{"product_id":"housman-country-into-the-heart-of-england-9780374537869","title":"Housman Country: Into the Heart of England","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e Editor's Choice and Nominated for the 2017 PEN\/Bograd Weld Prize for Biography\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA captivating exploration of A. E. Housman and the influence of his particular brand of Englishness\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA. E. Housman's \u003ci\u003eA Shropshire Lad \u003c\/i\u003emade little impression when it was first published in 1896 but has since become one of the best-loved volumes of poetry in the English language. Its evocation of the English countryside, thwarted love, and a yearning for things lost is as potent today as it was more than a century ago, and the book has never been out of print. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In \u003ci\u003eHousman Country\u003c\/i\u003e, Peter Parker explores the lives of A. E. Housman and his most famous book, and in doing so shows how \u003ci\u003eA Shropshire Lad\u003c\/i\u003e has permeated English life and culture since its publication. The poems were taken to war by soldiers who wanted to carry England in their pockets, were adapted by composers trying to create a new kind of English music, and have influenced poetry, fiction, music, and drama right up to the present day. Everyone has a personal \"land of lost content\" with \"blue remembered hills,\" and Housman has been a tangible and far-reaching presence in a startling range of work, from the war poets and Ralph Vaughan Williams to Inspector Morse and Morrissey. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eHousman Country\u003c\/i\u003e is a vivid exploration of England and Englishness, in which Parker maps out terrain that is as historical and emotional as it is topographical.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePeter Parker \u003c\/b\u003ewas born in Herefordshire and was educated in the Malverns, Dorset, and London. He is the author of\u003ci\u003eThe Old Lie: The Great War and the Public-School Ethos\u003c\/i\u003e and biographies of J. R. Ackerley and Christopher Isherwood. He edited \u003ci\u003eThe Reader's Companion to the Twentieth-Century Novel\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Reader's Companion to Twentieth-Century Writers\u003c\/i\u003e, and was an associate editor of the \u003ci\u003eOxford Dictionary of National Biography\u003c\/i\u003e. He writes about books and gardening for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines and lives in London's East End.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Farrar, Strauss \u0026 Giroux-3pl","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50844401926418,"sku":"9780374537869","price":26.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_690de29a-8add-46f6-a307-6aa27be191c2.jpg?v=1737318957","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/housman-country-into-the-heart-of-england-9780374537869","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}