The James Dickey Reader (Original)

Jacket Description/Back: This collection of James Dickey's poems and prose includes choice selections of the author's poetry, fiction, and essays, as well as some early unpublished poetry and excerpts from his unfinished novel Crux. Organized chronologically by genre, this is the definitive collection of works by one of the twentieth century's most important talents. Commendation Quotes: "Only death could exhibit the cheek to think it had the reach to get a grip all the way around James Dickey. Life gave up, reckoning it would never have the arms for it. In any event, James Dickey is not dead, and shall not be, as this book notifies us, sampling by sampling. Indeed, the thing that beats in him -- the heart of none other than the unrepeatable man -- must make the gods puny and afraid".-- GORDON LISHReview Quotes: Gordon Lish Only death could exhibit the cheek to think it had the reach to get a grip all the way around James Dickey. Life gave up, reckoning it would never have the arms for it. In any event, James Dickey is not dead, and shall not be, as this book notifies us, sampling by sampling. Indeed, the thing that beats in him -- the heart of none other than the unrepeatable man -- must make the gods puny and afraid. Marc Notes: Touchstone book incl. previously unpublished materialReview Quotes: Pat ConroyWho wrote better than James Dickey in this century? I think he was in a league of his own. His poems are simply better than anyone else's poetry. His criticism cuts to the bone. His novels sizzle when they hit the fire. This book captures the untellable genius of James Dickey. Pick it up and on any page you get perfection and the most breathlessly fully alive writing ever done by an American. Review Quotes: Gordon LishOnly death could exhibit the cheek to think it had the reach to get a grip all the way around James Dickey. Life gave up, reckoning it would never have the arms for it. In any event, James Dickey is not dead, and shall not be, as this book notifies us, sampling by sampling. Indeed, the thing that beats in him -- the heart of none other than the unrepeatable man -- must make the gods puny and afraid. Review Quotes: Pat ConroyWho wrote better than James Dickey in this century? I think he was in a league of his own. His poems are simply better than anyone else's poetry. His criticism cuts to the bone. His novels sizzle when they hit the fire. This book captures the untellable genius of James Dickey. Pick it up and on any page you get perfection and the most breathlessly fully alive writing ever done by an American. Review Quotes: Gordon LishOnly death could exhibit the cheek to think it had the reach to get a grip all the way around James Dickey. Life gave up, reckoning it would never have the arms for it. In any event, James Dickey is not dead, and shall not be, as this book notifies us, sampling by sampling. Indeed, the thing that beats in him -- the heart of none other than the unrepeatable man -- must make the gods puny and afraid. Review Quotes: Pat Conroy Who wrote better than James Dickey in this century? I think he was in a league of his own. His poems are simply better than anyone else's poetry. His criticism cuts to the bone. His novels sizzle when they hit the fire. This book captures the untellable genius of James Dickey. Pick it up and on any page you get perfection and the most breathlessly fully alive writing ever done by an American. Biographical Note: James Dickey published fifteen books of poetry, four collections of essays, four coffee-table books, three novels, and one screenplay. His book of poetry "Buckdancer's Choice" received the National Book Award, the Poetry Society of America's Melville Cane Award, and an award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. His bestselling first novel, "Deliverance, " was made into a movie. He was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and was Poet-in-Residence and First Carolina Professor of English at the University of South Carolina from 1969 until his death in 1997. Table of Contents:"Contents" Introduction "Poetry" Introduction From "Into the Stone" The Vegetable King The Performance The Other Walking on Water Into the Stone From "Drowning with Others" The Lifeguard The Heaven of Animals A Birth Fog Envelops the Animals Between Two Prisoners Hunting Civil War Relics at Nimblewill Creek The Hospital Window From "Helmets" At Darien Bridge Chenille Springer Mountain Cherrylog Road The Scarred Girl From "Buckdancer's Choice" The Firebombing Buckdancer's Choice Pursuit from Under Sled Burial, Dream Ceremony The Fiend From "Falling, May Day Sermon, and Other Poems" Falling The Sheep Child Power and Light Adultery Encounter in the Cage Country May Day Sermon to the Women of Gilmer County, Georgia, by a Woman Preacher Leaving the Baptist Church From "The Eye-Beaters, Blood, Victory, Madness, Buckhead and Mercy" The Eye-Beaters From "The Zodiac" The Zodiac (Section I, excerpt; Section XII) From "The Strength of Fields" The Strength of Fields The Voyage of the Needle From "Puella" Deborah Burning a Doll Made of House-wood Deborah and Deirdre as Drunk Bridesmaids Foot-racing at Daybreak From "The Eagle's Mile" Daughter The Olympian For a Time and Place Early Poems The Shark at the Window Joel Cahill Dead The Wish to Be Buried Where One Has Made Love The Wheelchair Drunk Reading "Genesis" to a Blind Child "Fiction" From "Deliverance" "September 15th" (excerpt) From "Alnilam" Frank Cahill's Journey to Peckover Army Air Corps Base (excerpt) Peckover Graduation Ceremony (excerpt) From "To the White Sea" The Firebombing of Tokyo (excerpt) Muldrow's First Murder (excerpt) From "Crux" (unpublished novel) Journey to War "Criticism" From "Babel to Byzantium: Poets & Poetry Now" Barnstorming for Poetry Notes on the Decline of Outrage Robert Frost Marianne Moore From "Sorties" The Self as Agent Metaphor as Pure Adventure Spinning the Crystal Ball The Greatest American Poet: Roethke From "Night Hurdling" The Water-Bug's Mittens: Ezra Pound: What We Can Use The G. I. Can of Beets, the Fox in the Wave, and the Hammers over Open Ground Bare Bones: Afterword to a Film "Chronology"Publisher Marketing: This collection of James Dickey's poems and prose includes choice selections of the author's poetry, fiction, and essays, as well as some early unpublished poetry and excerpts from his unfinished novel "Crux." Organized chronologically by genre, this is the definitive collection of works by one of the twentieth century's most important talents. Review Citations:

Publishers Weekly 06/14/1999 pg. 59 (EAN 9780684864358, Paperback)

Ingram Advance 08/01/1999 pg. 69 (EAN 9780684864358, Paperback)

New York Times 12/19/1999 pg. 18 (EAN 9780684864358, Paperback)

Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/2000 pg. 82 (EAN 9780684864358, Paperback)

Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/2004 pg. 638 (EAN 9780684864358, Paperback)

Contributor Bio:  Dickey, James James Dickey (1923 1997), American poet, winner of the 1965 National Book Award in poetry, and author of the novel Deliverance. Contributor Bio:  Hart, Henry Henry Hart is the Mildred and J. B. Hickman Professor of Humanities in the English Department at The College of William and Mary. He has published numerous critical books on modern poets, including THE POETRY OF GEOFFREY HILL (SIU Press, 1986), SEAMUS HEANEY: POET OF CONTRARY PROGRESSIONS (Syracuse UP, 1991), ROBERT LOWELL AND THE SUBLIME (Syracuse UP, 1995), and THE JAMES DICKEY READER (Touchstone, 1999). His biography, JAMES DICKEY: THE WORLD AS LIE (St. Martins, 2000), was runner-up for a Southern Book Critics' Circle Award. He has also published three books of poetry: THE GHOST SHIP (Blue Moon Books,1990), THE ROOSTER MASK (University of Illinois Press, 1998), and BACKGROUND RADIATION (Salt, 2007). He serves as managing editor of VERSE, a poetry magazine he helped found in 1984. His essays and poems have appeared in journals such as THE NEW YORKER, POETRY, THE SOUTHERN REVIEW, DENVER QUARTERLY, THE GETTYSBURG REVIEW, THE GEORGIA REVIEW, THE KENYON REVIEW, and TWENTIETH CENTURY LITERATURE.