The Historian: Six Fantasies of the American Experience [Paperback]

Winner of the William Goyen Prize for Fiction

Eugene Garber's masterpiece of the imagination takes readers on a rich fictional odyssey that is a meditation on the American character and experience. Moving back and forth in time, populated by memorable characters that include Henry Adams, Isadora Duncan, and Lincoln Steffans, the story follows the historian's quest to find the American woman, whose vitality has been all but written out of history by puritan consciousness.

Eugene Garber's masterpiece of the imagination takes readers on a rich fictional odyssey that is a meditation on the American character and experience. Moving back and forth in time, populated by memorable characters that include Henry Adams, Isadora Duncan, and Lincoln Steffans, the story follows the historian's quest to find the American woman, whose vitality has been all but written out of history by puritan consciousness.

Eugene K. Garber'sMetaphysical Taleswon the Associated Writing Program's award for short fiction.  His stories have been widely published in such journals asTransatlantic Review, Paris Review, Kenyon Review, Antaeus, Georgia Review, Sewanee Review,andTriQuarterlyand have appeared in thePushcart PrizeandBest American Storiesanthologies. He is a Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Albany.

The Historian—Boston, 1850
Out West—New Mexico, 1875
Clio—New York, 1877
The Courting of Martha Twekes—Connecticut River Valley, 1807
Law—Pittsburgh, 1911
The Robbery—The Great Plains, 1912

The Historianis an extraordinary work of the imagination, six character-linked historical 'fantasies' that capture the comically hubristic heart of the American experience in a compellingly witty and elegant prose. A wonderful book. Eugene Garber is quietly emerging as one of the most gifted and original of the metl³5