Book description
Robert Bly writes that it is clear to men that the images of adult
manhood given by popular culture are worn out, that a man can no
longer depend on them. Iron John searches for a new vision of
what a man is or could be, drawing on psychology, anthropology,
mythology, folklore and legend. Robert Bly looks at the importance of
the Wild Man (reminiscent of the Wild Woman in Women Who Run With
the Wolves), who he compares to a Zen priest, a shaman or a woodman.
'This book needs to be read, I believe, not as a dry work of
scholarship to be judged coolly by the mind, but as the work of a poet
struggling to convey an emotional experience and lead us to what he
has found within himself' Guardian
'Eclectic and unclassifiable. Iron John is a work whose
mentors are the prophetic poets and crazies, William Blake and Walt
Whitman' Sydney Morning Herald
'Important. timely. and powerful' New York Times
Robert Bly is a poet, storyteller, translator and worldwide lecturer.
His poetry has won many awards, including the National Book Award. This
is his first full-length book of prose. He lives with his wife in
Madison, Minnesota.
