Anthologist

The Anthologist is narrated by Paul Chowder-a once-in-a-while-published kind of poet who is writing the introduction to a new anthology of poetry. He's having a hard time getting started because his career is floundering; his girlfriend Roz has recently left him; and he is thinking about the great poets throughout history who have suffered far worse and deserve to feel sorry for themselves. He has also promised to reveal many wonderful secrets and tips and tricks about poetry, and it looks like the introduction will be a little longer than he'd thought.What unfolds is a wholly entertaining and beguiling love story about poetry: from Tennyson, Swinburne, and Yeats to the moderns (Roethke, Bogan, Merwin) to the staff of the New Yorker, what Paul reveals is astonishing and makes one realize how incredible important poetry is to our lives. At the same time, Paul barely manages to realize all of this himself, and the result is a tenderly romantic, hilarious, and inspired novel.

The Anthologist captures all the warmth, wit, and extraordinary prose style that have made award-winning author Nicholson Baker an American master.

Nicholson Baker was born in 1957 and attended the Eastman School of Music

and Haverford College. He is the author of seven novels, including "Vox"

and "The Mezzanine", and three previous works of nonfiction, including

"Double Fold", which won a National Book Critics Circle Award in 2001. He

lives in Maine with his family.