Book of Americans

by Rosemary Benét, Stephen Vincent Benét

A collection of poems about famous Americans including Columbus, Pocahontas, Benjamin Franklin, Jesse James, and many others

Genres: Poetry, History, Nonfiction, American History

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1933

Reviews

[Oziel Bispo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Book of Americans é uma coleção de poemas publicada em 1933, escrita por Stephen Vincent Benét e Rosemary Carr. A obra apresenta uma série de poemas sobre figuras históricas americanas notáveis, incluindo personalidades como Pocahontas, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson e Abraham Lincoln. Apresenta também personagens folclóricose interessantes como Johnny Appleseed que plantava maçãs por onde passava, o capitão Kidd que roubava embarcações e até o bandido Jesse James.

Os poemas são escritos em uma variedade de estilos e formas, desde sonetos tradicionais até poemas narrativos mais longos. Cada poema é acompanhado por uma breve nota biográfica sobre a figura histórica em questão, fornecendo contexto adicional para o leitor.

A Book of Americans foi bem recebido pela crítica na época de seu lançamento e continua sendo considerado uma obra importante na literatura americana. Os autores, Stephen Vincent Benét e Rosemary Carr, eram ambos poetas notáveis em seu próprio direito. Benét ganhou o Prêmio Pulitzer de Poesia em 1929 por sua coleção John Brown's Body, enquanto Carr publicou vários livros de poesia ao longo de sua carreira.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very useful book with 50 plus poems about individual famous Americans. (A couple explores of America are thrown in.) Written in 1933, a few of the poems are dated, but not as many as one might expect, and always in an way that would be interesting to discuss. Looking through the book is a history lesson, delivered in a painless, and often amusing way:

David Glasgow Farragut 1801-1870

"Damn the torpedoes!"
Bold Farragut said,
"Damn the torpedoes!
Full speed ahead!"

And, lashed to his rigging
With never a squeal,
He led his fleet into
The Bay of Mobile.

The Southern forts thundered
With vigor and vim
But grapeshot and canister
Never touched him.

The waters were mined
With death-dealing load,
But Farragut simply
refused to explode.

And fought till the Southerners
Gave up the fray.
(He'd captured New Orleans
In much the same way.)

So remember if ever
You face such a plight,
There's a pretty good chance,
"Straight ahead!" will be right.

And while "damn," as you know,
Is a word to eschew-
He knew when to say it-
So few people do.

[Charlotte Iannone · Rating 4 out of 5]

God I wish I had this as a kid. My 10 year old self would have had it memorized front to back. It holds the same magic of one of my favorite childhood books — The American Story by Jennifer Armstrong, which is composed of 100 significant American stories from St. Augustine to the Election of 2000. To this day that book is the baseline of my American history knowledge and I’ve read many of its stories to my younger brother.

A Book of Americans does that same work of making the players and stories of American history accessible and familiar. A highlight of course is “French Pioneers,”which ends on “they lived here, they died here, they left singing names.” I also loved the short “Daniel Boone.”

“When Daniel Boone goes by, at night,
The phantom deer arise
and all lost, wild America
Is burning in their eyes.”

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

From Columbus to Woodrow Wilson, this lighthearted poetry collection introduces dozens of personalities and groups of people who contributed, for better or for worse, to the history of the United States. Accompanied by caricatured illustrations of each figure, the poems give little glimpses into the lives, quirks, mistakes, and triumphs of presidents, pioneers, scientists and statesmen.

A Book of Americans was published in 1933, but there is very little about it that makes it feel outdated. Each poem is surprisingly contemporary-sounding, with lots of jokes about the foibles of these historical figures and subtle admonishments about the treatment of Native Americans and slaves. Even the poems which represent a larger group, such as Indians or French Pioneers, or Puritans, give a personality to these segments of the population and have some clever or poignant insight about their role in the development of our country.

What I liked most, though, is the very even-handed way the authors seem to view American History. There is no shying away from negativity - James Buchanan is all but torn apart, for example - but neither is there any romanticized urging for the next generation to correct all the wrongs that have gone before them. The authors seem to accept historical happenings matter-of-factly, and their poems simply convey the facts of these events in an engaging style and format. The final poem of the collection, "U.S.A." also indicates the poets' reasonable understanding of their own place in history. "All our novelties and platitudes," the end of the first stanza proclaims, "Will be Rather Ancient History in 2033."

Later, the final stanza of the poem goes on to say:

So instead of prophesying
(Which is fun, but rather trying)
Who they'll pick to be our great ones when the books are on the shelves,
Here's the marching panorama
Of our past and present drama
-And we shan't know all the answers till we're history, ourselves.

Thinking about our current political climate, in which so many are concerned with being on "the right side of history" this struck me as a particularly clear-headed and rational way of considering our own place in the timeline of significant events. I like that the book doesn't emphasize the here and now as superior in any way to days gone by. It's all a part of the history of the same country, and it's all worth knowing, even if we don't fully understand our role until we're gone. I prefer this outlook to the alarmist "we must stop reading about old white men!" messages much of the children's literature community seems to have adopted.

When we study American history in our homeschool, I look forward to supplementing our lessons with some of these poems. They are a great way to introduce the different characters who will appear in our history books, and they would make good memorization exercises too. This book also covers some people who might not get much attention in history books at all, such as the first real Americans ("They were only babies. / They didn't care. / Peregrine White / And Virginia Dare.") and Nancy Hanks (whose ghost might ask "Where's my son? / What's happened to Abe? / What's he done?") While not an essential resource by any means, I think A Book of Americans will be a welcome addition to our curriculum and a fun way to bring history to life.

This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I memorized many a poem from this one, growing up.

[Melvin Marsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful little book of poetry for kids. Each poem is a minibiography about an important figure in American history. Although many books around the time of publication (my edition was published in the 1960s) do not feature much in the way of important women in US history, this book features several poems about famous women.

[Cynthia Egbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not the best poetry to be found but it is an interesting look at some of the great personalities from America's past. It would make for a great jumping off point for kids to become familiar with some of these names, find something that interests them, and then do further research.

[Stephy · Rating 3 out of 5]

More Poetry! Word Biographies not in prose form. Fun, accurate, Steven Vincent Benet and his wife Rosemary, both noted writers and contributers to "The New Yorker" in it's prime, have collaborated to produce these nifty verses about such "Americans" as Christopher Columbus and Hernando de Soto to Clara Barton and Woodie Wilson. A delight at any time!

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poems about famous Americans.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Short and fun.

[Alyse]

This is a good book for students to learn more about the history of America.

[Mckinley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poems that make historical Americans real.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun rhymes, though not entirely historically accurate, I'm sure. The illustrations are eye-catching and caricaturist.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

so enjoyed this book!