Author: Kevin Joel Berland
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 0807839116
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
William Byrd II (1674-1744) was an important figure in the history of colonial Virginia: a founder of Richmond, an active participant in Virginia politics, and the proprietor of one of the colony's greatest plantations. But Byrd is best known today for his diaries. Considered essential documents of private life in colonial America, they offer readers an unparalleled glimpse into the world of a Virginia gentleman. This book joins Byrd's Diary, Secret Diary, and other writings in securing his reputation as one of the most interesting men in colonial America. Edited and presented here for the first time, Byrd's commonplace book is a collection of moral wit and wisdom gleaned from reading and conversation. The nearly six hundred entries range in tone from hope to despair, trust to dissimulation, and reflect on issues as varied as science, religion, women, Alexander the Great, and the perils of love. A ten-part introduction presents an overview of Byrd's life and addresses such topics as his education and habits of reading and his endeavors to understand himself sexually, temperamentally, and religiously, as well as the history and cultural function of commonplacing. Extensive annotations discuss the sources, background, and significance of the entries.
The Commonplace Book of William Byrd II of Westover
Author: Kevin Joel Berland
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 0807839116
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
William Byrd II (1674-1744) was an important figure in the history of colonial Virginia: a founder of Richmond, an active participant in Virginia politics, and the proprietor of one of the colony's greatest plantations. But Byrd is best known today for his diaries. Considered essential documents of private life in colonial America, they offer readers an unparalleled glimpse into the world of a Virginia gentleman. This book joins Byrd's Diary, Secret Diary, and other writings in securing his reputation as one of the most interesting men in colonial America. Edited and presented here for the first time, Byrd's commonplace book is a collection of moral wit and wisdom gleaned from reading and conversation. The nearly six hundred entries range in tone from hope to despair, trust to dissimulation, and reflect on issues as varied as science, religion, women, Alexander the Great, and the perils of love. A ten-part introduction presents an overview of Byrd's life and addresses such topics as his education and habits of reading and his endeavors to understand himself sexually, temperamentally, and religiously, as well as the history and cultural function of commonplacing. Extensive annotations discuss the sources, background, and significance of the entries.
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 0807839116
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
William Byrd II (1674-1744) was an important figure in the history of colonial Virginia: a founder of Richmond, an active participant in Virginia politics, and the proprietor of one of the colony's greatest plantations. But Byrd is best known today for his diaries. Considered essential documents of private life in colonial America, they offer readers an unparalleled glimpse into the world of a Virginia gentleman. This book joins Byrd's Diary, Secret Diary, and other writings in securing his reputation as one of the most interesting men in colonial America. Edited and presented here for the first time, Byrd's commonplace book is a collection of moral wit and wisdom gleaned from reading and conversation. The nearly six hundred entries range in tone from hope to despair, trust to dissimulation, and reflect on issues as varied as science, religion, women, Alexander the Great, and the perils of love. A ten-part introduction presents an overview of Byrd's life and addresses such topics as his education and habits of reading and his endeavors to understand himself sexually, temperamentally, and religiously, as well as the history and cultural function of commonplacing. Extensive annotations discuss the sources, background, and significance of the entries.
The Dividing Line Histories of William Byrd II of Westover
Author: Kevin Joel Berland
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469606941
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 527
Book Description
After his 1728 Virginia-North Carolina boundary expedition, Virginia planter and politician William Byrd II composed two very different accounts of his adventures. The Secret History of the Line was written for private circulation, offering tales of scandalous behavior and political misconduct, peppered with rakish humor and personal satire. The History of the Dividing Line, continually revised by Byrd for decades after the expedition, was intended for the London literary market, though not published in his lifetime. Collating all extant manuscripts, Kevin Joel Berland's landmark scholarly edition of these two histories provides wide-ranging historical and cultural contexts for both, helping to recreate the social and intellectual ethos of Byrd and his time. Byrd enriched his narratives with material appropriated from earlier authors, many of whose works were in his library--the most extensive in the American colonies. Berland identifies for the first time many of Byrd's sources and raises the question: how reliable are histories that build silently upon antecedent texts and present borrowed material as firsthand testimony? In his analysis, Berland demonstrates the need for a new category to assess early modern history writing: the hybrid, accretional narrative.
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469606941
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 527
Book Description
After his 1728 Virginia-North Carolina boundary expedition, Virginia planter and politician William Byrd II composed two very different accounts of his adventures. The Secret History of the Line was written for private circulation, offering tales of scandalous behavior and political misconduct, peppered with rakish humor and personal satire. The History of the Dividing Line, continually revised by Byrd for decades after the expedition, was intended for the London literary market, though not published in his lifetime. Collating all extant manuscripts, Kevin Joel Berland's landmark scholarly edition of these two histories provides wide-ranging historical and cultural contexts for both, helping to recreate the social and intellectual ethos of Byrd and his time. Byrd enriched his narratives with material appropriated from earlier authors, many of whose works were in his library--the most extensive in the American colonies. Berland identifies for the first time many of Byrd's sources and raises the question: how reliable are histories that build silently upon antecedent texts and present borrowed material as firsthand testimony? In his analysis, Berland demonstrates the need for a new category to assess early modern history writing: the hybrid, accretional narrative.
The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover, 1709-1712
Author: William Byrd
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gentry
Languages : en
Pages : 672
Book Description
A transcription from the original shorthand of the first part of Byrd's diary now in the Henry E. Huntington Library. Parts covering the period from December 13, 1717, to May 19, 1721, and from August 10, 1739, to August 31, 1741, are located in the Virginia Historical Society and the University of North Carolina Library respectively. cf. Introd.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gentry
Languages : en
Pages : 672
Book Description
A transcription from the original shorthand of the first part of Byrd's diary now in the Henry E. Huntington Library. Parts covering the period from December 13, 1717, to May 19, 1721, and from August 10, 1739, to August 31, 1741, are located in the Virginia Historical Society and the University of North Carolina Library respectively. cf. Introd.
The Great American Gentleman: William Byrd of Westover in Virginia
Author: William Byrd
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Virginia
Languages : en
Pages : 268
Book Description
The biography of William Byrd, hailed as the American Pepys reveals the life of a great gentleman in early America and a rich slice of what the country was really like in the early 1700's.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Virginia
Languages : en
Pages : 268
Book Description
The biography of William Byrd, hailed as the American Pepys reveals the life of a great gentleman in early America and a rich slice of what the country was really like in the early 1700's.
Byrd's Line
Author: Stephen C. Ausband
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 9780813921341
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 214
Book Description
"Byrd often mused about what would happen to the land in the future. While some of the dividing line still feels like wilderness, it is crisscrossed today by bridges and roads, its forests felled and paved over for parking lots and subdivisions, its waters diverted or drained. Ausband's story, therefore, is a natural history of a changed region."--BOOK JACKET.
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 9780813921341
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 214
Book Description
"Byrd often mused about what would happen to the land in the future. While some of the dividing line still feels like wilderness, it is crisscrossed today by bridges and roads, its forests felled and paved over for parking lots and subdivisions, its waters diverted or drained. Ausband's story, therefore, is a natural history of a changed region."--BOOK JACKET.
The Writings of "Colonel William Byrd, of Westover in Virginia, Esqr."
Author: William Byrd
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mines and mineral resources
Languages : en
Pages : 580
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mines and mineral resources
Languages : en
Pages : 580
Book Description
The Byrds of Virginia
Author: Alden Hatch
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 576
Book Description
The Byrds of Virginia are among the most powerful and influential families in this country--and are also one of the oldest. The first Byrd ("William I") settled in Virginia in 1670 and was the founder of the Byrd dynasty that is vigorously represented today by Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr. Now, eminent author Alden Hatch, with style, wit and extraordinary scholarship, traces the history of the Byrds from 1670 to the present in one of the most engrossing and important biographies of an American family to appear in many years. -- Front book flap
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 576
Book Description
The Byrds of Virginia are among the most powerful and influential families in this country--and are also one of the oldest. The first Byrd ("William I") settled in Virginia in 1670 and was the founder of the Byrd dynasty that is vigorously represented today by Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr. Now, eminent author Alden Hatch, with style, wit and extraordinary scholarship, traces the history of the Byrds from 1670 to the present in one of the most engrossing and important biographies of an American family to appear in many years. -- Front book flap
Writings of William Byrd of Westover in Virginia
Author: William Byrd
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780722209936
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 461
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780722209936
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 461
Book Description
The Diary and Life of William Byrd II of Virginia, 1674-1744
Author: Kenneth A. Lockridge
Publisher: Omohundro Institute and Unc Press
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
This eloquent and provocative essay describes the emergence of a Virginia gentleman. Sent to England for an education, William Byrd II soon learned to emulate the ideals of English gentility. In 1704 the thirty-year-old Byrd inherited his father's estates in Virginia, but he lived in England for much of the next twenty-five years pursuing his political ambitions. Thwarted in his efforts to obtain either the position to which he aspired or a wealthy bride, Byrd finally faced personal and financial ruin. Only then did he come to be both literally and figuratively at home in Virginia. The story is told through Kenneth Lockridge's compelling reading of a seemingly intractable source: Byrd's secret diaries. Drawing upon psychohistory, social psychology, cultural anthropology, and literary criticism, Lockridge relates the narrative of a single life, of a person struggling for realization within the context of a Virginia aristocracy itself striving for a mature conception of its role. He captures the essence of what it was to become a Virginia gentleman, and the terrible price leading Virginians paid for the eventual success of their class. In the process, Lockridge demonstrates how a close reading of literary texts can reveal large historical themes. He explores the politics of the eighteenth-century colonial and imperial world and reveals the exact moment at which a matured colonial gentry seized the initiative from its British masters -- fifty years before the Revolution.
Publisher: Omohundro Institute and Unc Press
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
This eloquent and provocative essay describes the emergence of a Virginia gentleman. Sent to England for an education, William Byrd II soon learned to emulate the ideals of English gentility. In 1704 the thirty-year-old Byrd inherited his father's estates in Virginia, but he lived in England for much of the next twenty-five years pursuing his political ambitions. Thwarted in his efforts to obtain either the position to which he aspired or a wealthy bride, Byrd finally faced personal and financial ruin. Only then did he come to be both literally and figuratively at home in Virginia. The story is told through Kenneth Lockridge's compelling reading of a seemingly intractable source: Byrd's secret diaries. Drawing upon psychohistory, social psychology, cultural anthropology, and literary criticism, Lockridge relates the narrative of a single life, of a person struggling for realization within the context of a Virginia aristocracy itself striving for a mature conception of its role. He captures the essence of what it was to become a Virginia gentleman, and the terrible price leading Virginians paid for the eventual success of their class. In the process, Lockridge demonstrates how a close reading of literary texts can reveal large historical themes. He explores the politics of the eighteenth-century colonial and imperial world and reveals the exact moment at which a matured colonial gentry seized the initiative from its British masters -- fifty years before the Revolution.
The History and Present State of Virginia
Author: Robert Beverley
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469607956
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 383
Book Description
While in London in 1705, Robert Beverley wrote and published The History and Present State of Virginia, one of the earliest printed English-language histories about North America by an author born there. Like his brother-in-law William Byrd II, Beverley was a scion of Virginia's planter elite, personally ambitious and at odds with royal governors in the colony. As a native-born American--most famously claiming "I am an Indian--he provided English readers with the first thoroughgoing account of the province's past, natural history, Indians, and current politics and society. In this new edition, Susan Scott Parrish situates Beverley and his History in the context of the metropolitan-provincial political and cultural issues of his day and explores the many contradictions embedded in his narrative. Parrish's introduction and the accompanying annotation, along with a fresh transcription of the 1705 publication and a more comprehensive comparison of emendations in the 1722 edition, will open Beverley's History to new, twenty-first-century readings by students of transatlantic history, colonialism, natural science, literature, and ethnohistory.
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469607956
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 383
Book Description
While in London in 1705, Robert Beverley wrote and published The History and Present State of Virginia, one of the earliest printed English-language histories about North America by an author born there. Like his brother-in-law William Byrd II, Beverley was a scion of Virginia's planter elite, personally ambitious and at odds with royal governors in the colony. As a native-born American--most famously claiming "I am an Indian--he provided English readers with the first thoroughgoing account of the province's past, natural history, Indians, and current politics and society. In this new edition, Susan Scott Parrish situates Beverley and his History in the context of the metropolitan-provincial political and cultural issues of his day and explores the many contradictions embedded in his narrative. Parrish's introduction and the accompanying annotation, along with a fresh transcription of the 1705 publication and a more comprehensive comparison of emendations in the 1722 edition, will open Beverley's History to new, twenty-first-century readings by students of transatlantic history, colonialism, natural science, literature, and ethnohistory.