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Author: Bodman, Manoah

Biography:

Bodman, Manoah (1765-1850: Hollis)

Son of Joseph and Esther (Field) Bodman, born in Sunderland MA, Bodman moved with his family to Williamsburg MA at the age of 14 and stayed there for the rest of his life. He was a lawyer and orator but a "village oddity" (according to the Encyclopedia of American Poetry), his writings arising from the visionary experiences that followed on a spiritual awakening. Besides his one volume including poems, he published three prose orations in pamphlet form. There is a recent (1999) collection of his work with a critical and biographical introduction by Lewis Turco. (Encyclopedia of American Poetry ed. Eric L. Haralson [1998]) HJ

 

Books written (1):

An Oration on Death . . . Interspersed . . . with Divers Poetical Sketches of the Author's, of Various Measures and Metres . . . . Also Four Hymns or Poems . . . ..

Williamsburgh [MA]: printed by Ephraim Whitman, 1817