[For this year’s
annual post-Charlottesville-trip series, I wanted to share tributes to various
folks who were important influences during my Cville years. Leading up to a
special weekend post on a peer of mine who’s aiming to become a Cville
influence in 2019!]
On three reasons
why I’ve been inspired by my second favorite Professor Steve
from the University of Virginia (he’ll understand that
ranking):
1)
His Scholarship: In October
2014 Steve published two books, one a scholarly monograph and one a
collection of poetry (on which more in a moment). That stunning productivity
alone, emblematic of Steve’s continued writing and publishing throughout his
career, has been and remains an inspiration to me to be sure. But the scholarly
book, Belligerent Muse: Five Northern Writers and
How They Shaped Our Understanding of the Civil War, is also on its own
terms (as I argued in that hyperlinked post) a deeply impressive work of interdisciplinary,
public American Studies scholarship, an engagement with literature and history,
collective and Civil War Memory, and why literature matters. That it was
produced by a childhood family friend only makes it that much more influential,
as I know well the life balance, the evolving perspective, the sense of humor,
the humanity behind the scholar who wrote this great book.
2)
His Poetry: In the same month that he published Belligerent Muse Steve also published
his fifth poetry collection, The Red List. Taking
its title from the list of endangered species, Steve’s collection (or
book-length poem) offers a biting, elegiac, angry, impassioned jeremiad on the changes
and threats all around us, while at the same time recognizing that “There aren’t
any jobs for more Jeremiahs.” Like all of Steve’s poetry, this book really captures
the voice and perspective I grew up around, while at the same time that
seemingly conversational or casual style masks what I believe is a highly
sophisticated structure and form. I haven’t done much creative writing since
early college, but that combination of voice and structure, of a conversational
style and a rigorous form, is something I strive for in all of my writing, here
and everywhere else, and another way that Steve has been inspiring to me.
3)
His Home: Longtime family friends are their own special
kind of influence of course, and while it’s very cool that Steve was able to
model these aspects of my professional career, the truth is that as family
friends he and his wife Sandy were
even more directly influential to a young AmericanStudier. That’s especially
true of their home, in the country outside of Charlottesville (on the
incredibly evocatively named Lonesome Mountain Rd.); I have multiple distinct
memories of visits to that home, of long walks with our dogs in nearby fields,
of warm dinners together. An under-appreciated set of childhood lessons have to
do with learning how to be social in genuine ways, to be yourself among
friends, and the Cushman home was one main place where I observed and practiced
that important life skill.
Last Cville
influence tomorrow,
Ben
PS. Influential
people you’d highlight?
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