Book description
Whoever looks to a new book by James Dickey for further work in an
established mode, or for mere novelty, is going to be disappointed. But
those who seek instead a true widening of the horizons of meaning,
coupled with a sure-handed mastery of the craft of poetry, will find
this latest collection satisfying indeed.
Here is a man who matches superb gifts with a truly subtle imagination,
into whose depths he is courageously traveling--pioneering--in
exploratory penetrations into areas of life that are too often evaded or
denied. "The Firebombing," "Slave Quarters,"
"The Fiend"--these poems, with the others that comprise the
present volume, show a mature and original poet at his finest.
"James Dickey's fourth volume, Buck dancer's Choice, establishes
him as one of the most important younger poets of our time. It has a
passionate quality, an intense clarity, a cleansing of the totality of
being into a kind of carefully separated madness that makes it one of
the remarkable books of the decade."--Joseph Bennett, New York
Times Book Review JAMES DICKEY, born in Atlanta and educated at
Vanderbilt, abandoned a successful business career shortly after the
publication of his second book. He has been poet-in-residence at Reed
College and at San Fernando Valley State College, and has lectured and
given readings at many other institutions. In the spring of 1966 he was
named consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress for the year
1966-1967. His published collections include Into the Stone(1960),
Drowning With Others (1962), and Helmets (1964), two latter in the
Wesleyan Poetry Program.
