Burr and Hamilton: a drama for voices

by Jeff Humphries, Betsy Bowen (Illustrator)

"Burr and A Drama for Voices" defies classification. An American allegory like no other, history is retold in sparse and lyrical verse by the author Jeff Humphries. More of a poetic narrative than pure theater, the intense and meditative pace of the story is visually interpreted through crisp and starkly beautiful woodcuts by Minnesota print maker Betsy Bowen. Said Humphries, "The two hundredth anniversary of the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr has passed. As this bicentennial approached, a number of historians revisited the event in works both popular and scholarly.This is not a work of history. It takes liberties with form and substance that are not permitted to the professional historian. What does it offer in return that they cannot? The story is reduced to an absolute minimum of circumstantial detail on the assumption that such pruning, severe and judicious, might cause an organic line to be revealed - this is a principle of Japanese art, and not the only one in play here. It will, of course, be for others to say if this historical minimalism has been successful, whether the essential, stark, brutal shape of the events has been revealed."

101 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Mark Schultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read an earlier collaboration of Jeff Humphries and the wonderful woodcut artist Betsy Bowen which I enjoyed a great deal -- it was a book of poetry called Borealis, and I recommend it.
I was in Betsy's workshop in Grand Marais, Minnesota this summer, and picked up this book, which I had not seen before, along with some new woodcuts. The book is very, well, quirky, interesting, almost outlandish in a way. I read it and got something out of it, but don't recommend it unless, well quirky dramatizations of history is your thing!

[Holly Dolezalek]

Well, this was weird. I suspect only those who know a lot about Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson will enjoy it.