Literature by Place - Exodus Books

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It's kind of crazy to what extent geography can inform an author's work. Jack London spent most of his life at sea, dog-sledding across Alaska, boxing and generally being an adventurous guy who would put today's REI crowd to shame. Would he have penned some of the greatest American novels otherwise? especially ones concerned primarily with man battling the elements for survival in both a mental and physical sense? Very probably not, which explains why Oscar Wilde didn't write about wolves and crazy ship captains.

No, Oscar Wilde wrote primarily about fops and society people parrying witticisms incessantly. That's not to say his work has no place in a serious consideration of literature—au contraire, The Picture of Dorian Grey is one of the finest novels written in English. It's just more evidence that if you're an author who lives in the Canadian mountains or the clubs of London, your writing will reflect that.

Physical terrain isn't the only consideration. Sartre wrote about people lolling about with no real sense of purpose except to drink wine and smoke cigarettes and look languorous because he lived in France in the 1940s. Friedrich Nietzsche had immense mustaches and espoused a form of nihilism because he was German. The Russians wrote impossibly long novels because they lived in Russia. And Chinua Achebe was almost entirely influenced by his African upbringing.

That's not to say no one can write well about a context they haven't experienced firsthand. I'm pretty sure Robert Heinlein never visited Mars, and even if he did it wasn't as his books describe; the same goes for Bradbury. And no, Roald Dahl was never lost in a delightfully (though at times, terrifyingly) absurd chocolate factory. Yet even with these examples, the authors conveyed essentially the attitudes of the countries they came from—Heinlein and Bradbury from the U.S., Dahl from the U.K.

Our Literature by Place subcategories are admittedly Anglo-centric. North American literature features, well, American literature, and you can be pretty sure British literature reflects the same system; everything else goes in world literature. We have plenty of non-American or -British literature, we just don't have much from any one place besides those two. At any rate, we hope these categories are helpful, and if they guide you toward one book you're looking for (or maybe one you didn't even know existed), they've done their job.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.

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	Andersen's Fairy Tales Illustrated Junior Library Series 2 Paperback by Hans Christian Anderson, illustrated by Arthur Szyk from Grosset & Dunlap Fairy Tales for 3rd-6th grade in Myths, Fairy Tales & Folklore for Children (Location: FIC-MYT) $5.00 (1 in stock)
	Bag of Moonshine by Alan Garner, illustrated by P. J. Lynch from Delacorte Press for 3rd-6th grade in Myths, Fairy Tales & Folklore for Children (Location: FIC-MYT) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Buckwheat Scandinavia Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen from Word Inc. for Kindergarten-3rd grade in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Celtic Fairy Tales by Neil Philip, illustrated by Isabelle Brent from Viking Press for 3rd-8th grade in Myths, Fairy Tales & Folklore for Children (Location: FIC-MYT) $12.00 (1 in stock)
	Children of Odin The Book of Northern Myths by Padraic Colum, illustrated by Willy Pogany from Macmillan Norse Mythology for 3rd-8th grade in Myths, Fairy Tales & Folklore for Children (Location: FIC-MYT) $40.00 (1 in stock)
	Clod Hans Scandinavia Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen from Word Inc. for Kindergarten-3rd grade in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	East of the Sun and West of the Moon by László Gál from Firefly Books for 1st-4th grade in Myths, Fairy Tales & Folklore for Children (Location: FIC-MYT) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	East of the Sun and West of the Moon Macmillan Classics by P. C. Asbjornsen & Jorgen E. Moe, illustrated by Tom Vroman from Macmillan for 1st-4th grade in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC) $16.00 (1 in stock)
	Elvis and His Secret by Maria Gripe First American Printing from Delacorte Press for 3rd-6th grade in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA) $10.00 (1 in stock)
	Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen, Edited by Signe Toksvig, Illustrated by George and Doris Hauman from Macmillan for 3rd-6th grade in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC) $25.00 (1 in stock)
	Jungle Doctor Spots a Leopard Jungle Doctor #3 by Paul White from Christian Focus Publications for 3rd-6th grade in Jungle Doctor (Location: SER-JD) $4.50 (1 in stock)
	Jungle Doctor's Crooked Dealings Jungle Doctor #4 by Paul White from Christian Focus Publications in Jungle Doctor (Location: SER-JD) $4.50 (1 in stock)
	Jungle Doctor's Enemies Jungle Doctor #5 by Paul White from Christian Focus Publications for 3rd-6th grade in Jungle Doctor (Location: SER-JD) $4.50 (1 in stock)
	Kaleidoscope of Fairies & Fables by Hans Andersen, Aesop, Kipling & the Brothers Grimm, retold by Robert Mathias from Hamlyn for Kindergarten-4th grade in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH) $14.00 (1 in stock)
	Little Claus and Big Claus Scandinavia Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen from Word Inc. for Kindergarten-3rd grade in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery from Scholastic Inc. Fantasy for 3rd-8th grade in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $3.50 (1 in stock)
	Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery 1^st edition from Harcourt for 3rd-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery from Harvest House Fantasy for 3rd-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $6.00 (2 in stock)
	Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery from Harcourt Fantasy for 3rd-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $7.50 (1 in stock)
	Much Ado About Nothing for Kids Shakespeare Can Be Fun by Lois Burdett from Firefly Books for 2nd-5th grade in Shakespeare Materials (Location: LIR-SHA) $6.00 (1 in stock)
	Nightingale by Hans Christian Andersen; retold by Stephen Mitchell and illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline from Candlewick Press for 2nd-6th grade in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Odin's Family Myths of the Vikings by Neil Philip, illustrated by Maryclare Foa from Orchard Books for 3rd-6th grade in Myths, Fairy Tales & Folklore for Children (Location: FIC-MYT) $9.00 (1 in stock)
	Pigkeeper Scandinavia Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen from Word Inc. for Kindergarten-3rd grade in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Pippi Goes on Board Pippi Longstocking #2 by Astrid Lindgren from Viking Press Humor for 2nd-6th grade in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN) $10.00 (1 in stock)
	Pippi Longstocking Pippi Longstocking #1 by Astrid Lindgren from Puffin Books Humor for 2nd-6th grade in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN) $6.00 $4.50 (1 in stock)
	She Was Good for Nothing Scandinavia Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen from Word Inc. for Kindergarten-3rd grade in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka & The White Duck by Irina Zheleznova (translator) from Goznak for 3rd-6th grade in Myths, Fairy Tales & Folklore for Children (Location: FIC-MYT) $6.00 (1 in stock)
	Snow Queen: A Fairy Tale in Seven Stories by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by T. Pym from Epiphany Curriculum, LLC for 2nd-6th grade in Myths, Fairy Tales & Folklore for Children (Location: FIC-MYT) $4.00 (1 in stock)
	Snowdrop Scandinavia Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen from Word Inc. for Kindergarten-3rd grade in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Traveling Companion Scandinavia Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen from Word Inc. for Kindergarten-3rd grade in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Treasury of Hans Christian Andersen by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Erik Christian Haugaard 1^st edition from Barnes & Noble for 2nd-6th grade in Myths, Fairy Tales & Folklore for Children (Location: FIC-MYT) $9.00 (1 in stock)
	What the Old Man Does Is Always Right Scandinavia Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen from Word Inc. for Kindergarten-3rd grade in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Wild Swans Scandinavia Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen from Word Inc. for Kindergarten-3rd grade in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen, retold by Amy Ehrlich and illustrated by Susan Jeffers from Dial Press for 1st-3rd grade in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER) $9.00 (1 in stock)

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