Jim Harrison: The Essential Poems - (Paperback)

About the Book

Publishers Weekly called Jim Harrison "an untrammeled renegade genius," a poet who performed "absolutely brilliant and outrageous things with language."

Book Synopsis

Publishers Weekly called Jim Harrison "an untrammeled renegade genius," a poet who performed "absolutely brilliant and outrageous things with language."

Review Quotes

"[Jim Harrison] is still close to the source...Dead Man's Float is, as its title would suggest, a flinty and psalmist look at mortality and wonder."-Los Angeles Times "Harrison sees the sacred in the world around him." -New York Times Book Review "The title of this volume, 'Dead Man's Float, ' refers to a way to stay alive in the water when one has grown tired while far from shore. As a poet, however, Mr. Harrison is not passively drifting. He remains committed to language, and to what pleasures he can catch."-Dwight Garner, The New York Times "Few enough are the books I decide to keep beyond a culling or two. Barring fire or flood, Dead Man's Float will be in my library for the rest of my life. If it's the last poetry collection we get from Harrison-and I hope it isn't-it is as fine an example of his efforts as any."-Missoula Independent "[H]is poems stun us simply, with the richness of the clarity, detail, and the immediacy of Harrison's voice." -Publishers Weekly "Songs of Unreason, Harrison's latest collection of poetry, is a wonderful defense of the possibilities of living."-The Industrial Worker Book Review "In the end, one comes to think that maybe Jim Harrison is a tiny bit closer to the heartbeat of the universe than most of us, so by a single degree of separation, we are better for it." -The Rumpus "Funny and tender beneath a wry and gruff seen-it-all veneer, Harrison contemplates death, discerns divinity in every stone and leaf, and nobility in ordinary lives, and laughs at our attempts to separate ourselves from the rest of nature."-Booklist "Noted novelist Harrison, also a fine poet, writes like a man reconciling the world at large with the natural world he knows well, one that still fascinates and inspires him... Harrison is heavily invested in narrative elements that range from the real to the surreal.... Highly recommended." -Library Journal, starred review

"[Jim Harrison] is still close to the source...Dead Man's Float is, as its title would suggest, a flinty and psalmist look at mortality and wonder."--Los Angeles Times "Harrison sees the sacred in the world around him." --New York Times Book Review "The title of this volume, 'Dead Man's Float, ' refers to a way to stay alive in the water when one has grown tired while far from shore. As a poet, however, Mr. Harrison is not passively drifting. He remains committed to language, and to what pleasures he can catch."--Dwight Garner, The New York Times "Few enough are the books I decide to keep beyond a culling or two. Barring fire or flood, Dead Man's Float will be in my library for the rest of my life. If it's the last poetry collection we get from Harrison--and I hope it isn't--it is as fine an example of his efforts as any."--Missoula Independent "[H]is poems stun us simply, with the richness of the clarity, detail, and the immediacy of Harrison's voice." -Publishers Weekly "Songs of Unreason, Harrison's latest collection of poetry, is a wonderful defense of the possibilities of living."--The Industrial Worker Book Review "In the end, one comes to think that maybe Jim Harrison is a tiny bit closer to the heartbeat of the universe than most of us, so by a single degree of separation, we are better for it." -The Rumpus "Funny and tender beneath a wry and gruff seen-it-all veneer, Harrison contemplates death, discerns divinity in every stone and leaf, and nobility in ordinary lives, and laughs at our attempts to separate ourselves from the rest of nature."--Booklist "Noted novelist Harrison, also a fine poet, writes like a man reconciling the world at large with the natural world he knows well, one that still fascinates and inspires him... Harrison is heavily invested in narrative elements that range from the real to the surreal.... Highly recommended." --Library Journal, starred review

About the Author

Jim Harrison (1937-2016) was the author of over three dozen books, including Legends of the Fall and Dalva, and served as the food columnist for the magazines Brick and Esquire. He published fourteen volumes of poetry, the final being Dead Man's Float (2016). His work has been translated into two dozen languages and produced as four feature-length films. As a young poet he co-edited Sumac magazine, with fellow poet Dan Gerber, and earned a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2007, he was elected into the Academy of American Arts and Letters. Regarding his most beloved art-form, he wrote: "Poetry, at its best, is the language your soul would speak if you could teach your soul to speak." Jim Harrison certainly spoke the language.