April 1, 2002
Diffley (Where My Heart Is Turning Ever: Civil War Stories and Constitution Reform, 1861-1876) has compiled a fascinating collection of periodical fiction published during the Civil War and Reconstruction. All of the stories are set during the war except Samuel Clemens's piece, which appeared in Atlantic Monthly and focused on the war's aftermath. (Clemens and Louisa May Alcott are the only widely known authors in this collection.) Diffley does not include any biographical information about the authors, but each story is briefly introduced and framed within the war. The majority of selections come from 19th-century literary periodicals published in the North, South, and West. They are uniformly strong and demonstrate how intertwined the home and war fronts were. Diffley introduces the book with a thorough discussion of 19th-century periodical literature and also includes a Civil War time line that incorporates when the stories were set, a Civil War glossary, and a bibliographic essay that rounds out the collection, guiding readers to sources for further study. Recommended for larger short-story and Civil War collections and academic libraries. Margaret Atwater-Singer, Univ. of Evansville, IN
Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.