Author: Saul Bellow File Type: epub *Bellows nonfiction has the same strengths as his stories and novels a dynamic responsiveness to character, place and time (or era) . . . And you wonderwhat other highbrow writer,or indeed lowbrow writer has such a reflexive grasp of the street, the machine, the law courts, the rackets? Martin Amis,The New York Times Book Review The year 2015 marks several literary milestones the centennial of Saul Bellows birth, the tenth anniversary of his death, and the publication of Zachary Leaders much anticipated biography. Bellow, a Nobel Laureate, Pulitzer Prize winner, and the only novelist to receive three National Book awards, has long been regarded as one of Americas most cherished authors. Here, Benjamin Taylor, editor of the acclaimed Saul Bellow Letters*, presents lesser-known aspects of the iconic writer. Arranged chronologically, this literary time capsule displays the full extent of Bellows nonfiction, including criticism, interviews, speeches, and other reflections, tracing his career from his initial success as a novelist until the end of his life. Bringing together six classic pieces with an abundance of previously uncollected material, There Is Simply Too Much to Think About is a powerful reminder not only of Bellows genius but also of his enduring place in the western canon and is sure to be widely reviewed and talked about for years to come. From the Hardcover edition. **

Author: Frederick Seidel File Type: epub A stunning new collection from the beguiling and magisterial poet (The New York Times Book Review) hr Something is going on. Something is wrong.Frederick Seidel-the ghoul (Chicago Review), the triumphant outsider (Contemporary Poetry Review)-returns with a dangerous new collection of poems. Nice Weather presents the sexual and political themes that have long preoccupied Seidel-and thrilled and offended his readers. Lyrical, grotesque, elegiac, this book adds new music and menace to his masterful body of work.ReviewPraise for Nice WeatherThere is no contemporary poet writing in English as witty, as shrewd, as touching and as debonair as Frederick Seidel. Thats a lot of praise, but he surely merits it . . . [His] is the best kind of flippancy, informed by melancholy, anger at the technological wizardry more potent than faith, and a senseechoed throughout the collectionof the imminence of death . . . If Seidel resembles anyone, it is Frank OHara, who died as a result of an absurd accident on the beach at Fire Island while still a young man. OHara was gay and Seidel is most decidedly not, but they both appear to be living in, and for, the moment as they explore the delights and horrors of New York City. I love the pair of them, especially for their refusal to indulge in vain pedantry or seriousness too solemn to account for the daily comedy of our lives. Paul Bailey, The Independent[Seidels] use of expressive language to describe grotesque scenes adds a certain lyrical menace to his established body of work . . . In the opening poem, Night, Seidel writes Something is going on. Something is wrong, as vignettes of a night in the city unfold. Indeed, Nice Weather is an eloquent exploration of the cruel, corrupt, horrifying topics that plague Seidels mind. Heralded by The New York Times as a triumphant outsider in American poetry, Seidels latest release makes for a riveting reading experience, filled with witty social criticisms and eloquent reflections. Malibu Magazinebr br In all his work, Seidel remains a larger than life figure, full of vice, menace, and power, and capable of uttering the most shocking thoughts. He writes with the same risky power as John Berryman and Sylvia Plath in their confessional poems. Berryman, however, wrote of his inner torments by inventing a surrogate named Henry, while Plath incarnated herself in a series of voracious, quasi-mythical speakers. Seidel, by writing under his own name yet predicating such impossible and scandalous things of himself, raises the stakes of confessional poetry to a new level . . . His new collection, Nice Weather, out this week from Farrar, Straus and Giroux, betrays no falling off in daring or up-to-the-moment engagement . . . What is new is the sense, pervasive in Nice Weather, that he is coming to the end of his life and, what may be worse, of his potency. Like the late work of Robert Lowell, Nice Weather confronts these losses with a combination of nostalgic resignation and fierce defiance . . . The most moving poems in Nice Weather, however, are those in which Seidel reflects on his artistic accomplishment and how it weighs in the balance with death. At times he is cynical and dismissive . . . In other poems, he seems to regret the way the persona he has constructed in his work will replace him in the world after he disappears . . . But it is not for a writer like Seidel to ask for the readers pity. He remains, even now, a poet of wonderful fearlessness and daring, and he deserves to be remembered as the transgressive adventurer he is A Jew found frozen on the mountain at the howling summit, Immortally preserved singing to the dying planet from it. Adam Kirsch, *Tablet Magazine *Praise for Frederick SeidelThe most frightening American poet everphallus-man, hangman of political barbarismSeidel is the poet the twentieth century deserved. Calvin Bedient, *Boston Review [Seidel is] a carnivore if not a cannibal in the blandly vegan compound of contemporary poetry . . . Thank God for Fred Seidel. Michael Hofmann, Poetry There had never been a poet like this one before the poet of a new contemporary form, a highlight reelone spectacular feat after another, with all the humdrum stuff spliced out. Dan Chiasson, The New York Review of Books Frederick Seidel, for fifty years and across ten collections, has been writing our most serious, beautiful, and essential poems, poems that are shocking in their art and astonishing in their truth, and that remind us, in their forms, why poetry was once a vital part of cultural life. Wyatt Mason, Harpers Magazine In the desert of contemporary American poetry, Frederick Seidels work awaits the weary reader like an oasis. James Lasdun, The Guardian The excellent table manners combined with a savage display of appetite this is what everyone notices in Seidel. Yet he wouldnt be so special or powerful a poet of whats cruel, corrupt, and horrifying had he not also lately shown himself to be a great poet of innocence. Benjamin Kunkel, Harpers Magazine*About the AuthorFrederick Seidels many books of poems include The Cosmos Trilogy, Ooga-Booga, and Poems 1959-2009.