Product Description
In addition to being a small-town doctor who delivered more than 3,000 babies, William Carlos Williams was a deeply serious thinker considered on of the foremost poets of the century. In this remarkable, rich blend of art and scholarship, Paul Mariani unfolds Williams' life and times while simultaneously letting the reader inside the poet's mind and language. Photographs. ... Read more

Product Description
An insightful and inspirational biography of the heroic and spiritual poet.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) may well have been the most original and innovative poet writing in the English language during the nineteenth century. Yet his story of personal struggle, doubt, intense introspection, and inward heroism has never been told fully. As a Jesuit priest, Hopkins’s descent into loneliness and despair and his subsequent recovery are a remarkable and inspiring spiritual journey that will speak to many readers, regardless of their faith or philosophies.

Paul Mariani, an award-winning poet himself and author of a number of biographies of literary figures, brilliantly integrates Hopkins’s spiritual life and his literary life to create a rich and compelling portrait of a man whose work and life continue to speak to readers a century after his death. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

I'll read it again.
I bought this text because Paul Mariani wrote it. I've read Hopkins poetry for years and enjoyed what I could understand. Mariani showed me what I didn't understand and he placed each poem in its historical, biographical context. That helped. I'll read the book again. The book does take some work but it's worth the effort.

Poetry Begetting Poetry
It has been some time now since I read Mariani's beautiful biography of Hopkins.So what remains in me is the emotion of the book.Wading into the first chapter, I remember how strange the style of writing felt to me.Mariani swung from staccato journalese in one chapter to flowing, florid poetical syntax the next.How strange, how different - now I wouldn't have it any other way.Later, I began having issues with Mariani the poet competing with Hopkins himself.I got over that in a hurry, I now wish all books were written so beautifully.

Regarding Hopkins the man.I find so much beauty in him, so much transcendence, as well as a deliciously deep and flawed human being.The revelations about Hopkins' difficulties and perfectionism regarding his poetry; his having to gain the approval of the Jesuit censors and believing he should (and would) forego acclaim in his lifetime.What joy in pain.

Reading of Hopkins' only love affair with his best friend was heart wrenching.So tragic, so lovely. Both the man and this book.The measure of all books in my opinion: I couldn't put it down.And in the end, I rued the fact that it was over (How could I ever find another book I loved as much?)and as all biographies end, this beautiful man, whom Mariani had helped me know and love, had died.I closed the cover after some time, tears flowing, a wretched smile on my face.I tend to believe that this will be the only book that I re-read in this lifetime.A Masterpiece!

Gerard Manly Hopkins Life
The book appeared to be fine, however the first eight (8) pages were missing. Question? a one time miss or a printing sequence miss. Have not reordered until verified. Sorry.

Not worth the effort
I quit reading after about 30 pages. It was almost all quotations and facts from Hopkins's letters, with the author adding his tone of extreme adulation for all things Catholic.It started with Hopkins in his late teens, telling nothing of his childhood or setting him in English life of the time.It dealt with his agonizing conversion to Catholocism without ever identifying the agony - spiritual, doctrinal, emotional?About then I figured I could read the letters as well as the author could and gave up and went in search of a biography rather than a hagiography.

Hagiography or Biography?
Professor Paul Mariani is likely our finest, living American biographer of poets.He is also one of our best, close readers of Hopkins' admittedly difficult verse.But with his newest biography on the Victorian priest/poet Mariani falls short, succumbing in many instances to hagiography not biography.One of the great ommisions is Mariani's failure to address Hopkins' sexuality.All of the major biographers before him, Kitchen, Martin and White, have addressed the poet's homosexuality and the homoeroticism of his verse.Mariani chooses to avoid the issue completely.Not that he is shy to address sexuality because he addresses it in all his other biographies on Williams, Lowell, Berryman and of course, Crane, also a homosexual man.I think perhaps Mariani has placed his beloved Hopkins too high on a pedestal.He should have brought him down to earth.He feels more comfortable to interpret the terrible sonnets as an expression of the mystical dark night.However, they appear to be the cries of a man under great mental strain.Not for a moment do I believe that Hopkins felt God's absence in his life; He was as real and present as Hopkins' Irish students and colleagues.No, what Hopkins suffered from was a lifetime of leading a double life, a lifetime of hiding his true nature.It is why he wrote to his friend Bridges that he saw himself in the verse of Walt Whitmen.Two quite different poets, both innovative, but Hopkins saw his own sexual nature in Whitman, who did not camouflage his homosexuality.I wish Mariani had taken this issue by the horns, but he chose not to.He surely has his reasons.He may simply revere the poet too much.But there is nothing shameful about Hopkins' sexual nature.And by all accounts he was a good, saintly man who surely kept his vow of chastity to the very end.Perhaps Mariani felt it proper to ignore the poet's homosexuality because his son is a Jesuit, and he now is a professor at a Jesuit college, but his avoidance of the issue does, in my opinion, compromise his otherwise superb biography of one of our greatest poets.Regardless of my one reservation, I recommend most highly to my friends Mariani's book:it has the right to stand next to Kitchen, Martin, White, and of course, one of the earliest biographers, Lahey. ... Read more

Product Description
Few poets have lived as extraordinary and fascinating a life as Hart Crane, the American poet who made his meteoric rise in the late l920s and then as suddenly flamed out, killing himself at the age of thirty-two and thus turning his life and poetry into the stuff of myth. The first biography of Crane to appear in thirty years, The Broken Tower reads with all the drama of a psychological novel and the inexorable force of a Greek tragedy.Amazon.com Review
In addition to several volumes of poetry, Paul Mariani hasalso written biographies of major 20th-century American poets: WilliamCarlos Williams, Robert Lowell, and John Berryman. In his fourthbiography, he takes on the life of Hart Crane (1899-1932), acontemporary of Williams who held a similarly pivotal role in thedevelopment of American literature's avant-garde. "It would bedifficult," Mariani suggests, "to find a serious poet or reader ofpoetry in this country today who has not been touched by something inHart Crane's music." (However, at the time, many critics--with some ofwhom he had strained personal relationships--did not evaluate his workso highly, which contributed in part to Crane's dramatic suicidal leapoff a ship at sea.) Crane loved New York, moving there from hishometown of Cleveland as soon as he could; even when financial straitsforced him to return home to work for his father, the "whitebuildings" of Manhattan loomed in his imagination. The BrokenTower does a fine job of recreating the passionate energy andvitality of Crane's life. Mariani weaves lines from Crane's lettersand poems into his narrative throughout, and while he does not skimpin his accounts of the poet's alcoholism and promiscuous sex life withother men, he treats these matters simply as components of the poet'scomplex personality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Looking at Crane
Mariani, Paul L. "The Broken Tower: The Life of Hart Crane", W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.

Looking at Crane

Amos Lassen

Hart Crane has always been one of my favorite poets and had it not been for a conversation with a friend yesterday, I would have forgotten that I had read this incredible biography but had never reviewed it. Paul Mariani has written biographies of several poets but his biography of Hart Crane is really special because he looks at Crane's homosexuality and then writes about how it influenced his poetry.
Mariani's biography takes us into parts of Crane's life that other biographers have not touched. The author interviewed many who knew Crane and he had access to Crane's letters. We learn about the poet's complex relationship with his parents, especially his father (the inventor of Life Savers candy), who up until now has been written about as a "stereotypical philistine". Mariani also enlightens us about the last months of Crane's life and the heterosexual affair that he had and that tormented him. Crane was brilliant but he was also tormented. Mariani does not avoid Crane's sexuality and alcoholism and shows us that Crane's self-destructiveness is seen in his writing.
The poetry of Hart Crane (1899-1932) is glorious but his life was one of torment. His parents were not happily married and when they divorced, Crane stayed far from his father and then later he did the same with his mother. He wrote his best work in his twenties when he had financial problems and then a bit after that, he went to the bottle and anonymous sex with sailors. He ultimately took his own life by throwing himself into the Atlantic Ocean and his body has never been found. Crane's life is a compelling story, and Mariani tells it to us with depth and psychological acuity.
Few writers have lived such an extraordinary and fascinating a life as Hart Crane; he rose quickly and fell quickly and at the age of 32 he was dead. His poetry lives on and now so does his life with Mariani's wonderful biography. Crane became a major figure in American literature and his reputation continues to grow and his life is legendary. Hart Crane left an unhappy home at the age of 17 to live in New York City and follow his dream to become a poet. With no formal education, he had to rely on his own gifts and he quickly became very important on the New York City literary scene. His first book, "White Buildings", is a collection of short, difficult poetry. While his second book, "The Bridge", is a lengthy poem in which he used the Brooklyn Bridge as a symbol and he presents a highly personal and mystical look at America, its past and its future. He lived a life of excess and in his later years he became violent and self-destructive. He was jailed on several occasions in New York, Paris, and Mexico. Near the end, he did have what appears to be his only heterosexual relationship with Peggy Cowley, the divorced wife of the critic and publisher, Malcolm Cowley. Crane committed suicide when he returned with Peggy Cowley from Mexico in 1932 by jumping off the deck of a ship. He was just 32.
Crane's literary output was not large but even so many of his poems are part of the treasures of American literature. Mariani gives us a good account of Crane. His life and his world but it is certainly not definitive as we are constantly learning more about Crane. If I have to name a problem with the book it is that Mariani has not drawn on the existing collections of the papers of Crane's closest friends and associates--Waldo Frank, Yvor Winters and Gorham Munson, individuals appear here only through Crane's eyes. On the other hand, Mariani does explain in a sympathetic light about Crane's sexuality, and he makes a convincing case for Crane as one of the greatest American poets of the century. Crane's poetry is not easy, but certainly worth the effort of reading and this fascinating examination of Crane's writing in the context of his troubled life is revealing. We see the creation and legacy of a poet and Mariani excellently well describes the poems and shows how they were the output of Crane's troubled life.

At critical moments, difficult to grasp
When Mariani gets deep into discussion of particular poems, his language often becomes so compressed and allusive that it reads like a diary of Mariani's own history with Crane's poetry. And like many diaries, it is simply not understandable to an outsider.

I expect that Mariani does not want to reduce the richness and complexity of Crane's work, and this is admirable. I also think that perhaps he expects his readers to have read at least one of the earlier biographies of Crane. And perhaps an English Ph.D. would follow more of Mariani's un-explicated allusions than I did (though I have done some graduate work in English). But I was often frustrated by this book, because while Mariani clearly knows a great deal about Crane's work and its literary and biographical contexts, he often fails to explain what he knows in a way that can be understood.

A Late American Romantic
In a short, wild, and mostly unhappy life, Harold Hart Crane (1899-1932) became -- Hart Crane -- a major figure in 20th Century American poetry whose reputation has grown with time.His life became the stuff of legend.Hart Crane left an unhappy home at the age of 17 to live in New York City and follow his dream to become a poet.Without any formal education -- he did not finish high school -- he used his inborn gifts and wide reading to quickly become important to New York's literary culture and community.His first book, White Buildings, is a collection of short, difficult imagistic poetry.His second book, The Bridge, is a lengthy poem offering a mystic, highly personal account of America, its past and its future, using the Brooklyn Bridge is its chief symbol.

Crane's life was one of excess.From late adolesence, Crane drank heavily.He spent a great deal of time in underworld sex picking up sailors in the harbors of New York, all the while trying to conceal his sexual identity from his parents.Towards the end of his life, his behavior grew increasingly violent and self-destructive.He was jailed on several occasions in New York, Paris, and Mexico.Near the end, he did have what seems to be his only heterosexual relationship with Peggy Cowley, the divorced wife of the critic and publisher, Malcolm Cowley.Crane committed suicide when he returned with Peggy Cowley from Mexico in 1932 by jumping off the deck of a ship.He was all of 32.

Published in 1999, Mariani's biography commenmorates the Centennial of Crane's birth.It gives a good detailed account Crane's life.The poetic focus of the book is The Bridge. (some critics see White Buildings as the stronger, more representative part of Crane's work.) Mariani showshow Crane conceived the idea of his long poem and how he worked on it fitfully over many years.He also shows the difficulty Crane had in completing the work at all -- given his alcoholism. sexual promiscuity, difficulty in supporting himself, and bad relationship with his separated parents.But complete the work Crane did.It presents a mythic, multi-formed vision of the United States stretching from the Indians to our day of technology.There is much to be gained from this poem.I have loved it for many years and Mariani's discussion of the poem and its lenghty creation is illuminating.

Crane was a romantic in his life and art.Frequently, Mariani refers to him as the "last romantic", but this is an overstatement.I was reminded both by Crane's dissolute life and by his work of the beats -- particularly of Kerouac -- and the vision of America that they tried to articulate. With a Whitman-type vision of a mystical America encompassing all, the beats share and expand upon the romanticism of Hart Crane.

Mariani's book covers well Crane's tortured relationship with his parents.It includes great discussions of literary New York City and of Crane's friends.It shows well how Crane was captivated by New York.We see Crane going back and forth between Clevland, New York, Paris, Mexico and Hollywood in a short overreaching life.But most importantly, we see the creation and legacy of a poet.Mariani does well in describing the poems and in reading these difficult texts in conjunction with the poet's life and thought.

Crane's literary output was not extensive.Several of his poems are part of the treasures of American literature.These poems include, for me, "Voyages" (a six-part love poem from the White Buildings collection), "At Melville's Tomb" and other lyrics from White Buildings, The Broken Tower, Crane's final poem, and, of course The Bridge.

Mariani gives a good account of Crane.As with any biography of this type it is not definitive.I hope it will encourage the reader to explore and reflect upon Crane's poetry and achievement.

Crane without the closet
An extremely well written biography of Hart Crane, America's first great modern poet, recreates a fascinating time in the US when the artists of New York lived in cold water flats and drank prohibition liquor (Crane seems to have drank the most). The author deals with Crane's homosexuality as an integral part of his art (as it should be) which apparently has not been the case up until now. My only complaint is that there is too much made up dialogue between Crane and his friends. After awhile you begin to feel you have entered the land of fiction instead of biography. The author presents Crane's horrible relationship with his tyrannical father as the cause of much of his short life's misery.

"And so it was, I entered the broken world."
I arrived at Mariani's 1999 biography after first revisiting his subject's poetry in THE COMPLETE POEMS OF HART CRANE (2000).As a literature student in college, I sometimes confused Hart Crane (1899-1932) with Stephen Crane (1871-1900), the author of THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE (1895).After reading Mariani's memorable biography, however, I doubt that I'll ever confuse the Cranes again.

Crane's life, Mariani observes, is "the stuff of myth" (p. 424).Crane lived in a "broken world," and was haunted with demons throughout his short life.He was the child of a troubled marriage, and spent "twenty-five years . . . quibbling" with his parents incessantly (p. 324), before being rejected by his "hysterical" and "nagging" mother (p. 301).Along the way to his rise as a poet in his twenties, Crane was a "slave" to one miserable job after the next (p. 67), and a voracious reader (p. 62).Mariani's book follows Crane, struggling with his writing, and "living the life of the roaring boy, drinking nightly and cruising the Brooklyn and Hoboken docks after sailors, only to jump from a ship at the age of thirty-two" (p. 424).

Eugene O'Neill, E. E. Cummings, Charlie Chaplin, Garcia Lorca, and William Carlos Williams make appearances in Crane's biography, and there are "shadows," too, in the "broken tower" of his life--Blake, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Hopkins, and "Brother Whitman."

Crane's poetry is not easy, but worth the effort, and this fascinating examination of Crane's writing in the context of his troubled life is revealing.

G. Merritt ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

wah,wah
ANOTHER SEXIST,RACIST,WHITE MALE WRITER WHO SELF MEDICATE THEN DONE AWAY WITH HIMSELF. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEYNOT EVEN A PENNY ON THIS TRASH!

Factually Wrong, Hyped Life
From the opening line that Berryman/Smith was 12 (he was 11) when his father committed suicide (doubtful, very doubtful) to the hyped up suicide-of-the-American poet, Mariani portays Berryman's life as a kind of cartoon. Mariani did not go to Oklahoma, where Berryman grew up to age 11, or to Florida where his father (supposedly) committed suicide. His research and documentation are not only suspect but also flat shallow.

Talent and heartbreak
His father, cuckolded and bankrupt, shot himself under his son's bedroom window.

His mother, who could maybe spell the word "No," married the paramour.

The paramour adopted the boy.He went from being John Allyn Smith to John Berryman.The kid had his identity taken away before he was in his teens."John Berryman" was one of the great literary fictions of the 20th century.There WAS no John Berryman--there was someone using that name and forever in search of an identity born in pain and betrayal.

It led him to womanizing...not at all curious given his stepfather's and his mother's histories...to an hysterical disposition...and ultimately--or really for years--into incipient and then full-blown alcoholism.

Berryman jumped off that bridge on January 7, 1972, but he died of drinking.He'd been through detoxes and rehabs but he could never figure out how to stay sober.The compulsion was too strong.Ultimately, I suspect, it was his weapon of choice in a lifelong suicide attempt.The bridge simply ended the quest.

Mariani's book isn't just worth having, it's indispensible to understanding Berryman's work: unless you're one of those New Critical purists (are there any left?) who exclude biography from the study of literary production.There isn't much to say about it except it never bores the reader.Alcoholics are notoriously boring and dull people who repeat the same asininities over and over, but Mariani draws us into Berryman's inner life and shows us as well the effect he had on the people around him.It was not always negative...but when it was, it was appalling.

He also, by the way, shows us a great and difficult poet, not just a horse's ass with a gift for getting into trouble.Mariani's description of how Berryman composed "Homage to Mistress Bradstreet" is worth the price of the ticket.

Best Biography I Ever Read
I didn't know much about John Berryman despite being an English major in college. However, I ran across a magazine article about Paul Mariani and the series of biogrphies he wrote on American poets. It intrigued me enough to pick up Dream Song. All I can say is "WOW!!"
Mariani brings Berryman to life and what a life Berryman had. Yes, Berryman was self destructive but he was also brilliant. Mariani tells the story in such a poignant way that I found myself looking forward each night to the time I could spend reading this book.
If you like biographies, especially literary biographies, then treat yourself to this book. You might also read Mariani's other books. I read his book about Robert Lowell and that was well done. However, Berryman is my favorite of the two.

i liked it
A good recount of all the pain (much of it self-induced) Berryman went through to be able to find the voice that emerged in the Dream Songs.His childhood, parents, education, heroes, friends, addictions...all of them given appropriate weight in this biography.If you like his poetry, you'll like this book. ... Read more

Product Description
National Book Award nominee Paul Mariani offers a passionate, highly readable biography of one of America's great poets. Using many of Robert Lowell's unpublished letters as well as interviews with his friends and relatives, Mariani captures the greatness, humor, and heartbreak of this literary giant. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A poetic biography
This is truly a wonderful biography of a poet written by a poet.I found that MANY passages flow like poetry.If you are interested in Lowell and his times, you will not be able to put this book down.My favorite period is the mid-to late fifties in and around the New England area.It was an extremely fertile time: Richard Wilbur, Ann Sexton, Sylvia Plath and on and on.The country was coming out of the deadening 50's and moving on to the New Frontier 60's with all it's social and cultural upheavals. If you're a teacher of any grade, tell your students this book has somewhere in the neighborhood of 1400 footnotes.That might stop their complaints when they have to make ONLY 2 citations. More than 'just' a biographer, Mariani is himself, a writer and a poet, and he uses his skills deftly to bring Lowell to life.An excellent read!!!!!!!!

Excellent biography
Robert Lowell is condidered one of the greatest American poets of the 20th century; some rank him second only to Frost. His poetry, always extremely personal and frank, and displaying great technical skill (he wrote in strict classical forms; only late in life did he write in free verse), was highly praised and prized: he won three Pulitzers. A Catholic convert, later an agnostic, he wrestled mightily with the Creator in his work. He suffered 8 nervous breakdowns during his life and was married three times. During the 1960s, he was a visible participant in the anti-war movement. Mariani is an excellent writer himself and tells Lowell's life story, from the successes to the heartbreaks, interestingly and well.

Robert Lowell - Poet, Puritan, Prophet
Robert Lowell has always seemed to me to be just out of reach. I was too young to witness his poetry readings to the Washington crowds protesting the war in Vietnam. By the time I was set "Skunk Hour" in myfinal year of secondary schooling, Lowell had been dead for a half dozenyears. Based on Lowell's letters, poetry and critism and of those who knewhim; this work is an exhaustive and comprehensive account of the poet'spriveliged and frequently turbulent life. His three marriages arediscussed, as are his spell in jail,( as a Conscientious Objector)and hisnumerous admissions to psychiatric hospital due to manic depression. Fromhis aristocratic but dysfunctional childhood to his last years, the readeris made aware of Lowell's progression and prowess as a poet. Of fascinationtoo is his interactions with other great poets, most notably Frost, Poundand Eliot; the latter described as 'The Master', a mantle passed to Lowellon Eliot's death. "Lost Puritan" is illuminating and revealing,it will bring Lowell into reach for anyone who is an afficianado of hispoetry. A scholarly salute to the greatest poet of the second half of thetwentieth century. ... Read more

Product Description
From the day Paul Mariani arrives at Eastern Point Retreat House to take part in the five-hundred-year-old Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, he realizes that his expectations and assumptions about who he is, what he knows, and what he believes are about to change radically. In this profound memoir Mariani blends a brief life of St. Ignatius and meditations on the life of Jesus with the day-to-day unfolding of thirty days of silence at the retreat house. His journey of introspection, self-revelation, and spiritual renewal leads him to a new understanding of his relationship with God and of what it truly means to put others before oneself. Amazon.com Review
Go be quiet and pray for 30 days and you might come to know yourself--and your God, too. That's what Paul Mariani found out when he went on retreat with the Exercises of St. Ignatius, as he explains in Thirty Days. Mariani, a poet and literary critic, spent the month of January one year at a retreat center on the rocky Atlantic coast near Gloucester, Massachusetts. During that time he confronted his past experiences as a father, husband, teacher, and Christian and arrived at some surprising conclusions about his place in God's world. Thirty Days--a work of probing self-examination, including much reflection on the lives of St. Ignatius and Jesus--is the journal that he kept during that period. Readers of this fine, honest, intelligent book will be quietly assured by something Mariani himself learned from Ignatius's Exercises. "How consoling to know that, no matter how small we may think we are against the backdrop of eternity, we do count in the cosmic scheme of things." --Michael Joseph Gross ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Good and Bad
I like pauls writing style, its smooth and easy reading. I enjoyed it.However it does show what can happen when a person becomes overly obsessed with religion and doing the right thing 100% of the time. If the writer does something wrong by another person he seems to feel the need to immediately pray for an hour to rid himself of the guilt and then keep himself awake all night worrying over whether he has prayed enough for god to forgive him.I think the message god gave me after reading the book was,

"Be a good person michael but dont drop down in front of me every 5 minutes, you know you did something wrong and so do I, get over it buddy and try not to do it again"

A profound work
Paul Mariani's personal journey is powerful and compelling. While he shares with us his discoveries and reflections on evils committed in his life, he also is unabashed in his joyous sharing of God's revelations to him.

Some of this reads like an unabridged prayer journal, and some has clearly been reworked after the fact. Regardless, Mr. Mariani has a gift for words, and he tells a great story. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

My only caveat is that this is Mr. Mariani's journey, not yours. Remember that what was revealed to him during the 30 days may not be pertinent to his readers.

Overall, it's an inspiration. I heartily recommend it.

On Retreat with a Poet and Scholar
Paul Mariani, a writer and English professor at Boston College, completed a thirty day retreat based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. His journal reflections from this retreat are the basis of the book's content. For those who are familiar with the spirituality of St. Ignatius, as well as those who have completed the thirty day retreat or variations of this retreat, the book will be of great value.

The book has many strong points. The first has to be Mariani's openness to what the retreat may have to offer and his willingness to share what he has experienced while completing the retreat. His observations are a combination of poetry, theology, and a keen insight into himself. He freely draws upon times when the Lord has worked in his life as well as moments where he has blocked God's work. He is painfully honest in the book, freely sharing his love and admiration of his wife Eileen, who has not joined him for the retreat. He also shares intimate moments in his life, including the time when he left his wife and three sons which nearly destroyed his marriage. His book is honest, but not confessional which gives it a bit of an advantage over a standard memoir. The reader does not see just a person who has made mistakes, (or as Mariani openly admits, a sinner), but a person who allows himself to be an instrument through which God's grace flows and transforms.

People who have been on retreat at Eastern Point in Gloucester will instantly find themselves back at this powerful retreat house simply by reading the pages. Mariani writes descriptively about the retreat house and its beautiful natural surroundings. I usually make an annual retreat at Eastern Point but was unable to do so this past year, In many ways Mariani's sharing of his experiences as well as the atmosphere allowed me to take a vicarious retreat as I anxiously await the opportunity to make a retreat in Gloucester early in the new year. This book is destined to become a classic for those who love Ignatian spirituality. Fans of spiritual writer and poet Kathleen Norris may also enjoy this book. Like Norris, Mariani is also a poet as well as a scholar and biographer of poets. The spirituality of both Mariani and Norris permeates their writings and lives, and as poets perhaps they help us too see God in a vibrant and creative way that often eludes some great theologians.

Inspiring and profound
I add this to my "favorites" bookshelf - until I read this, I believed Henri Nouwen's GENESEE DIARY would always remain my favorite, a book I reread every few years, as I think it captures the humaness of our spiritual search and growth, with all the inherent pitfalls and break-throughs.This book has inspired meeven to the point that I too am now considering making the 30 day retreat - that is if I ever can resolve to do the necessary work such an adventure requires. I recommend it highly - and plan on rereading it soon, only this time, I will read the prescribed scriptures as Mariani did as he progressed through the retreat.

Superb writing and deep spiritual searching
I was very much impressed with this book on two levels.The writing is superb.Mr. Mariani has a wonderful, colorful, textured style of writing that adds beauty to what was already a wonderful topic.Boston College should be honored to have him on board.The spiritual content of the book based on the exercises of St. Ignatius is deeply powerful and only for the serious seeker of faith and service to God.The combination of the writing and the spiritual search make this book hard to put down once the first page is read. ... Read more

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Product Description
Here, in his fifth book, Paul Mariani uses the trope of the wheel to chart the kinds of losses we all face in living: deaths and separations, lost loves, lost friends, lost happiness. The wheel of fortune, a ferris wheel ridden with a friend now dead, Dante's paradisal wheel, the wheel of the morning sun, by turns call up Hart Crane and Wilfrid Owen, Stevens and Williams, Whitman and Hopkins. ... Read more

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This provocative collection of beautiful new poems—Mariani’s first in nine years—searches and develops the human themes of personal loss—the deaths we experience—and the quest for new life, and the transfiguring moments that are possible in the mysteries of living.

Barry Moser, one of the world's foremost book designers and illustrators, has created a series of original, integrated engravings corresponding to these major themes in Mariani's verse. ... Read more

Product Description
Barry Moser, despite his tendency to sound like a Baptist preacher and his abysmal table manners, is a virtuoso close to our hearts. He is best known as an artist who works with books, and more specifically with the texts he loves. He has illustrated legions of children's books, adult books and poetry collections. And as works of art they have been embraced by children, adults and librarians for over three decades. But he started life as a modest lad, learning letterpress and how type should look on the page, engraving the end-grain of boxwood (when it could still be obtained) and perfecting the art of watercolor to the point where he could illuminate anything from the words of Br'er Rabbit to the poetry of Donald Hall and Richard Wilbur. His most recent project, illustrating the entire Bible, has occupied him for years and this magnum opus has just been published, to national attention.

But it is his writing that occupies pride of place in this book, and as a writer Moser is as passionate and as engaged (and engaging) as he is as an artist. Here is a rich selection of his prose, his essays, his speeches, and even his letters and notes all concerning his work as a working artist. Reading it, one comes away with a firm impression of a mind at work, a generous and genial mind, but one that is never afraid to separate the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the chaff. If you want to know how an artist thinks, how someone who has not only read books but thought deeply about how their texts operates, how someone who is as committed to the book as object as anyone working in the field goes about integrating text and image, then this book is a book you should read and reread. It possesses depth, intelligence, and passion. The words are from the heart, but the conclusions come from experience. William Blake, the proto-genius, observed that "Execution is the chariot of genius." In Moser's work, as in his words, we see that chariot flying at warp speed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

In The Face of Presumptions by Barry Moser
In The Face of Presumptions by the acclaimed american artist and illustrator Barry Moser presents one of those rare instances whereby a highly and widely regarded artist shares the inner thoughts and awareness that in turn, inspire visual and literary concepts. Each chapter reveals the necessary acumen and grit of daily living transformed into meaningful and fully accesible paragraphs of language, which in turn engage the reader allowing us to see the bigger picture through the eyes of an artist.
In an age of self-vaunted and pretentious autobiographies and personnal essays Mr. Moser's writing is a uniquely refreshing departure that is immenently cogent, down-to-earth, humoress at times, and sprinkled with wit that has endeared him to readers, and collectors of art and fine press books from his Pennyroyal Press imprints such as the Alice books, Frankenstein, The Wizard of Oz and his most recent magnum opus The Pennyroyal /Caxton Bible complete with over two hundred engraved prints illustrate painted speech at its best.
The array of subjects and incidents discussed by the author in his book have touches of Goethe, old Huck himself, and James Thurber with an emphasis on life's daily affairs and an honest sharing of the creative output of others whom have provided sources of inspiration and introspection in his work,
The publisher, David Godine, has again given us a fine publication for everyman. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from National Catholic Reporter, published by Thomson Gale on October 7, 2005. The length of the article is 491 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: On art, faith and the church.(poet Paul Mariani and illustrator Barry Moser overcome differences in common view of role of religion in creation)
Author: Kris Berggren
Publication: National Catholic Reporter (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 7, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 41Issue: 43Page: 2a(1)

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Product Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Paul L(ouis) Mariani, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 3115 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Product Description
This digital document is an article from First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, published by Institute on Religion and Public Life on June 1, 2010. The length of the article is 4057 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Regard the Scuttlebutt as true: the secret's out. Paul Mariani discovers that Michael Astrue, America's Social Security Commissioner, and A.M. Juster, the translator and poet, share the same shadow.
Author: Paul Mariani
Publication: First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 2010
Publisher: Institute on Religion and Public Life
Issue: 204Page: 14(6)

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from National Catholic Reporter, published by Thomson Gale on October 7, 2005. The length of the article is 777 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: An American idiom infuses poems of ordinary life.(Deaths and Transfigurations: Poems by Paul Mariani)(Book Review)
Author: Kris Berggren
Publication: National Catholic Reporter (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 7, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 41Issue: 43Page: 2a(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more