CANADA AUTHOR · POETRY · IRISH AUTHORS
Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavangah (born on 1950) is a Canadian writer and author.
Through portico of my elegant house you stalk
— from Collected Poems, 2005
Most acclaimed
Collected Poems
2005
Stephane Mallarme (1842-1898) is one of the giants of nineteenth-century French poetry. Leader of the Symbolist movement, he exerted a powerful influence on modern literature and thought, which can be traced in the works of Paul Valery, W. B. Yeats, Ferdinand de Saussure, and Jacques Derrida. From his early twenties until the time of his death, this great writer produced poems of astonishing originality and beauty, many of which have become classics. In the Collected Poems, Henry Weinfield brings the oeuvre of this European master to life for an English-speaking audience, essentially for the first time. All of the poems - in verse and prose - that the author chose to retain are here, superbly rendered by Weinfield in a translation that comes remarkably close to Mallarme's own voice. Weinfield conveys not simply the meaning but the spirit and music of the French originals.^ Deeply affected by the religious crisis that shook the world of nineteenth-century intellectuals, Mallarme saw his task as "the Orphic explanation of the earth." His response was to develop a symbolic vocabulary with which to explore the deepest philosophical questions in highly condensed forms. Whether writing poetry in verse (the Poesies) or prose (the Poemes en Prose), or inventing an altogether new genre - as he did in the amazing "Un Coup de Des," his final work - Mallarme was a poet not only of supreme artistry but of great difficulty. To illuminate Mallarme's poetry for the twentieth-century reader, Weinfield provides an extensive commentary, which is an important work of criticism in its own right. Here the translator defines the major symbols in the poems, elucidates many of the difficulties and complexities of the poetry, and sets each poem in the larger context of the work as a whole.^ Weinfield also includes an introduction and a bibliography of primary and secondary sources. Publication of the Collected Poems is a major literary event in the English-speaking world. Here at last are the poetic works of an important figure in modern literature, masterfully translated and presented.
Self-Portrait
"Self-Portrait, a look at the man behind the icon, is a photographic and literary memoir, drawing on the rich seam of diaries, letters, poems, journalism and short stories Che Guevara left behind him in Cuba." "Self-Portrait has been compiled in close collaboration with Che's family, using exclusive material from his family's private archives. Revealed for the first time is Che Guevara's personal world, unveiling his extraordinary candor, irony, dry humor and passion." "The photographs, chosen from the Guevara family albums, bring to light a surprisingly sensitive and artistic edge of the legendary revolutionary. A dedicated amateur photographer, Che's own self-portraits are a feature of this selection, much of which has never before been published."--Jacket.
The complete poems
"John Crowe Ransom distinguished himself as one of the South's foremost poets and literary critics of the twentieth century, cultivating a poetic style that presented an agrarian philosophy of rural life. In the process, he helped formulate a new method of literary analysis, the New Criticism, which advocated close reading of texts with attention to their form and internal meaning. His students included such prominent literary figures as Robert Penn Warren, Cleanth Brooks, Randall Jarrell, Robert Lowell, and E.L. Doctorow. Ransom's poetry, which he revised extensively throughout his lifetime, offers a concise representation of his ideas about art, life, and the vocation of poets"--