Proofs and Theories - by Louise Gluck (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

Proofs and Theories, winner of the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Non-Fiction, is an illuminating collection of essays by Louise Glück, one of this country's most brilliant poets.

Like her poems, the prose of Glück, who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1993 for The Wild Iris, is compressed, fastidious, fierce, alert, and absolutely unconsoled. The force of her thought is evident everywhere in these essays, from her explorations of other poets' work to her skeptical contemplation of current literary critical notions such as "sincerity" and "courage." Here also are Glück's revealing reflections on her own education and life as a poet, and a tribute to her teacher and mentor, Stanley Kunitz. Proofs and Theories is not a casual collection. It is the testament of a major poet.

From the Back Cover

Proofs & Theories is a long-awaited first gathering of essays by one of this country's most brilliant poets. Like her poems, the prose of Ms. Gluck, who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1993 for The Wild Iris, is compressed, fastidious, fierce, alert, and absolutely unconsoled. The force of her thought is apparent everywhere in her writing and whether she is contemplating - skeptically - the critical currency of ideas like "courage" and "sincerity", T. S. Eliot's reduced reputation as a poet of impersonality, the loyalties of the objectivist George Oppen, or the ferocity in the headlong art of Sylvia Plath, there is something exhilarating about her seriousness, spare, austere, mind-clearing, and adamantly alive. She shares her skepticism with a whole temper of post-modern critical thought. But post-modernism, on the whole, has stood aside from what artists have thought was at stake in their art in order to dissect it. Ms. Gluck is also quite expert - wry sometimes, darkly funny even - at dissection but in these essays one never doubts what is at stake: an art as truthful, adamant, and unflinching as the intelligence that she brings to her own. Proofs & Theories is not a casual collection. It is the testament of a major poet.

Review Quotes

"As with her poetry, Glück's prose is fine and pared but visionary; her intelligence is precise and earnest. . . . Here and elsewhere Glück's brevity, clarity, and resolute independence are impressive." - Publishers Weekly

"With this book, [Glück] becomes the patron saint of poets and writers, having fallen and crawled and scared herself to a position from which she reticently gives advice." - Los Angeles Times Book Review

"This first collection of [Glück's] essays is written in a different medium [than her poetry], but it contains the same dark precision, the same spare fates and paradoxes. . . Proofs and Theories. . . is certainly a provocative book. . . it is the prickly poetic testament and memoir of one of America's finest poets." - Poetry Flash