The Odd Last Thing She Did: Poems

Once again Brad Leithauser's poems evince a profound love of nature and a mastery of poetic forms. But they also reflect a deepening interest in storytelling, as Leithauser, who has also published four novels, here brings the narrative drive that propels his fiction into the domain of verse.

With compassion and imagination, Leithauser enters into the mysteries of lives both real and fictional: a middle-aged businessman who marries the identical twin of his deceased wife; a beautiful young woman whose life ends on a beautiful summer day; an elderly couple conducting a confused, touching romance in a nursing home; a young World War II soldier returning, wounded, to his fiancee.

And, as always, Leithauser's poems about the natural world are both coolly precise and warmly engaging. A marsh in March, the play of sunlight underneath a bridge, a long-delayed spring, the contemplation of a moonless earth--all lead the poet, and ultimately the reader, into meditation and wonder.

"A solid reputation for mastery", Anthony Hecht has said, "is sustained and reconfirmed in this brilliant cluster of dazzling, touching, witty, and deeply felt poems".

As always, Leithauser's poems evince a profound love of nature and a command of poetic forms, but they also reflect a growing interest in stories about people — both real and fictional. As Phoebe Pettingell wrote in The New Leader: "Even nature often takes on a human face ... Poem portraits have always been endearing. Leithauser handles the form with panache. I cannot guess what this gifted and ambitious poet may choose to try next. He goes from strength to strength and manages to surprise us at every turn".

Brad Leithauser was born in Detroit and graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He is the author of three previous volumes of poetry--Hundreds of Fireflies, Cats of the Temple, and The Mail from Anywhere--four novels, and a book of essays. He is the recipient of many awards for his writing, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Ingram Merrill grant, and a MacArthur Fellowship.

He and his wife, the poet Mary Jo Salter, are the Emily Dickinson Lecturers in the Humanities at Mount Holyoke College. They live with their two daughters, Emily and Hilary, in South Hadley, Massachusetts.