More in ‘Jacob’s Cane’

Books

Something Old, Something New

Literary scholar Elisa New focuses on the world of her forebears
By Allison Hoffman | 1:56 PM Oct 6, 2009

Elisa New, a literature professor at Harvard, never set out to become a Jewish memoirist. Best known, in academic circles at least, as the author of two highly regarded volumes on American poetry, she began her latest book, Jacob’s Cane, a decade ago expecting to write a scholarly history of prosperous, emancipated Jewish merchants who ...