
Straw for the Fire
From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
Theodore Roethke(Author)
Copper Canyon Press,U.S.
Published on 14. December 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-55659-248-5 (ISBN)
Description
"There are only two passions in art; there are love and hate—with endless modifications."—Theodore Roethke
At his death, Theodore Roethke left behind 277 spiral notebooks full of poetry fragments, aphorisms, jokes, memos, journal entries, random phrases, bits of dialogue, commentary, and fugitive miscellany. Within these notebooks, Roethke allowed his mind to rove freely, moment by moment, moving from the practical to the transcendental, from the halting to the sublime.
Fellow poet and colleague David Wagoner distilled these notebooks—twelve linear feet of bookshelf—into an energetic, wise, and rollicking collection that shows Roethke to be one of the truly phenomenal creative sources in American poetry.
From "A Psychic Janitor":
I'm sick of fumbling, furtive, disorganized minds like bad lawyers trying to make too many points that this is an age of criticism: and these, mind you, tin-eared punks who couldn't tell a poem from an old boot if a gun were put to their heads . . .
Cover art by United States Poet Laureate Ted Kooser.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
449 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-55659-248-5 (9781556592485)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Roethke (1908-1963) won the Pulitzer Prize in 1954 for The Waking, and received the National Book Award for Words for the Wind in 1957. He was a demanding and beloved teacher who taught at many colleges and universities, including Lafayette, Penn State, Bennington, and the University of Washington. David Wagoner was a student, friend, and colleague of Theodore Roethke's. He is the author of over a dozen books of poetry and fiction, a longtime editor at Poetry Northwest, and Professor of English at University of Washington.