Selected Writings of Sir Thomas Browne (Fyfield Books) Review
This completely modernized edition introduces the reader to all aspects of the doctor, scientist, and Christian philosopher, Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82). Designed for those unfamiliar with Browne's sometimes opaque prose, it includes substantial annotation and a useful introduction.
In This Poem I Am: Selected Poetry of Robin Skelton (Voyageur Classics) Review
In a country in which poetry has been largely private and apologetic, Robin Skelton played the part of poet with grand style: flowing beard, mane of white hair, rings on every finger, huge amulet around his neck, all topped off with a black hat that looked as if it came from a Venetian gondolier but was really picked up at the re-enactment of a Cariboo Gold Rush-era general store in Barkerville, B.C.
In this selection of his best verse there are poems of "high" and "low" art, spells and prayers, meditations, shemanic maps, and, in the centre of the book, "messages," those strange, inspired "gifts" at the core of Skelton's art. In making the selection for this volume, editor Harold Rhenisch, himself an accomplished poet, has held to the image that Skelton's themes repeat like the ripples of water spreading out from a pebble dropped into a pool, and has attempted to bring together the best ripple from each dropped pebble.
Kerouac: Selected Letters: Volume 1: 1940-1956 Review
In his prolific correspondence Jack Kerouac set down the raw material of the life that he would later transmute into his multi-volume "Legend of Duluoz". He also refined the seemingly freewheeling and spontaneous prose style that became his trademark. This volume contains many letters written between 1940, when Kerouac was a college freshman and 1956, immediately before his leap to celebrity status. They offer invaluable insights into Kerouac's family life, friendships, travels, love affairs and literary apprenticeship, and provide accounts of the events that inspired "On the Road", "Visions of Cody" and "The Dharma Burns".
Juice Is Stranger Than Friction: Selected Writings Of T-Bone Slim Review
A working stuff, a hobo, and an irreconcilable revolutionist...second only to Joe Hill as the IWW's most popular songwriter, T-Bone Slim incontestably was the Wobblie's greatest man of letters". For two decades readers of IWW publications recognized him as the Union's "most noted columnist." America's finest hobo wordsmith and a remarkable aphorist, he also merits a place among the great American humorists. The aim of the present volume is to make available for the first time a representative selection of work by an important author who has suffered undeserved neglect. Every message of pure revolt deserves to be heard, and T-Bone Slim's is one of the purest. His writing at its best has a remarkable flair, a deep and dazzling humor, a profound awareness of the sensuous alchemy of words. It also happens to be unlike anything else in the world." [From the Introduction by Franklin Rosemont]
