The Life and Songs of Stephen Foster: A Revealing Portrait of the Forgotten Man Behind "Swanee River," "Beautiful Dreamer," and "My Old Kentucky Home"

(Hardback)

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The Life and Songs of Stephen Foster offers an engaging reassessment of the life, politics, and legacy of the misunderstood father of American music. Once revered the world over, Fosters plantation songs, like Old Folks at Home and My Old Kentucky Home, fell from grace in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement due to their controversial lyrics. Foster embraced the minstrel tradition for a brief time, refining it and infusing his songs with sympathy for slaves, before abandoning the genre for respectable parlor music. The youngest child in a large family, he grew up in the shadows of a successful older brother and his president brother-in-law, James Buchanan, and walked a fine line between the familys conservative politics and his own pro-Lincoln sentiments. Foster lived most of his life just outside of industrial, smoke-filled Pittsburgh and wrote songs set in a pastoral Southunsullied by the grime of industry but tarnished by the injustice of slavery. Rather than defining Foster by his now-controversial minstrel songs, JoAnne OConnell reveals a prolific composer who concealed his true feelings in his lyrics and wrote in diverse styles to satisfy the changing tastes of his generation. In a trenchant reevaluation of his NewYork Bowery years, OConnell illustrates how Foster purposely abandoned the style for which he was famous to write lighthearted songs for newly popular variety stages and music halls. In the last years of his life, Fosters new direction in songwriting stood in the vanguard of vaudeville and musical comedy to pave the way for the future of American popular music. His stylistic flexibility in the face of evolving audience preferences not only proves his versatility as a composer but also reveals important changes in the American music and publishing industries. An intimate biography of a complex, controversial, and now neglected composer, The Life and Songs of Stephen Foster is an important story about the father of American music. This invaluable portrait of the political, economic, social, racial, and gender issues of antebellum and Civil War America will appeal to history and music lovers of all generations.

Reviews

Almost everyone knows something about Stephen Foster (182664), but unfortunately much of that information is either incorrect or vastly oversimplified. Many believe that Foster, the first American popular songwriter to make his living entirely from composing, was a Southerner. In fact Foster lived most of his life near Pittsburgh. Everyone knows he wrote minstrel and plantation songs that are now considered racist, but few know that he also wrote songs in support of Abraham Lincoln and the Union cause, not to mention sentimental parlor songs, comic songs for the stage, and hymns. OConnells rich retelling of Fosters story covers all this. Fosters brother, Morrison Foster, destroyed hundreds of family letters, leaving wide gaps in the songwriters life story. OConnell fills those gaps by examining musical, political, economic, and social writings of the day, and she addresses the thorny issues of race and gender. She refutes earlier claims that nearly all of Fosters compositions after 1860 were inferior, and dares to speculate on the mysterious circumstances of Fosters untimely death. This beautifully written biography provides important new insights into the complex life of one of Americas most controversial popular songwriters. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. * CHOICE *
Stephen Foster (182664) is often remembered as a writer of plantation songs, but researcher OConnell describes him as a much more diverse composer. The authors dense but fascinating book puts the life of Foster and his family in context as it relates to U.S. cultural and political history. This is particularly relevant to Fosters works because his pieces were often autobiographical. Details of dealings with parents, siblings, spouse Jane McDowell, and publishers are described in great length, as are the many tragedies through deaths and financial distress experienced by the Foster family. The unhappiness of his marriage was in part caused by his alcoholism, which also affected his work. Fosters political views were often hidden, and therefore, his sympathy for slaves was often unknown. He embraced minstrel songs until they were widely recognized as insulting and then abandoned them for campaign and parlor songs, variety, and music hall songs. VERDICT All readers interested in Foster, professional or amateur musicians or historians included, will delight in the perspective taken by OConnell that the man was much more than the few songs for which he is remembered. * Library Journal *

Author Bio

JoAnne OConnell has a background in history and classical vocal music. She earned her PhD at the University of Pittsburgh where she began researching her revisionist biography of the Pittsburgh born composer Stephen Collins Foster. She has taught at colleges and universities in Pennsylvania and Maryland, and currently spends her time researching and writing.