Archibald MacLeish Books

Uphill With Archie is a beautiful read, and an important one. Archibald MacLeish was a singular man, one who played a large role in his age of American History, as poet, statesman, and influential thinker. Reading Uphill, one is brought back into an age which is directly relevant to our own, and so the book succeeds as a fascinating document in American History. It also succeeds wonderfully as the story of a son (the author) growing up in the presence of a man larger than life, who had friends like Louis Frankfurter and Clark Clifford, whose personality burned so bright that others nearby seemed either illumined by it, or merely silhouetted. It is a powerful tale of one man's growing older, and one man's growing up.
William MacLeish is a fluent and graceful writer, and this book was a fine companion for several day's reading.

The "Uphill" in Uphill with Archie refers to Uphill Farm, the MacLeish family home in Conway, Mass., and with the book's opening paragraph, it's like we're there with the author, William MacLeish, and his father, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Archibald MacLeish, surrounded by leather- and cloth-bound books in the book room of the house, a crackling fire in the fireplace while a cold northeasterly wind blows outside. His father shows William the final draft of a poem he's dedicated to his son.

But all was not idyllic cultured bliss at Uphill Farm. There was a certain stoicism that suppressed expressions of anger, frustration and despair, and dictated that "Even positive emotions were not allowed out, unless fully under control...." As a result, it was not until his parents died (Archie died in 1982, at the age of 90) that William was able to look at his "darker impulses."

Indeed, the traits William MacLeish believes his father passed on to him include, "a fascination with language and its rhythms, the need for control, and an unlimited capacity for worry...."

For years, William confesses, he basked in the glow of his father's fame, growing up in a life of privilege. But the glow also cast a shadow, as William struggled to overcome being known as his father's son.

Eventually, he would come into his own as a writer and his capable hand is evident here, with eloquent phrases, such as, "I can say that since no one lives without bleeding, those who write about lives are apt to come upon some scabs."

Growing up, William's choice of friends was restricted to sons of the socially prominent, many of whom lived at a distance, which often left him with nothing better to do on a rainy day than read books.

Archie was first a successful lawyer who turned down a partnership in a prestigious law firm because he had a "central belief that he was born to be a poet." Setting off to Paris to dedicate his life to writing poetry, he was displeased with what came out when he arrived and started to write. So he stopped writing for several months and read the works of the world's most renowned poets.

In good company as a poet in the 1920s and '30s, Archie often consulted his peers, among them Ezra Pound, who encouraged him to learn Arabic and Gaelic to discover a fresh perspective. But some of the best advice for poets is perhaps found in MacLeish's work itself, as in "Ars Poetica," which appeared in 1926: "A poem should be wordless./ As the flight of birds."

During his time in Paris, Archie's aunt wrote to report she had checked with her literary contacts in regards to his poetic talent and had found none who would support him; encouraging him to return to the law. Meanwhile, Archie's father provided financial support in the form of the same allowance he had provided Archie while Archie was in law school.

Paris in the 1920s boasted a wealth of creative talent, with the likes of Picasso, Stravinsky, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and an Irish teacher named James Joyce who was plying publishers with a manuscript of a novel called Ulysses that no one wanted. Even Joyce's wife seemed to be convinced he had chosen the wrong profession, and reportedly mocked and ridiculed him.

After five years in Paris came the recognition from critics that Archie called "the itch of notice." Proclaiming "I am a poet. The rest can wait," he and his young family headed back to the United States.

When at home, Archie wrote in a one-room saltbox with fieldstone walls almost daily from 7 a.m. till noon, starting over at the beginning of the poem each day, with a good day resulting in a few lines of advancement. After the October 1929 stock market crash, he took a job writing for the newly founded Fortune magazine, while keeping time to do his own writing.

Despite his success, MacLeish was envious of his friend Ernest Hemingway, the only artist he knew that was making enough to survive from his craft in the '30s. The relationship between the two men would become strained amidst accusations MacLeish had sold out by going to Fortune, culminating in an argument while sailing off Key West. They resolved to put ashore to settle the matter, but Hemingway set sail again as MacLeish waded into shore, returning only to retrieve him on Hemingway's wife's insistence.

Later, Archie would claim that during his time at Fortune he had, "produced more good poems than at any other time in my life. So it was pretty hard for me to assume that that was selling out." In fact, in 1936 The New York Times called him "the most influential poet writing in America today."

He would go on to become a professor at Harvard, teaching the likes of Robert Bly and Jonathan Kozol.

William's self-esteem suffered from the emptiness left by a father who was rarely home - or who was emotionally detached when he was - a situation made worse by his schoolmates, who told him poets are sissies.

Eventually he would find himself though, a process described beautifully in a depiction of how, when in his fifties, while out running as part of a week-long retreat, he saw an image of the former child he was come out of the bushes and run ahead: "Then he slowed, let me catch up, and melted into my chest."

William's own experience is most interesting, including a hilarious incident involving protestors at Yale when he was in charge of External Affairs at the university.

By the time you've finished the book, you'll feel as if you've known him deeply and there is wisdom in this honest portrait of the writer's life for all who read it.

If you're into literature at all, then reading a study of poetry by one of the all-time greats is a joy. The writing is conversational, yet literate and holds the reader's interest. If you're not devoting your life to literature, but you need a resource, it's an excellent, accessible treatise.

MacLeish says that to understand what poetry is, you need a poet as a guide, since "the critics, though they have mapped those mountains, have never climbed them themselves." But he's referring not just to himself, but to a third-century Chinese poet, Lu Chi, who not only wrote poetry but wrote about the great writers he knew, and about "how a poem gets itself written." As MacLeish is our guide, Lu Chi is MacLeish's and appears throughout the book.

Chapter One, 'Words As Sounds', examines "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas. Chapter Two on 'Words as Signs' looks at a variety of poems and verses to consider: "Is there, within or in some other association with the lovely structure of the sounds, a structure of meanings?" Chapters Three and Four consider image and metaphor.

The last 4 chapters study individual poets and "The Shape of Meaning" : Emily Dickinson ('The Private World'); W. B. Yeats ('The Public World'); Artur Rimbaud ('The Anti-World'); and John Keats ('The Arable World').

There's a very good, though longer and more detailled book used by many colleges, called "Western Wind." I can recommend that one, too, but MacLeish is terrific and more succinct (gets it all in 199 pages, in my edition), and may be just what you're looking for. MacLeish would also be a good supplement to "Western Wind" if you're using WW in a class and would like a different explication and perspective. It deserves to be back in print, but used copies are, at this writing, readily available.

After the death of his close friend, Archibald MacLeish wrote a poem directly related to the working life of Mark Van Doren...who wrote in a iittle shed over a brook on his farm in
Connecticut. Only a close friend like MacLeish, or someone who had been invited to the Van Doren household,would have known of its existence.
It is a short poem pubished by a noted printer of broadsides, and it may be one of the most magnifcent memorial poems ever written by one master about another.
The broadside would certainly be a rare item in American literature; it was a limited edition printing.
Any student of literature would benefit by reading the poem,which would be included in the Collected Works(latest printing) of MacLeish.

I am a theater director, and I directed two of the plays in this volume. One (Air Raid) is about civilians caught in the middle of a war. The other (This Music Crept by Me Upon the Waters) is about people trying to find meaning in their lives, but ultimately just going along with the status quo.

Air Raid was written in the thirties, a reponse to Picasso's painting Guernica, wich was a reponse to the bombing of a Basque village. But it could just as easily be about Iraq.

This Music was written in the fifties, about post-war Americans and Brits with plenty of disposable income. Is reads like a condemnation of 21st century society, talking about environmentalism wile driving an SUV and living in a 5000 square foot house.

Great writer, great plays.

J.B. is a modern day (1950s) retelling of the biblical story of Job. To summarize: Job, God's most loyal servant, is punished by God without reason. God only wishes to prove that no matter what obstacles God threw at him, Job would still "praise God." While the story of Job makes a deep point about human suffering and the strength of faith, J.B. delves deeper.

The play centers on a dialogue between two characters, Zuss and Nickles, who play God and Satan respectively. Each makes important points about the root of suffering and God's role in Job's pain. Zuss argues, in more words or less, that Job has no right to question God. Nickles, instead, sympathizes with Job's pain believing that God has been unfair to mankind and especially to this man. Please grant that these are simplifications of their arguments, one can write novels on the meaning of this play.
Its not hard to imagine how the play ends, but like many things it's the journey not the destination that matter. The banter between the two, and satirical overtones of throwing the whole setting in a circus tent, take the reader beyond the norm. This is a story that requires the reader to engage, be prepared to think! You can not help but question your spirituality and faith during the play. For while few of us suffer as Job does, fewer still believe in God. Would you be able to still love God, if he took everything away from you?

I'll be straightforward and admit that my review is biased. MacLeish's J.B. has been (since reading it in my High School AP English Class) my favorite. I'm an avid reader, but there's something so subtly beautiful about MacLeish's language, something so deep in his words that have resounded in my heart, that I am compelled to re-read this play over and over again. MacLeish has a profound message to teach us "modern, disillusioned men" that one would have to have a heart of stone not to appreciate.

I was familiar with J.B. when it first came out in the late 50's or early 60's. The story of the Book of Job was updated to a time when nuclear war was a possibility, and that was the backdrop for J.B.'s (Job's) losses. With the terrorist threat now prevalent in the world, the play is now more timely than ever.

Macleish's modern rendition of the Book of Job does an adequate job of converting the serious tale to a modern almost circus like story. Although sardonic at times, he keeps the main focus intact: WHY DO THE RIGHTEOUS SUFFER?

This is a play based on the book of Job. It takes you through his struggle and faithfulness to God. After having a lot of land, good cattle and sheep, and a happy family, he is tested. Satan says he will curse God to his face if he doesn't have wealth, a family, or health. Satan is proved wrong. Job stays faithful to the Lord and in the end is rewarded with more than he ever started off with.

I enjoyed this book. It is a accurate play in terms of the Bible, although it is not quoted, it helps you too understand the story of Job and it helps you understand what it means to be faithful to God in good times and also in bad times, for he is always there. I recommend it for anyone dealing with any problems or anyone who liked the Book of Job.

This play in verse is a modern take on one of the timeless questions of suffering during our lives.In this instance,JB loses his wealth, health and family and during the ensuing discussions with his "friends", it beomes evident that the story is not about suffering, but about faith.Very powerful,but short, descriptive scenes and dialogue.

Henry David Thoreau is more to me than a neighbor. His book is more to me than a classic.
"Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity," Thoreau states. . .
. . .and in such powerful, clear, and memorable language tries throughout the book to awaken us.
"Simplify, simplify," he restates. . .
. . .and encourages us to live--as he tried--honestly and sincerely.
The five words quoted summarize "Walden", but it should not be summarized: it should be read, and reread. . .and understood. . .and practiced.
What is Thoreau; what is Walden to me? The four-word title of this review was my original, complete review, submitted--and rejected--over 20 times.
Simply:
My god; my bible

My first copy of this book was indubitably from some other publisher. So I'm not commenting on this particular volume but the content of the work itself.
I have always loved this book but it wasn't until recent years that I realized what a controversial book this was. Thoreau published this book at his own expense and he sold very few copies. Later on he stored most of his unsold copies in an attic. He once claimed to have the largest collection of book published by Henry David Thoreau than anyone alive - and I'm sure he did.
But why didn't people buy this book? Well, for one thing it was critical of "the neighborhood". For another thing it was critical of "the values of his neighbors". For another thing it was critical of the values of his countrymen; it was critical of Capitalism; it was critical of modern life; it was critical of the "consumer mentality"; it was critical of the work ethic; it was critical of buying things; it was critical of "getting ahead" and "accumulating; it was critical of working for a living; it was critical of achieving; it was a critique on the civilization of the day - and it was not positive.
So why did it make me feel good to read it then and why does it have the same effect on me today?
I don't know but whenever I get lonely to go have a talk with an old friend I go to the book shelf and pick up Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

Imagine a man, living in the present time, who is fed up with life in our ever-changing electronic world. So, he goes to live in a hut he's re-built out by a gentle pond, reasonably away from civilization. He throws away his cell phone, computer, TV, radio, etc. and lives simply and quietly, observing naature with his eyes and a microscope. He's not a hermit, because he visits and is visited by, friends and neighbors. He examines his life in solitude and writes about the sights and sounds of the woods and the pond.
For two years living alone this way, he comes to know nature and himself intimately and when he returns to civilization, he is refreshed, spiritually, emotionally and mentally.

Now, imagine all this as done 160 years ago when technology consisted of things like the newly invented telegraph (which he disdained), railway system, and others. Thoreau, like many of us today, longed to live simply and in harmony with Nature. The inspiration for hundreds of hippies, eco-freaks, Luddites and anti-technologists, he showed us that we sometimes need to get back to simple and clean living with no one and nothing to intrude on our thoughts.

And by the time you've finished this little gem of a book, the weekend will be over, and it will be time to go back to the ugly, long commute to a place where technology and stress seemingly go hand in hand.

Strangely surprising how pertinent many of Thoreau's perceptions, opinions and insights on habits and values are to modern day society and culture. And impressive how vehemently he professes these views in some sections. No sugar coating here. This is raw stuff, presented with language and skill we've lost over the years.

My favorite quote: "One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels"

Thoreau is inspired and inspiring.

I brought this book because I had a class that required it. I got it within 2 weeks so that wasn't bad but I hadn't realized that I paid more for the book here then I would have had I gone to a local store! The back of the book says it's only $2.50. The lowest price I could find on Amazon was $4. I guess that's why people don't have to pay for shipping when they purchase items that exceed $25! (The free mailing gets paid for (at least in this case), with higher book prices.
BTW I found out that this book is a free e-book via the web. Next time I'll make sure to check that avenue first.

It's been a while since I've read anything this flowery, and yet, it was a pleasant deviation. This book wasn't shocking for its sexual contact, but it was a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting such a robust sprinkling of f*ck and c*nt, but there it was, interspersed with social class distinction and haughtiness turned into naughtiness. It has the allure and staying power of liberal sex scenes, but also is the lovely picture of a love affair that transcends social mores.

A wonderful read, that explores human relationships. It is wonderfully descriptive and a pleasure to read. Highly recommend.

The use of comic strips lamely summarizing scenes from D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" came as an unwelcome surprise. The edition itself is excellent, with a fine introduction, authoritative text, maps, notes, and bibliography. But the cover (and a gratuitous list of women the author is alleged to have shagged) is more than disgraceful. What conceivable purpose does this serve? The marketing people at Penguin should think twice before defacing a classic text in this way.

I love the classics- I make sure to throw a few into my "to be read" pile just to cleanse the palette from my general fiction and genre reading. I've been wanting to read LCL for some time now, mostly because of it being censored and banned back in the day for it's explicit sex and language. In fact it was considered pornographic and, for a time, was not allowed to be mailed out into the US due to obscenity laws.

Because I do read romance and yes, even erotica, at times I have to defend my reading choices because it's considered illicit, so naturally I wanted to read LCL.

Ugh. I hated it.

Slow paced and tedious I wanted to give up on it so many times. But I'm stubborn so I couldn't let myself give up on it.

Whereas I'm sure this book was a shocker in the late 20's when it was published, to my modern eyes, it was no biggie. Yes it was graphic, but in no way could one consider this pornographic! Porn, to me, is something that is produced (visual or written) to enflame sexually. This book was far from stimulating in that way.

The first section bored me to tears, full of mind-numbing conversations that had no significance other than for the author to show how intellectual he was. I could barely read a page without my eyes drooping closed. Yes, I got that their conversations had a point- "The dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation." Yeah, I got it. But to stretch it out for the length of the entire book? Ugh.

When Lady Chatterley met Mellors, her soon to be lover- things got more interesting- for about 10 pages. Then back to the tedium. It back and forthed like that for the entire book. UGH!

I truly liked her lover Mellors. A vetern of the war and of the lower class, he seemed the most intelligent of the characters. Which was, of course, the most shocking part of the story back in the day- the fact that a member of the upper class, Lady Chatterley, cheated on her upper crust husband with a servant.

Connie (Lady Chatterley) I found wishy-washy, whiney, and downright annoying. NOT a heroine to love. BUT she knew how to find her sexual pleasure and wasn't ashamed of it. (Plus for her!) Clifford, her husband- Lord Chatterley to her Lady- I actually felt pity for, though the author did his best to make him seem unworthy of Connie.

Here's a short look at Lord and Lady Chatterley:

Cliffy, wounded and crippled during the war, was unable to perform his husbandly duties. Connie grew to loathe him and headed out for greener pastures. Now, I'll give that Cliffy was a snob and a control freak, but pitiful to be sure, and in the end didn't deserve Connie's selfishness.

(...)
... however, I am glad I read LCL. If only to say I have done so!

D.H. Lawrence daringly wrote about sexual mores in this novel, to an extent that his socioeconomic theme may have been lost by many of the readers.

Constance Chatterly - affectionately depicted as Connie or Lady Chatterly - is the highlight and nightmare to her husband, Lord Chatterly. After a whirlwind marriage and honeymoon, the lord returns to Word War I's catastrophe and is "shipped home smashed." He is a paraplegic for life, and someone who cannot provide an heir to his family's estate: Wragby.

While confined to the walls of the stately mansion, she is effectively a widow who will never know her sexuality. But she is not alone as one friend tells her, "You have to snivel and feel sinful or awful about your sex, before you're allowed to have any." Sex is a suppressed sin - not an appreciated act.

Her lover concedes women are no fun. ". . . the mass of women are like this: most of them want a man, but don't want the sex, but they put up with it, as part of the bargain." In reflection, being married to a paraplegic may be a blessing to those very women.

But, her lover discovers fun with sex, and vice versa. They actually conjoin in orgasm. Lawrence writes about this, he writes about their propinquity of flesh, of cuddling and more. In return, England banned publication of this until 1960. Almost 32 years this book was shelved by the prurient aristocratic publishers who cringed when reading about the sex, and the details of the same.

But, Lawrence's statement is stronger. Lady Chatterly does not have sex with one of her class - no she opts for one of the servants of the manor. Oliver Mellors, a bloke who chooses to speak in Derby accent instead of proper English (which he is capable of doing) lights a flame to her inner hay stack. And, she goes wild.

Although married to be a Lady, Connie is not from such top-notch stock. But, she is still greater than a commoner, and her sister Hilda remarks about their tryst as ". . .how impossible it is to mix one's life with theirs. Not out of snobbery, but just because the whole rhythm is different."

Those people, the colliers or coal miners, are the people who work the colliery owned by Lord Chatterly. He effectively supplies income to every person's house - at least enough to keep them fed and housed, while they toil in the depths of his mines' bowels in disgusting filth and horrible conditions.

Lawrence saw his father in such mines, but saves us from learning too much of the daily toil - this is not a revelation of bad working conditions like Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." But, this is a statement about social injustice, like Sinclair's "The Jungle."

In the end, all good comes of a bad situation. The commoner is anything but common and Connie's daddy sits and drinks with this potential Gold Digger and leaves the pub slapping the man on the back and opening his heart and soul to the man who somehow managed to have his daughter leave the comforts and prestige of Magbry.

Scenes like that at the pub remind me that Lawrence obviously read Dickens - like probably all his peers did. And, his novel is comparably great as it hits the forefront of not only social injustice, but attacks Victorian restraints on sex, much like other great novelists of England - including Virginia Woolf. But, he attacked such social conservatism head on. This book is a leader of its time.

This book seems to contain all of Ogden Nash's best verses. But good luck finding them: there is no index of titles or first lines. With so many verses, many of them titled counter-intuitively, you will only find the verse you seek by sheer luck, if at all.

Ogden Nash should probably be considered more of a humorist than a poet. After all, he makes up words and sometimes totally disregards any sense of meter. Maybe "rhyming humorist" would be most accurate (even though there is some real poetry here, too). In my opinion, his strongest poems are his shortest. I particularly enjoy his poems about animals. Some of his humor seems a little dated and, unlike a previous reviewer, I found little here that, for me, was laugh-out-loud funny. One of my favorite poems in the book is actually a serious poem, "A Carol for Children". But, hey, if you want serious poetry, get some Emily Dickinson. Ogden Nash is good if you need a lighthearted chuckle.

If you like this book, and the sweetly subversive worlds of George Booth, Ogden Nash or Shel Silverstein, then you should pick up Nick Bantock's (of Gryphon & Sabine fame), "Averse to Beasts," a book with cassette whose dangerous little ditties rival Nash's in their hilarity with a dose of arsenic.

Don't trash
Ogden Nash.
His words
ain't turds
His swirls
Are pearls.

This is a completely enjoyable collection that keeps me smiling as I read. Unfortunately, it seems the proof reader relied on a computer's spell-checker program. It let him down.

The spelling errors surprised me. I guess I may have spotted an error or two in other books, but I seem to keep stumbling on them in this book. They're distracting and it seems almost sinful to have let them appear in this wonderful collection.

Mr. Nash's insight, humor and unique form are well represented here in the 650 rhymes, verses, lyrics and poems. They are grouped by general subject matter. Thumb through the contents and see what you're in the mood for. Nash will make you smile or even laugh out loud.

I say, Bring him back! because MacLeish has pretty well dropped from sight, except for 'Ars Poetica' and 'You, Andrew Marvell.' And it's true that one has to mine this hefty volume pretty carefully for the real treasure. Except for Conquistador (MacLeish's 1932 Pulitzer Prize-winning epic--really, it's a sort of epic lyric--of the Spanish conquest of Mexico), MacLeish's long poems hold very little aesthetic interest, and even Conquistador is marred by its indebtedness to the Ezra Pound of the early Cantos. But at his lyric best, MacLeish is incomparable: 'Eleven,' 'Memorial Rain,' ''Not Marble Nor the Gilded Monuments,'' 'Immortal Autumn,' 'Epistle To Be Left in the Earth,' 'Cook County,' 'Winter Is Another Country,' 'Calypso's Island,' 'What Riddle Asked the Sphinx,' 'The Reef Fisher,' 'The Infinite Reason,' 'Dr. Sigmund Freud Discovers the Sea Shell,' 'Captivity of the Fly,' 'Companions,' 'Mark's Sheep,' 'Rainbow at Evening,' and a generous handful of others drawn from every stage of a very long career. What is more, I cannot understand, in this age of the socially conscious anthology, why the editors of the Heath Anthology of American Literature haven't rediscovered the MacLeish of Frescoes for Mr. Rockefeller's City (especially 'Empire Builders'), 'Lines for Interment,' the often misunderstood 'Invocation to the Social Muse' (a satire whose irony turns back on its speaker), 'Speech to Those Who Say Comrade,' and 'Brave New World' (which is especially relevant today, thanks to the so-called Patriot Act). MacLeish was THE poet of the Lost Generation and later the very first 'Fellow Traveler'--literally! His public and private voices merit hearing.

"In the scriptures we read that 'this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.' (John 17:3) Joseph Smith declared the first principle of the Gospel to be 'to know for a certainty the character of God.' (History of the Church 6:305) Man's eternal progress clearly depends on his coming to a knowledge of his Divine Father; we must know God if we are to become like him.
GOD THE FATHER is a compilation of some of the clearest and most authoritative statements ever delivered on the nature and personality of God. These statements clarify and explain the unique conception of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that God is an anthropomorphic being, the literal Father of our spirits, and one of three separate and distinct personages comprising the Godhead.
Included here are the thoughts of the General Authorities and past presidents of the Church, as well as the testimonies of prominent scientists and philosophers, as to the reality of our Heavenly Father. God's relationship with man, the nature of his oneness with the other members of the Godhead, his divine power and goodness, and his eternal plan of salvation are all discussed in this powerful work.
One of the joyous messages of the restoration of Christ's true gospel is that man can truly come to know God. In searching out this knowledge we gain great happiness, for, as compiler Gordon Allred says,'One cannot ponder the true personality and purposes of our Heavenly Father without being warmed in the glow of his own great love.'