Tarnoff’s ultimate thesis is a strong one, strongly expressed: that together these writers ‘helped pry American literature away from its provincial origins in New England and push it into a broader current’. “Rich hauls of historical research, deeply excavated but lightly borne. Tarnoff’s ultimate thesis is a strong one, strongly expressed: that together these writers ‘helped pry American literature away from its provincial origins in New England and push it into a broader current’.” - Wall Street Journal The Bohemians : Mark Twain and the San Francisco writers who reinvented American literature Author : Ben Tarnoff Summary : Traces the birth of modern America as reflected by the writings of Mark Twain, Bret Harte, Charles Warrant Stoddard, and Ina Coolbrith, placing their achievements and personal lives against a backdrop of the post-Gold Rush.

The Bohemian moment that began in San Francisco would continue in Boston, New York, and London, and would achieve immortality in the writings of Mark Twain. “Tarnoff’s book sings with the humor and expansiveness of his subjects’ prose, capturing the intoxicating atmosphere of possibility that defined, for a time, America’s frontier.” - The New Yorker Ben Tarnoff's elegant, atmospheric history reveals how these four pioneering western writers reinvented American literature by challenging the musty classicism of the eastern establishment. Ben Tarnoff’s elegant, atmospheric history reveals how these four pioneering writers helped spread the Bohemian movement throughout the world, transforming American literature along the way.

Beginning with Mark Twain’s arrival in San Francisco in 1863, this group biography introduces readers to the other young eccentric writers seeking to create a new American voice at the country’s edge-literary golden boy Bret Harte struggling gay poet Charles Warren Stoddard and beautiful, haunted Ina Coolbrith, poet and protector of the group. An extraordinary portrait of a fast-changing America-and the Western writers who gave voice to its emerging identityĪt once an intimate portrait of an unforgettable group of writers and a history of a cultural revolution in America, The Bohemians reveals how a brief moment on the far western frontier changed our culture forever.

The Bohemians by Ben Tarnoff