Infelicia and Other Writings

by Menken, Adah Isaacs; Eiselein, Gregory

• ISBN13: 9781551112848
• ISBN10: 1551112841
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-03-01
• Publisher: Broadview Pr

Summary

Adah Isaacs Menken was the most highly paid and most scandalous stage performer of the 1860s. She is also one of the most fascinating and unconventional writers in American literary history, and the first to follow the revolution in poetry started by Whitman's Leaves of Grass. This edition presents, for the first time, a generous selection of Menken's uncollected poems and essays, along with the first edition of Infelicia (1868), her only book.Also included is a range of carefully selected appendices that help contextualize Menken's writings in terms of theater, Judaism, Bohemianism, women's rights, and women writers.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. 11
Introduction	p. 15
Adah Isaacs Menken: A Brief Chronology	p. 36
A Note on the Text	p. 38
Resurgam	p. 43
Dreams of Beauty	p. 46
My Heritage	p. 48
Judith	p. 50
Working and Waiting	p. 52
The Release	p. 55
In Vain	p. 57
Venetia	p. 59
The Ship That Went Down	p. 60
Battle of the Stars	p. 63
Myself	p. 68
Into the Depths	p. 71
Sale of Souls	p. 74
One Year Ago	p. 78
Genius	p. 79
Drifts That Bar My Door	p. 82
Aspiration	p. 85
Miserimus	p. 85
A Memory	p. 86
Hemlock in the Furrows	p. 88
Hear, O Israel!	p. 92
Where the Flocks Shall Be Led	p. 95
Pro Patria	p. 97
Karazah to Karl	p. 103
A Fragment	p. 103
The Autograph on the Soul	p. 107
Adelina Patti	p. 110
Dying	p. 111
Saved	p. 115
Answer Me	p. 118
Infelix	p. 120
To My Brother Gus	p. 122
I am Thine - To W.H.K.	p. 122
The Bright and Beautiful	p. 124
New Advertisement!!!	p. 124
"Milton wrote a letter to his lady love"	p. 125
Wounded	p. 125
Sinai	p. 127
Dum Spiro, Spero	p. 128
Moses	p. 129
Oppression of the Jews, Under the Turkish Empire	p. 130
Spring!	p. 133
[actual symbol not reproducible]	p. 134
To Nathan Mayer, M.D.	p. 135
Rosaline	p. 137
What An Angel Said to Me!	p. 137
To the Sons of Israel	p. 138
A Heart-Wail	p. 140
[actual symbol not reproducible]	p. 141
Spirit Sighs	p. 142
My World of Thought	p. 143
All is Beauty, All is Glory!	p. 144
On the Death of Rufus Choate	p. 145
The Dark Hour	p. 146
"Why do I love you?"	p. 148
Knocking at the Door	p. 149
Dream of the Alhambra	p. 150
Song	p. 152
Our Mother	p. 153
The Last	p. 153
Passion	p. 154
Conscience	p. 155
Gold	p. 156
Farewell to Fanny	p. 157
A Wish for Nellie	p. 158
Louisiana	p. 158
Lake Michigan	p. 159
The Storm	p. 160
A L'Outrance!	p. 162
My Spirit Love	p. 162
The Poet	p. 164
Reply to Dora Shaw	p. 164
The Angel's Whisper	p. 166
Shylock	p. 167
Midnight in New-Orleans	p. 168
Death and Eternity	p. 173
The Jew in Parliament	p. 174
Swimming Against the Current	p. 176
Self Defence	p. 180
Affinity of Poetry and Religion	p. 184
Women of the World	p. 188
Behind the Scenes	p. 191
Lodgings to Let - References Exchanged	p. 194
App. A: Biographies	p. 197
App. B: Correspondence	p. 229
App. C: Critical Reception	p. 242
App. D: Cultural Contexts	p. 256
Archives and Collections: Abbreviations	p. 284
Bibliography	p. 285
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