Fatherhood: An Anthology Book

Fatherhood: An Anthology is a "literary tool-kit for fathers," addressing such issues as: responsibility, fear, and loss-as well as infertility, sports, and the meting out of punishment.
Remarkably wide-ranging in its sources, the anthology covers 4000 years of writing-from 2000 b.c. to a.d. 2000-including fiction, personal letters, and ancient Greek poetry, as well as eighteenth-century childcare manuals, newspaper reports, and The Simpsons. Rousseau, Plath, and Shakespeare weigh in on fatherhood, as do Bob Dylan, Auberon Waugh, Samuel Coleridge, Homer Simpson, Franz Kafka, Kirk Douglas, and Sigmund Freud.
John Lewis-Stempel's unique anthology celebrates the joys of fatherhood and explores the responsibilities and vulnerabilities that accompany this most timeless fact of life. Humorous and insightful, here are the triumphs and disasters experienced by fathers from Roman times to the present day, showing how the role of "dad" has changed. Divided into sections as diverse as First Love, Fathers and Sons, Daddy's Girl, The Sins of the Father, Experience, and Patrimony, Fatherhood makes the perfect, thoughtful present for fathers and fathers-to-be of any age.

Author Biography: John Lewis-Stempel is a writer and stay-at-home dad. His many books include Eye-witness D-Day, The West, Eye-witness World War II, and Eye-witness History, and his journalism appears in such publications as The Independent, Time Out, and New Statesman.

Library Journal

From Sophocles to Homer Simpson, Lewis-Stempel, a British journalist and anthologist, selects passages that reflect "paternity in all its diversity." Unlike the essays in Great Dads: A Celebration of Fatherhood, edited by Jonathan P. Decker, these entries are not beatitudes. Included are visceral portraits (e.g., Huck Finn's drunken, loutish father) as well as narratives that concern the death of fathers or their children (e.g., Rudyard Kipling's My Boy Jack). Because there are no indexes, and the author opted for subject rather than alphabetical or chronological organization ("The Sins of the Father," "Daddy's Girl," "Patrimony," and so on), readers will have trouble navigating the book for information. Editorial presence is also minimal. Fiction and nonfiction entries provide more material than found in quote books like Bartlett's, ranging from small, two-line snippets to multiple-page entries containing thousands of words. Libraries already owning What Is a Man?: 3,000 Years of Wisdom on the Art of Manly Virtue, edited by Waller R. Newell, or Fathers & Sons: An Anthology, edited by David Seybold, should consider this an optional purchase. If those titles circulated like hotcakes, however, this is a good bet. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.