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THE BALLAD has been part of American history
since before the country had a name. In this book, Sean Wilentz
and Greil Marcus have assembled an astonishing group of writers
and artists--Paul Muldoon, Stanley Crouch, R. Crumb, Jon Langford
of the Mekons, John Rockwell, Luc Sante, Joyce Carol Oates,
Dave Marsh, and more than a dozen other novelists, essayists,
performers, and critics--to explore the ineffable power of
the American ballad. In words and in drawings, the collaborators
have tapped the veins of America's most imaginative and expressive
form. From "Barbara Allen," one of the earliest,
through "The Wreck of the Old 97," to contemporary
ballads by Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, "The Rose
& the Briar presents a rich new patch of art and commentary--like
the ballads, no two the same, but all of a piece, about stories,
storytellers, and American death, love, and liberty.
SEAN WILENTZ is the author
of the forth-coming The Rise of American Democracy.
A professor of history at Princeton University, he is historian-in-residence
at Bob Dylan's official Web site, bobdylan.com. GREIL
MARCUS is the author of "Lipstick Traces and
"Mystery Train, among other works. An Old Dominion Fellow
at Princeton in 2002, he lives in Berkeley, California.
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