The Renegade: Writings on Poetry and a Few Other Things

In these essays, Charles Simic delves into the lives and work of poets, novelists, artists, and playwrights, beginning with his own experiences before turning to those of Christopher Marlowe, Odilon Redon, W. S. Sebald, Louise Glück, and many more. Throughout he celebrates the renegade spirit, whether it inspires a rogue ant to depart from his prescribed path or a poet to write unfashionably honest verse.

Simic brings the personal worlds of each writer and artist to life, discussing their friends, homes, influences, and the rooms that shaped their outlooks. His portraits urge the reader to regard writers and artists as protean, fallible men and women rather than as immutable icons, and he reveals the key turning points in the creative lives of his subjects, noting their creative failures as often as he does their successes. He is unflinching in his analyses of even the most beloved cultural figures, following his enthralling praises with unforgettable, piercing critiques.

"U.S. poet laureate Simic casts his knowing eye over a range of subjects in 16 biographical/critical pieces, many originally published in the New York Review of Books and other journals. In the opening, autobiographical piece, Simic, born in 1938, recalls his Belgrade, Yugoslavia, childhood unsentimentally ('I had a happy childhood despite droning planes, deafening explosions, and people hung from lampposts. I mean, it's not like I knew better....'), and continues with his arrival in America as a teenager and how his growing distaste for Serbian nationalism turned him into a renegade. Simic then roves outward to figures such as the misunderstood and underappreciated E.A. Robinson; melancholy Robert Creeley of Black Mountain Review fame; surrealist-inspired Yves Bonnefoy; and fellow U.S. poet laureate Donald Hall. He examines the endless quirks of Witold Gombrowicz, the eclectic originality of W.G. Sebald and certainly one of the greatest artistic renegades anywhere, Christopher Marlowe. Also among these elegant, penetrating writings are essays on a MoMA exhibit of Dada and on Whitman, not to mention a memorable segue on the world's worst haircut." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

He was born in Belgrade in 1938 and his childhood was marked by war. By 1954 he was in Chicago. By 1959 he was a published poet, and after a degree from New York U. he published the first of over 60 books. In time Simic (literature, U. of New Hampshire) the refugee was Simic the US Poet Laureate. His intuitive understanding of the bizarre has remained with him throughout, and this collection of writings reveals some of the reasons why this unique trait has helped to make him one of the great twentieth and twenty-first century poets. He explains attraction, reflection, rule-making, devotion, utopianism, marginalization and the heart of the poet along with the moments in his life that shaped his mind and spirit, and critiques the works of authors ranging from Christopher Marlow to Emily Dickenson, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Robert Creeley, and Zbigniew Herbert. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The fifteenth U.S. Poet Laureate collects his latest essays on subjects ranging from poetry to his childhood years in Belgrade.

Charles Simic, fifteenth U.S. Poet Laureate, is also an essayist and translator. He lives in Strafford, New Hampshire, and is professor emeritus of American literature and creative writing at the University of New Hampshire.