Edited by William B. Thesing

A new and welcome contribution to our understanding of Jeffers and the Modernist generation

6 x 9, 260 pages
cloth, ISBN 1-57003-043-X, $29.95s

ABOUT THE BOOK

Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962), the controversial American poet who wrote about nature's beauty and torment from his rock tower overlooking the California coast, has lurked at the margins of America's poetic culture since the height of his career in the 1920s and 1930s. Long regarded as an isolated phenomenon detached from past and present literary traditions, Jeffers's poetry recently recaptured the attention of American readers with the publication of his collected works. In the wake of this renewed enthusiasm, William B. Thesing has assembled a critical volume to honor one of the foremost Jeffers scholars, William H. Nolte. Its thirteen essays deftly define Jeffers's poetry while subverting accepted ideas about it by relating Jeffers's literary contributions to those of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American and British poets.

A medley of voices, including those of scholars Calvin Bedient, Terence Diggory, and Tim Hunt, offer striking readings that present Jeffers not as a solitary artist but as a dynamic figure who drew upon the work of his predecessors and who influenced a wide circle of contemporary and subsequent writers.

ABOUT THE EDITOR

William B. Thesing , professor of English at the University of South Carolina, has written or edited ten books, more than fifty articles and book chapters, and scores of book reviews.

ALSO FROM THE EDITOR

Caverns of Night