Includes bibliographical references (pages 421-431) and index.
Contents:
Childhood and early writings -- Separation -- Of books and bombing missions -- Vanderbilt -- In media res -- Europe -- Of modernists, pen women, and advertisers -- Barnstorming for poetry -- The poet as critic -- Angels nine, or "The lord in the air" -- The poet as teacher -- "Where the sun is down on him alone" -- "Somewhere on the general brink" -- "Somewhere in all thought" -- Debriefings.
Summary:
"The dramatic rise in James Dickey's reputation in the 1960s and his equally abrupt fall from literary grace during the 1970s is arguably the most distinctive feature of his career. Critics frequently cited alcoholism as the cause for this precipitous decline, which diminished Dickey's creativity, or they noted his financial success, which undermined his will to achieve. Self-aggrandizement and womanizing, they argued, also contributed to derailing his literary achievements. Reviewers largely denigrated his poetry after the success of his 1970 novel Deliverance or offered ad hominem attacks, failing to acknowledge his startling poetic language and the diversity of his poetic forms that creatively reimagined the world. While they celebrated his early work, they ignored his later poems. Van Ness puts this all in perspective. This literary biography centers on Dickey as poet, novelist, essayist, critic, and teacher, a man who throughout his life did what writers are supposed to do--write. Additionally, he spent time teaching and discussing writing, which is also part of the profession of authorship. From the autobiography Dickey penciled of himself at age five to the poems he composed at the age of seventy-three while dying of fibrosis of the lungs, James Dickey believed in the magic of language, in the possibility of words. Here, author Gordon Van Ness shows Dickey's artistic beginnings and the rise and fall of his career, the man as a writer. Dickey's life was indeed complicated, but his words endure, and they merit the highest attention."-- Jacket flaps.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.