Greil Marcus Takes on America

America had a name long before it had a culture. Amerige, the land of Americus, was tagged in 1507 when a poet and a cartographer pieced together a map of the Mundus Novus, including the vast land that Amerigo Vespucci stumbled upon on his way to the indies. It was America’s first invention: itself.

That creation begins A New Literary History of America edited by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors. It’s a collection of pivotal ideas, influential writings and eurkea! moments that shaped a nation. We get Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the invention of the blues. The Declaration of Independence and Linda Lovelace.

The anthology takes up films, speeches, love letters, country songs, paintings, comic strips, supreme court decisions, and rock n’roll. All made in America and all looked at with fresh eyes in two hundred essays commissioned and written for this book. Co-editor Greil Marcus, joins us from New York to tell us more about A New Literary History of America.

The Harvard Crimson: New American Lit. Vol. Sparks Debate

Los Angeles Times: 'A New Literary History of America' by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors

(Photo by Josh Kellogg via Flickr/Creative Commons)