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WOODS BURNER by JOHN PIPKIN **SIGNED**
US $75.00
ApproximatelyS$ 97.27
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Condition:
Brand New
A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages.
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Located in: Carson City, Nevada, United States
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Estimated between Wed, 15 Oct and Sat, 18 Oct to 94104
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eBay item number:254906492353
Item specifics
- Condition
- Brand New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages. See all condition definitionsopens in a new window or tab
- Subject
- Mystery, Thriller
- Special Attributes
- Signed, 1st Edition
- ISBN
- 9780385528658
About this product
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN-10
0385528655
ISBN-13
9780385528658
eBay Product ID (ePID)
70934838
Product Key Features
Book Title
Woodsburner
Number of Pages
384 Pages
Language
English
Publication Year
2009
Topic
Literary, Biographical
Genre
Fiction
Format
Hardcover
Dimensions
Item Height
1.3 in
Item Weight
20 oz
Item Length
8.5 in
Item Width
6 in
Additional Product Features
Intended Audience
Trade
LCCN
2008-033233
Reviews
"What a terrific tale John Pipkin spins! He has taken a dramatic episode in the life of Thoreau and the history of Concord, Massachusetts, where I have lived for over thirty years, and transformed it into a gripping and profound work of fiction. More than a century and a half ago, my fellow Concordian, Ralph Waldo Emerson said of Walt Whitman. 'I greet you at the beginning of a great career.' The same can now be said to the wonderfully talented Mr. Pipkin." -- Doris Kearns Goodwin "Witty, bawdy, philosophical, touching, and humorous,Woodsburneris a novel I didn't want to end. While Pipkin's book celebrates a sense of both the abundance and fragility of Thoreau's Nature, it also creates a new American Adam and Eve, thoroughly flawed from the beginning but ultimately victorious in their shared joy. Much as in our own time, the characters struggle with their desire for life-shaping change, the age-old stirrings of the body, and economic necessity along with their quests for spiritual, intellectual, and artistic fulfillment. This book is packed with interesting ideas, vital characters, and vivid writing." --Sena Jeter Naslund, author ofAhab's WifeandFour Spirits "Characters whose inner lives are richly and complexly rendered, a suspenseful narrative, and impeccable period details makeWoodsburneran exceptional debut. Pipkin tells his story with the verve and authority of a veteran novelist, and the result is a book that, once begun, compels the reader onward to the very last sentence." --Ron Rash, author ofSerena "Pipkin captures Thoreau's pre-Walden days with great insight and authority. And like all good historical fiction,Woodsburnerforges new connections and blows fresh air through a well-worn legend." --Dominic Smith, author ofThe Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre, "What a terrific tale John Pipkin spins! He has taken a dramatic episode in the life of Thoreau and the history of Concord, Massachusetts, where I have lived for over thirty years, and transformed it into a gripping and profound work of fiction. More than a century and a half ago, my fellow Concordian, Ralph Waldo Emerson said of Walt Whitman. ''I greet you at the beginning of a great career.'' The same can now be said to the wonderfully talented Mr. Pipkin." -Doris Kearns Goodwin "Thoreau''s biographers commonly have made little of the incident, but John Pipkin takes the lighting of that fateful match as the starting point of his intelligent and often lyrical first novel, Woodsburner …. As the fire spreads, his Thoreau springs to life, meditating defensively about accident and intention…and when Pipkin surreptitiously incorporates sections of Thoreau''s journals into his character''s perspective, he creates a Thoreau who rationalizes with adolescent piquancy…. Pipkin also beguilingly conjures as assortment of appealing characters who find themselves in or near the Concord woods the day Thoreau set fire to them…. Since Woodsburner is, in effect, a wily fictional prequel to ''Walden,'' Pipkin''s motley characters, taken together, suggest how our vintage Thoreau, a Thoreau of history as well as fantasy, came to be." - The New York Times Book Review "Wonderfully grandiose…. Pipkin''s portrait of a nation in flux is energetic and optimistic. It''s also a remarkably constructed piece of fiction-vibrant, solidly plotted and lyrically yet efficiently composed-and should be a contender for the year''s important literary awards." - The Boston Globe "John Pipkin''s brooding first novel, Woodsburner , starts on the morning of April 30, as Henry David [Thoreau] squats on the bank of Fair Haven Bay and strikes a match he bummed from a shoemaker. The novel ends that evening, as the blackened forest glows in the darkness and soot snows down on the town of Concord. Over the course of this momentous day, Pipkin moves back in time and across the Atlantic, describing several other characters whose lives are lit by their own fires and altered by Thoreau''s conflagration. The ingenious nature of this structure grows clearer with each haunting chapter. The fire that ''flows like brilliant liquid'' through Concord Woods is a natural engine for a terrifically exciting story, and Pipkin conveys such a visceral impression of the ''clever flames crouching in the branches'' that you can feel the heat radiating off these pages…. But just as captivating are those characters Pipkin has invented, men and women consumed by their own passions. They provide a fascinating impression of the nation when it was still young and swelling and struggling to define itself. They see the Concord fire through their own private flames-fire is everywhere in this novel-and Pipkin allows them to brush up against each other in the most subtle and ingenious ways." - The Washington Post "[A] brilliant first novel… rich and memorable…. [Woodsburner] crackles with heat and energy, as we see these characters tested by the flames, scorched by their passions, beliefs and hopes. John Pipkin uses Thoreau''s own sentence like a match, to spark a vision of a younger America poised at a moment of self-definition." - The Times-Picayune , New Orleans " Woodsburner is Pipkin''s first novel, but, with its complex structure and top-notch prose, there''s not a page that reads like the work of a novice…. The result is, well, transcendent. - The Christian Science Monitor *starred review* "This is a powerfully rendered debut about an infamous moment in American literary history…. Pipkin does an excellent job of br, "What a terrific tale John Pipkin spins! He has taken a dramatic episode in the life of Thoreau and the history of Concord, Massachusetts, where I have lived for over thirty years, and transformed it into a gripping and profound work of fiction. More than a century and a half ago, my fellow Concordian, Ralph Waldo Emerson said of Walt Whitman. 'I greet you at the beginning of a great career.' The same can now be said to the wonderfully talented Mr. Pipkin." -Doris Kearns Goodwin "Thoreau's biographers commonly have made little of the incident, but John Pipkin takes the lighting of that fateful match as the starting point of his intelligent and often lyrical first novel,Woodsburner…. As the fire spreads, his Thoreau springs to life, meditating defensively about accident and intention…and when Pipkin surreptitiously incorporates sections of Thoreau's journals into his character's perspective, he creates a Thoreau who rationalizes with adolescent piquancy…. Pipkin also beguilingly conjures as assortment of appealing characters who find themselves in or near the Concord woods the day Thoreau set fire to them…. SinceWoodsburneris, in effect, a wily fictional prequel to 'Walden,' Pipkin's motley characters, taken together, suggest how our vintage Thoreau, a Thoreau of history as well as fantasy, came to be." -The New York Times Book Review "John Pipkin's brooding first novel,Woodsburner, starts on the morning of April 30, as Henry David [Thoreau] squats on the bank of Fair Haven Bay and strikes a match he bummed from a shoemaker. The novel ends that evening, as the blackened forest glows in the darkness and soot snows down on the town of Concord. Over the course of this momentous day, Pipkin moves back in time and across the Atlantic, describing several other characters whose lives are lit by their own fires and altered by Thoreau's conflagration. The ingenious nature of this structure grows clearer with each haunting chapter. The fire that 'flows like brilliant liquid' through Concord Woods is a natural engine for a terrifically exciting story, and Pipkin conveys such a visceral impression of the 'clever flames crouching in the branches' that you can feel the heat radiating off these pages…. But just as captivating are those characters Pipkin has invented, men and women consumed by their own passions. They provide a fascinating impression of the nation when it was still young and swelling and struggling to define itself. They see the Concord fire through their own private flames-fire is everywhere in this novel-and Pipkin allows them to brush up against each other in the most subtle and ingenious ways." -The Washington Post *starred review* "This is a powerfully rendered debut about an infamous moment in American literary history…. Pipkin does an excellent job of bringing the people and environs of historic Concord to life…. A fascinating fictional exploration of a seminal American event." -Library Journal *starred review* "An inglorious episode in the life of 19th-century author and environmental saint Henry David Thoreau is the subject of Pipkin's impressive debut novel. In 1844, a year prior to his memorable tenure at Walden Pond, while hiking with a friend on the fringe of woods not far from bustling Concord, Mass., Thoreau impulsively lit a match in dry weather during a high wind, starting a fire that would consume 300 acres of valuable forest and farmland. An initial focus on Henry's guilt and panic unfolds into ongoing portrayals of the lives of three other men variously affected by the conflagration, as independently lived and as briefly linked to the life of Thoreau. Norwegian immigrant farmhand Oddmund, "What a terrific tale John Pipkin spins! He has taken a dramatic episode in the life of Thoreau and the history of Concord, Massachusetts, where I have lived for over thirty years, and transformed it into a gripping and profound work of fiction. More than a century and a half ago, my fellow Concordian, Ralph Waldo Emerson said of Walt Whitman. 'I greet you at the beginning of a great career.' The same can now be said to the wonderfully talented Mr. Pipkin." -Doris Kearns Goodwin "John Pipkin's brooding first novel,Woodsburner, starts on the morning of April 30, as Henry David [Thoreau] squats on the bank of Fair Haven Bay and strikes a match he bummed from a shoemaker. The novel ends that evening, as the blackened forest glows in the darkness and soot snows down on the town of Concord. Over the course of this momentous day, Pipkin moves back in time and across the Atlantic, describing several other characters whose lives are lit by their own fires and altered by Thoreau's conflagration. The ingenious nature of this structure grows clearer with each haunting chapter. The fire that 'flows like brilliant liquid' through Concord Woods is a natural engine for a terrifically exciting story, and Pipkin conveys such a visceral impression of the 'clever flames crouching in the branches' that you can feel the heat radiating off these pages…. But just as captivating are those characters Pipkin has invented, men and women consumed by their own passions. They provide a fascinating impression of the nation when it was still young and swelling and struggling to define itself. They see the Concord fire through their own private flames-fire is everywhere in this novel-and Pipkin allows them to brush up against each other in the most subtle and ingenious ways." -The Washington Post *starred review* "An inglorious episode in the life of 19th-century author and environmental saint Henry David Thoreau is the subject of Pipkin's impressive debut novel. In 1844, a year prior to his memorable tenure at Walden Pond, while hiking with a friend on the fringe of woods not far from bustling Concord, Mass., Thoreau impulsively lit a match in dry weather during a high wind, starting a fire that would consume 300 acres of valuable forest and farmland. An initial focus on Henry's guilt and panic unfolds into ongoing portrayals of the lives of three other men variously affected by the conflagration, as independently lived and as briefly linked to the life of Thoreau. Norwegian immigrant farmhand Oddmund Hus, still haunted by images of the fire ignited when the ship that had borne his family to America exploded in Boston Harbor, yearns for his dour employer's buxom Irish wife, and agonizes over whether the recent brush fire he tended had made him the inadvertent 'woodsburner.' Boston bookseller Eliot Calvert, painfully aware of compromises made to support his demanding family, assists volunteer firefighters manfully, but envisions the catastrophe in relation to the unwritten climax of his (hilariously jejune) stage play. And insanely jealous preacher Caleb Dowdy, long estranged from his more temperate clergyman father, seeks purification for his own sin (withholding the promise of salvation from an innocent man falsely accused of child molestation) in the cleansing power of the great fire. Pipkin tells their stories in a breathlessly exciting present tense, layering in substantial information about the credos and conflicts of the new England Transcendentalists.... The author succeeds brilliantly in portraying a young country struggling to shape its idealistic energies into something concrete and enduring. The consequent successes and failures are movingly encapsulated in 'Odd' Hus's emotional, climactic vision of destruction, rebirth and renewal. A superb historical fiction as well as a
Synopsis
Woodsburnersprings from a little-known event in the life of one of America's most iconic figures, Henry David Thoreau. On April 30, 1844, a year before he built his cabin on Walden Pond, Thoreau accidentally started a forest fire that destroyed three hundred acres of the Concord woods-an event that altered the landscape of American thought in a single day. Against the background of Thoreau's fire, Pipkin's ambitious debut penetrates the mind of the young philosopher while also painting a panorama of the young nation at a formative moment. Pipkin's Thoreau is a lost soul, plagued by indecision, resigned to a career designing pencils for his father's factory while dreaming of better things. On the day of the fire, his path will intersect with three very different local citizens, each of whom also harbors a secret dream. Oddmund Hus, a lovable Norwegian farmhand, pines for the wife of his brutal employer. Elliott Calvert, a prosperous bookseller, is also a hilariously inept aspiring playwright. And Caleb Dowdy preaches fire and brimstone to his congregation through an opium haze. Each of their lives, like Thoreau's, is changed forever by the fire. Like Geraldine Brooks'sMarchand Colm Tóibín'sThe Master,Woodsburnerilluminates America's literary and cultural past with insight, wit, and deep affection for its unforgettable characters, as it brings to vivid life the complex man whose writings have inspired generations, On April 30, 1844, Henry David Thoreau accidentally started a forest fire that destroyed 300 acres of the Concord woods. Against the background of Thoreau's fire, Pipkin's ambitious debut penetrates the mind of the young philosopher.
LC Classification Number
PS3616.I65 2009
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