University of Iowa Press, 2022 Paper: 978-1-60938-847-8 | eISBN: 978-1-60938-848-5 Library of Congress Classification PS3552.A8358 Dewey Decimal Classification 813.54
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK The Beckoning World is set in the first quarter of the twentieth century and follows Earl Dunham. His weeks are comprised of six days mining coal, followed by Sundays playing baseball. Then one day a major-league scout happens on a game, signs Earl, and he begins a life he had no idea he could even dream.
But dreams sometimes suffer from a lovely abundance, and in Earl’s case her name is Emily Marchand. They fall quickly and deeply in love, but with that love comes heartbreaking complications.
The Beckoning World gathers a cast of characters that include Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig; a huge-hearted Pullman steward offering aphoristic wisdom; and countless others, not least of which is the 1918 Spanish flu taking vivid spectral form. At the center is a relentless love that Earl and Emily are defenseless against, allied as they are “in this business of their hearts.”
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Douglas Bauer has written several books, including Prairie City, Iowa: Three Seasons at Home (Iowa, 2008). He teaches writing at Bennington College, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
REVIEWS
“It’s been said that beyond being a storyteller, the novelist is also by default a sociologist, a historian, and a psychologist. And if they are any good, they are a magician too. Douglas Bauer is all these things in this expansive, insightful portrayal of the life and times of Earl Dunham, a coal miner turned baseball pitcher turned farmer. Ranging across the first half of the twentieth century, The Beckoning World gives us this man’s story, the long love of his life, Emily Marchand, and his son, Henry. The book provides a vision of American life and legend—Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig are vividly portrayed—but most importantly, through Bauer’s sorcery, it provides a bright window into the nature of love itself, familial and passionate, abiding, and, yes, going through the ‘blunt work’ of survival in all weathers.”—Richard Bausch
“A rich, enthralling read. The characters and the world stayed with me long after I closed the covers.”—Dennis Lehane
“The Beckoning World does beckon, unfolding lives and enfolding readers with love stories, all the heartbreaks we cannot outrun, the lucky and unlucky life of a family and a world past. Bauer sees with telescope and microscope, inner and outer world shared with loving clarity and an open brilliant elegance.”—Amy Bloom, author, In Love
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Half-Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Book One: Earl and Emily
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Two Years Later, 1918
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Book Two: Earl and Henry/Jidge and Lou, 1927
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
The Game
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Book Three: Henry, 1948
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Acknowledgments
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
University of Iowa Press, 2022 Paper: 978-1-60938-847-8 eISBN: 978-1-60938-848-5
The Beckoning World is set in the first quarter of the twentieth century and follows Earl Dunham. His weeks are comprised of six days mining coal, followed by Sundays playing baseball. Then one day a major-league scout happens on a game, signs Earl, and he begins a life he had no idea he could even dream.
But dreams sometimes suffer from a lovely abundance, and in Earl’s case her name is Emily Marchand. They fall quickly and deeply in love, but with that love comes heartbreaking complications.
The Beckoning World gathers a cast of characters that include Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig; a huge-hearted Pullman steward offering aphoristic wisdom; and countless others, not least of which is the 1918 Spanish flu taking vivid spectral form. At the center is a relentless love that Earl and Emily are defenseless against, allied as they are “in this business of their hearts.”
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Douglas Bauer has written several books, including Prairie City, Iowa: Three Seasons at Home (Iowa, 2008). He teaches writing at Bennington College, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
REVIEWS
“It’s been said that beyond being a storyteller, the novelist is also by default a sociologist, a historian, and a psychologist. And if they are any good, they are a magician too. Douglas Bauer is all these things in this expansive, insightful portrayal of the life and times of Earl Dunham, a coal miner turned baseball pitcher turned farmer. Ranging across the first half of the twentieth century, The Beckoning World gives us this man’s story, the long love of his life, Emily Marchand, and his son, Henry. The book provides a vision of American life and legend—Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig are vividly portrayed—but most importantly, through Bauer’s sorcery, it provides a bright window into the nature of love itself, familial and passionate, abiding, and, yes, going through the ‘blunt work’ of survival in all weathers.”—Richard Bausch
“A rich, enthralling read. The characters and the world stayed with me long after I closed the covers.”—Dennis Lehane
“The Beckoning World does beckon, unfolding lives and enfolding readers with love stories, all the heartbreaks we cannot outrun, the lucky and unlucky life of a family and a world past. Bauer sees with telescope and microscope, inner and outer world shared with loving clarity and an open brilliant elegance.”—Amy Bloom, author, In Love
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Half-Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Book One: Earl and Emily
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Two Years Later, 1918
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Book Two: Earl and Henry/Jidge and Lou, 1927
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
The Game
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Book Three: Henry, 1948
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Acknowledgments
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE