About this item
Highlights
- The Hidden Heart of Charm City: Baltimore Letters and Lives makes a compelling argument for the importance of the "intimacy literary narrative" in getting to know a city through an emotional lens that is otherwise untapped by linear history and geographic landmarks.Using the structure of the anatomical heart, Cottle brings us through Baltimore's unexplored chambers by amplifying the romantic relationships and tender correspondences that have, before now, remained unearthed and underground, neglected and belittled.Igniting the voices of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Lorena Hickok, Ralph Waldo Emerson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and other local powerhouses, along with their spouses and intimate partners, Cottle invites us into the delicate, contested space between the private sphere and the public realm--while there, she asks us to meditate on its contributions to the larger historical narratives of Baltimore.
- Author(s): Katherine Cottle
- 268 Pages
- History, United States
Description
About the Book
The Hidden Heart of Charm City: Baltimore Letters and Lives makes a compelling argument for the importance of the "intimacy literary narrative" in getting to know a city through an emotional lens that is otherwise untapped by linear history and geographic landmarks.Book Synopsis
The Hidden Heart of Charm City: Baltimore Letters and Lives makes a compelling argument for the importance of the "intimacy literary narrative" in getting to know a city through an emotional lens that is otherwise untapped by linear history and geographic landmarks.
Using the structure of the anatomical heart, Cottle brings us through Baltimore's unexplored chambers by amplifying the romantic relationships and tender correspondences that have, before now, remained unearthed and underground, neglected and belittled.
Igniting the voices of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Lorena Hickok, Ralph Waldo Emerson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and other local powerhouses, along with their spouses and intimate partners, Cottle invites us into the delicate, contested space between the private sphere and the public realm--while there, she asks us to meditate on its contributions to the larger historical narratives of Baltimore. Ultimately, The Hidden Heart of Charm City brings its readers to a more intimate understanding of Baltimore by placing the untold stories of its natives at the forefront of its histories. It provides us with a soulful, unedited account of not only what the city has done for its inhabitants, but what it can offer the rest of our nation and beyond.
Review Quotes
"Katherine Cottle has delivered a wonderful realization of her strikingly original idea: to get at The Hidden Heart of Baltimore via analysis of the correspondence of its significant citizens--ranging from Frederick Douglas and Harriet Tubman to F. Scott Fitzgerald and H.L. Mencken--and capturing along the way a good many people I had not known had anything to do with Baltimore: including Mark Twain, W.E.B. Dubois, Eleanor Roosevelt and more. Baltimore has always been a crazy quilt kind of city, in Cottle's phrase, "messy, intersectional, layered, and incomplete." An accessible compendium of small and tasty surprises, this book adds and organizes layers to our knowledge of the place."
-- Madison Smartt Bell, critically acclaimed author of more than twenty novels, short fiction collections, and nonfiction texts, including All Souls' Rising, Toussaint Louverture: A Biography, Devil's Dream, and Charm City.
"Did you think that the cartographers had already completed the map of Baltimore? Think again. With The Hidden Heart of Charm City: Baltimore Letters and Lives, Katherine Cottle sheds new light on the city through the examination of intimate letters by some of the city's most prominent residents and visitors. From John Adams to Eleanor Roosevelt, Frederick Douglass to Harriet Tubman, Mark Twain to Ralph Waldo Emerson, F. Scott Fitzgerald to Edgar Allan Poe, Cottle shows us Baltimore as it was to those who experienced it--in a way that only personal letters between friends and loved ones can."
-- Eric D. Goodman, author of Setting the Family Free, Womb: a novel in utero, and Tracks: A Novel in Stories
"The Hidden Heart of Charm City makes a bold claim for intimate letters written by renowned Baltimoreans. Yes, we can read these candid individual expressions as gateways into the hearts of Baltimore residents like Frederick Douglass, Edgar Allen Poe, and H. L. Mencken. But we can also read them as portals into the multiple desires, hopes, and frustrations that give Baltimore its singular identity. The heart of Baltimore pulses both slavery and freedom, groundbreaking medical treatment and incurable illnesses, opportunity and stagnation. In lively engaging prose, Cottle teases out the multiplicity of feelings privately expressed in letters by public figures, showing that intimate letters are not antiquated documents, but vital signposts for understanding our current times."
-- Dr. Michelle Tokarczyk, author of Working-Class Women in the Academy, Critical Approaches to American Working-Class Literature, and Bronx Migrations.