{"product_id":"hearing-homers-song-the-brief-life-and-big-idea-of-milman-parry-hardcover","title":"Hearing Homer's Song: The Brief Life and Big Idea of Milman Parry - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eRobert Kanigel\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the acclaimed biographer of Jane Jacobs and Srinivasa Ramanujan comes the first full life and work of arguably the most influential classical scholar of the twentieth century, who overturned long-entrenched notions of ancient epic poetry and enlarged the very idea of literature.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this literary detective story, Robert Kanigel gives us a long overdue portrait of an Oakland druggist's son who became known as the \"Darwin of Homeric studies.\" So thoroughly did Milman Parry change our thinking about the origins of Homer's \u003ci\u003eIliad\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eOdyssey\u003c\/i\u003e that scholars today refer to a \"before\" Parry and an \"after.\" Kanigel describes the \"before,\" when centuries of readers, all the way up until Parry's trailblazing work in the 1930's, assumed that the Homeric epics were \"written\" texts, the way we think of most literature; and the \"after\" that we now live in, where we take it for granted that they are the result of a long and winding oral tradition. Parry made it his life's work to develop and prove this revolutionary theory, and Kanigel brilliantly tells his remarkable story--cut short by Parry's mysterious death by gunshot wound at the age of thirty-three. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom UC Berkeley to the Sorbonne to Harvard to Yugoslavia--where he traveled to prove his idea definitively by studying its traditional singers of heroic poetry--we follow Parry on his idiosyncratic journey, observing just how his early notions blossomed into a full-fledged theory. Kanigel gives us an intimate portrait of Parry's marriage to Marian Thanhouser and their struggles as young parents in Paris, and explores the mystery surrounding Parry's tragic death at the Palms Hotel in Los Angeles. Tracing Parry's legacy to the modern day, Kanigel explores how what began as a way to understand the Homeric epics became the new field of \"oral theory,\" which today illuminates everything from \u003ci\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/i\u003e to jazz improvisation, from the Old Testament to hip-hop.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eROBERT KANIGEL is the author of eight previous books, most recently \u003ci\u003eEyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs\u003c\/i\u003e. He has received many awards, including a Guggenheim fellowship and an NEH Public Scholar grant. His book \u003ci\u003eThe Man Who Knew Infinity\u003c\/i\u003e was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book Prize; it has been translated into more than a dozen languages, and was the basis for the film of the same name starring Jeremy Irons and Dev Patel. Kanigel, Professor Emeritus of Science Writing at MIT, lives in Baltimore with his wife, the poet S.B. Merrow.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 336\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.2 x 9.5 x 6.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e April 27, 2021\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45619396411436,"sku":"9780525520948","price":28.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/smartsupplydeals.com\/products\/hearing-homers-song-the-brief-life-and-big-idea-of-milman-parry-hardcover","provider":"Smart supply deals","version":"1.0","type":"link"}