Charles G. Bell 1916
---------------------------------------------------------- Charles G. Bell : A Biography Bell became an instructor in English at Blackburn College (1939-40)
before leaving for Iowa State University, where he taught English
(1940-43) and then physics (1943-45). Later, Bell joined
the University of Chicago as an assistant professor of humanities.
Leaving Chicago in 1956, he became a Fulbright professor at
Technische Hockschule in Munich, Germany. Bell then went
to St. John's College in Maryland as a tutor until 1967.
Next, Bell went to St. John's College in New Mexico (1967- )
as a tutor and director of graduate preceptorial (1972-73).
Bell worked as a lecturer at several colleges such as Black
Mountain College, the University of Rochester, and the Springfield
Public Library. Also, Bell has served as a guest professor
at the University of Frankfurt in Germany, the State University
of New York, and the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez (Rosenblum
25, Contemporary Authors 50-1). Bell has been married twice and has five children: Nona D., Charlotte C., Margaret Delia from his first marriage to Mildred Cheatham Winfree at the age of twenty-three in 1939 (divorced in 1949), and Carola M. Birnbaum, and Sandra M. from his second marriage to Diana Mason on July 23, 1949 (Contemporary Authors 50-1). Charles Bell's writings include Songs for a New America (verse), Delta Return (verse), The Married Land (first novel in trilogy), The Half Gods (second novel in trilogy), and Five Chambered Hearth. Bell's works in progress are The Third Kingdom, completing the trilogy; Loves Five-Fold, a collection of verse; See It Whole, a volume of articles; Symbolic History, a series of slide-tape dramas; and a study of western arts and soul (Contemporary Authors 50-1). Among his awards and honors are the Rhodes Scholarship in 1938-39, the Rockefeller post-war fellow in 1948, the FordFoundation fellow in 1952-3, and the Fulbright fellow. Bell is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Raven Society (Contemporary Authors 50-1). 2008 UPDATE: According to Paul Cooley, who worked with Charles G. Bell for a number of years, Millennial Harvest: the Life and Collected Poetry of Charles Greenleaf Bell has been released and is listed in the Online Review of Books "recommended reads" column in March, 2007. Cooley continues, "Charles was childhood friends with Shelby Foote and Walker Percy, but his work has been relatively unrecognized. At a time when most poetry was tending toward free verse, Charles, for the most part, stuck by romantic forms.He pretty much did what he wanted, and he did so with unparalleled intelligence and style. His autobiography is well worth reading." In 2006 Charles moved to Maine to live with his daughter Sandy. He is now ninety-two years old now and is still working on his huge manuscript Poetry and Translation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Review
of The Married Land Charles G. Bell's The Married Land is a novel about a married couple, Daniel Byrne and Lucy Woodruff, who are returning to their original homes from where they were living in Maryland. Daniel is returning to Delta Landing, MS; Lucy is returning to her Quaker home in Pennsylvania. Both parties have ailing relatives back home that they must attend. Daniel Byrne struggles to understand his marriage's path while separated from his wife. While separated, Daniel tries to figure out "the road of his marriage" (The Married Land 221). Critic James Dickey writes, "Charles Bell writes on the familiar American theme of return to the natal region, in his case the Mississippi Delta. This primal Birthplace is not so much itself as it is–dwindling in Time–youth, loss of innocence, childhood, innocence, and, finally, underlying all life, the stunned miraculous landscape of birth itself, the womb, water, Creation. Bell bores into his subject with great determination and energy and a keenness of nostalgia amounting almost to desperation" (114). The Married Land by Charles G. Bell was, at first, very hard for me to understand. The back-and-forth plot between the lives of the two protagonists, Daniel and Lucy, and the continuous switching of the tenses from present to past was really confusing. Joseph Rosenblum writes about this novel, "Like Daniel Byrne in The Married Land, Bell speculates about his parents and the impact of their actions on him even before his birth. He looks into the past because ‘time is round: /Backwardness is the shape of things to come' (The Historical Motion); only by looking into the past can one understand the present and future" (26). After reading further into the book, the plot(s) and tense(s) become much easier to understand and, in fact, enjoyable. The "happy" ending to the book is uplifting. Rosenblum agrees, "This happy ending is anticipated throughout the work by its lighthearted tone. Even deaths and disasters do not dampen the overall sense of optimism; many of the potentially devastating events are treated with humor, albeit with compassion" (26). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Related
Websites -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bell, Charles Greenleaf. The Married Land. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962. Dickey, James. "Five Poets." Poetry 89 (NA): 110-17. Gale Research Company. Contemporary Authors. Ann Everory. Volume 2 of 158. New Revision Series. Detroit: Frederick G. Ruffner, 1981. Rosenblum, Joseph --------------------------------------------------------- |
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