Books by Gary McIlroy
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Gary McIlroy
Gary McIlroy's essays on Henry David Thoreau, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Annie Dillard have appeared in journals such as American Literature, South Atlantic Quarterly, and The Thoreau Quarterly, as well as in the anthologies Earthly Words and Contemporary American Criticism. His 2023 book, Turtles on a Black Gum Tree, offers a creative retelling of the life of Charles Ball, whose 1837 autobiography, Slavery in the United States, had not been reissued in a new edition for more than 150 years. Beneath the Blushing Sky, set in 1965, is a coming-of-age story about a freshman basketball player caught up in the allure of a popular girl and the recklessness of his closest friend. Miss Blue Jacket, a novel, is based on the life of Frances Maria Lloyd, mother of the nineteenth-century abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison, and his most recent novel, Required Reading, follows a disillusioned young professor who retreats to a small Lake Michigan town, where work, community, and unexpected love begin to reshape his life.
Gary McIlroy's essays on Henry David Thoreau, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Annie Dillard have appeared in journals such as American Literature, South Atlantic Quarterly, and The Thoreau Quarterly, as well as in the anthologies Earthly Words and Contemporary American Criticism. His 2023 book, Turtles on a Black Gum Tree, offers a creative retelling of the life of Charles Ball, whose 1837 autobiography, Slavery in the United States, had not been...
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Required Reading
Set in the 1980s, this novel follows Martin Langley, a graduate student and then professor whose faith in academic life is unraveling. He comes to the profession with a belief in books, teaching, and honest inquiry, but finds himself in a world increasingly shaped by departmental quarrels, stubborn orthodoxies, and institutional politics....
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Miss Blue Jacket
Set against the backdrop of a young nation struggling to define its identity, Miss Blue Jacket traces the remarkable life of Frances Lloyd Garrison, mother of the renowned abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. From New Brunswick to New England to Baltimore, Frances navigates a world shaped by war, trade disruption, disease, and slavery. Her...
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Beneath the Blushing Sky
A Coming-of-Age Story
Set in 1965, this coming-of-age follows the freshman year of basketball player Lee Rollins, a shy and intelligent boy who is taken in by the romantic intrigue of three popular girls. His world is further rocked when his closest teammate is sent away for delinquent behavior. Lee's realization that friendships can be forged with girls as well as...
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Other Writing
An analysis of how advances in science have changed our relationship to nature as portrayed in Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.
A comparative analysis of social interaction and commentary in Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden."
"Readers of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, a work in many ways reminiscent of Walden, are usually disappointed by its virtual neglect of society. It is accomplished, says Hayden Carruth, “with little reference to life on this planet at this moment, its hazards and misdirections, and to this extent it is a dangerous book, literally a subversive...
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