The Gift
How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World
Published on 2. November 2006
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-1-84195-833-0 (ISBN)
Description
First published in America in 1979, "The Gift" is a modern classic which remarkably has never before been published in Britain. This inspiring examination of the 'gift economy' is even more relevant now than when it originally appeared, a brilliantly argued defence of the place of creativity in our increasingly market-orientated society. ""The Gift" actually deserves the hyperbolic praise that in most blurbs is so empty. It is the sort of book that you remember where you were and even what you were wearing when you first picked it up. The sort that you hector friends about until they read it too. This is not just formulaic blurbspeak; it is the truth. No one who is invested in any kind of art, in questions of what real art does and doesn't have to do with money, spirituality, ego, love, ugliness, sales, politics, morality, marketing, and whatever you call 'value', can read "The Gift" and remain unchanged." - David Foster Wallace.
Reviews / Votes
"Brilliant... by the time he is done he has folded language, culture and the very habit of being human into his ken." New Yorker "A masterpiece... The Gift is the best book I know of for the aspiring young, for talented but unacknowledged creators, or even for those who have achieved material success and are worried that this means they've sold out." Margaret Atwood "Hyde is one of our true superstars of non-fiction...the guy's both brilliant (intellectually, literarily) and wise (psychologically, spiritually, you-name-itally)." David Foster Wallace "Absolutely interesting and original...An exciting book for anyone interested in the place of creativity in our culture." Annie Dillard "The Gift actually deserves the hyperbolic praise that in most blurbs is so empty. It is the sort of book that you remember where you were and even what you were wearing when you first picked it up. The sort that you hector friends about until they read it too. This is not just formulaic blurbspeak; it is the truth. No one who is invested in any kind of art, in questions of what real art does and doesn't have to do with money, spirituality, ego, love, ugliness, sales, politics, morality, marketing, and whatever you call 'value', can read The Gift and remain unchanged." David Foster Wallace"More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Product notice
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 218 mm
Width: 170 mm
Thickness: 31 mm
Weight
550 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84195-833-0 (9781841958330)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Book
09/2007
Canongate Books
€32.37
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Person
LEWIS HYDE was born in Boston in 1945 and studied at both Minnesota and Iowa Universities. His hugely acclaimed essay, "Alcohol and Poetry: John Berryman and the Booze Talking" in part sprang out of his experiences as an alcoholism counsellor but he is also a highly regarded poet in his own right whose poetry and essays have been widely published. He is a MacArthur Fellow, a former director of creative writing at Harvard and alongside The Gift he is the author of the equally acclaimed Trickster Makes this World. He currently lives in Massachusetts where he is completing a third book.