150
10		The Kirkman novels : first and last concerns by Peter Makuck		167
11		The flashing phantasmagoria of rational life : the platonic borderlands of Fred Chappell's forever tetralogy by Warren Rochelle		186
12		Windies and Rusties : Fred Chappell as humorist by John Lang		204
13		Tracing the hawk's shadow : Fred Chappell as storyteller by Karen Janet McKinney		219
14		Tales tall and true : Fred Chappell's Look back all the green valley and the continuity of narrative tradition by James W. Kirkland		239
15		Too many Freds by Fred Chappell		256
		Contributors		273
		Index		277

 Be the first to write a customer review