Synopses & Reviews
A prolific writer, a famous pacifist, a respected teacher, and a literary mentor to many, William Stafford is one of the great American poets of the twentieth century. His first major collection--Traveling Through the Dark--won the National Book Award. He published more than sixty-five volumes of poetry and prose and was Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress-a position now known as the Poet Laureate. Before his death in 1993, he gave his son Kim the greatest gift and challenge: to be his literary executor.
In Early Morning, Kim creates an intimate portrait of a father and son who shared many passions: archery, photography, carpentry, and finally, writing itself. But Kim also confronts the great paradox at the center of William Stafford's life. The public man, the poet who was always communicating with warmth and feeling-even with strangers-was capable of profound, and often painful, silence within the family. By piecing together a collage of his personal and family memories, and sifting through thousands of pages of his father's daily writing and poems, Kim illuminates a fascinating and richly lived life.
William Stafford was born in Kansas in 1914 and is the author of over fifty books. He received the National Book Award for Traveling Through the Dark.
Kim Stafford is the director of the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College in Oregon.
A Book Sense 76 SelectionWinner of the Pacific Northwest Bookseller's Association Award William Stafford--poet, teacher, father, friend--purported to write at least one poem every day of his life. He is one of the most respected poets of the 20th-century--Traveling Through the Dark earned him the National Book Award for Poetry in 1963. Before William Stafford's death in 1993, he gave his son Kim the greatest gift and challenge: to be his literary executor. In Early Morning, Kim Stafford creates an intimate portrait of a father and son who shared many passions: archery, photography, carpentry, and, finally, writing itself. But Kim also confronts the great paradox at the center of William Stafford's life. The public man, the poet who was always communicating with warmth and feeling--even with strangers--was capable of profound, and often painful, silence within the family. Weaving his father's poems and daily writing into memories of his life, Kim elegantly illuminates William's complex and rich life. This is a masterful memoir (Bloomsbury Review) and a remarkable tribute to one of America's greatest contemporary poets. A masterful memoir . . . Early Morning would be a rare and exceptional book in any season, any year. Coming as it does in a time of national crisis, it is needed.--Bloomsbury Review Early Morning lovingly examines William's life and legacy fro multiple perspectives-as poet, teacher, pacifist, and father--with a discernment and honesty equal to the task of bringing such a formidably complex and sometimes contradictory character of life on the page. On one level a treasury of the elder Stafford's reflections and aphorisms enriched by the younger one's insightful recollections, Early Morning also unforgettably portrays a complicated father-son relationship.--Ruminator Review As a book written by a son warily loving an enigmatic, elusive father, this is a masterpiece.--Robert Bly These wonderfully written perspectives and recollections provide rare insight into the character and philosophy of William Stafford, and reveal the sources of many of his poems. The pages of this book are rich with passages from Stafford's poetry and his daily writing. Early Morning is a gift, an invaluable resource for all fans, friends, and colleagues of William Stafford, for students of his work, for his future biographers, for those interested in the writing process, and for those interested in the challenges and struggles, the goals and pleasures, of a major American poet making his way through the 20th century.--Pattiann Rogers William Stafford was an oftentimes wondrous poet, and a great teacher. Kim Stafford's tale of life with his father, of his father's life, is both an assessment and an act of veneration. Early Morning is intimate . . . Touching, illuminating, revealing, and of great value.--William Kittredge Writing with the same elegant precision that distinguished his collection of personal essays, Having Everything Right, Stafford remembers his father, poet William Stafford, through a creative blend of memoir, poetry, and criticism . . . Moving fluidly from his father's poems and 'daily writing' to memories of his life, Kim recalls the suicide of his older brother and its effect on the family. If quiet brought power to Stafford's poems, his often-protracted silence sometimes brought distance to his relations with his loved ones. And, yet, there is something touching and intimate about witnessing the son using his own words to bridge his father's silence. For anyone who has read William Stafford's verse and marveled at the way he could capture the pulse and power of life, his son's words help reveal the source of that power: 'My father used to say that poems are not made of words, but of contexts.' This remarkable tribute gives new life to those contexts.--Booklist (starred review) Kim's prose is poetic and lyrical, and he makes liberal use of excerpts from his father's poetry as a means of underscoring his own view of his father. Recommended.--Library Journal
Review
"As a book written by a son warily loving an enigmatic, elusive father, this is a masterpiece."--Robert Bly
"I don't want to write good poems. I want to write inevitable poems."--William Stafford
Synopsis
A prolific writer, a famous pacifist, a respected teacher, and a literary mentor to many, William Stafford is one of the great American poets of the twentieth century. His first major collection--
Traveling Through the Dark--won the National Book Award. He published more than sixty-five volumes of poetry and prose and was Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress-a position now known as the Poet Laureate. Before his death in 1993, he gave his son Kim the greatest gift and challenge: to be his literary executor.
In Early Morning, Kim creates an intimate portrait of a father and son who shared many passions: archery, photography, carpentry, and finally, writing itself. But Kim also confronts the great paradox at the center of William Stafford's life. The public man, the poet who was always communicating with warmth and feeling-even with strangers-was capable of profound, and often painful, silence within the family. By piecing together a collage of his personal and family memories, and sifting through thousands of pages of his father's daily writing and poems, Kim illuminates a fascinating and richly lived life.
About the Author
William Stafford was born in Kansas in 1914, and published over fifty books of poetry and prose.
Kim Stafford is a writer and director of the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College in Oregon.
Exclusive Essay
Read exclusive essays by Kim Stafford from 2012 and 2014