Synopses & Reviews
The Body of This Life is the first book-length collection of essays and memoirs of William Bronk (1918), winner of the American Book Award and widely recognized as one of the principal poets of his generation. Bronk, identified by poet Michael Heller as "one of our modern masters", lived in an upstate New York village, rarely gave readings from his work, and maintained a considerable distance from the literary world. Nonetheless, his work was widely known to his peers and to critics, and he was sought out by other writers and praised as one of the few authentic poets of his generation. The Body of This Life brings together essays and memoirs by distinguished critics and friends who knew Bronk and his work well. The book, edited by David Clippinger, who is currently preparing and edition of Bronk's letters, is essential for anyone concerned with poetry in our time and Bronk's central role in it.
Synopsis
Poetry. From 1956 till his death in 1999, William Bronk published thirty books of poetry and essays. Bronk returned again and again to a fundamental assertion that what is real--the world, truth, and ourselves--remains beyond the grasp of language and knowledge. Consequently, the world that we inhabit is a fiction of our own construction. Winner of the American Book Award for his collected poems, he is considered one of the foremost poets of his time. THE BODY OF THIS LIFE is an outstanding collection of essays and memoirs about his work by poets and scholars including Edward Foster, Burt Kimmelman, Robert Bertholf, and David Clippenger.