James Dickey

<P>For over three decades, James Dickey has been one of the nation's most important poets and a prominent man of letters. The Whole Motion collects his poetic oeuvre into a single volume: 235 poems from his first book, Into the Stone (1960), to The Eagle's Mile (1990), along with previously uncollected poems and unpublished «apprentice» works.</P>

<P>James Dickey: The Selected Poems is the first book to collect James Dickey's very best poems. Like many visionary poets of the ecstatic imagination, Dickey experimented in a wide variety of literary styles. This volume brings together the finest work from each of the periods in Dickey's extremely controversial career. For over three decades, until his death in 1997, Dickey was one of the nation's most important poets; these are the poems that brought him a popular...

<P>A book of new poems by a major writer is an event. A book of new poems that marks a different, more powerful approach is cause for celebration. «What I looked for here,» James Dickey tells us about The Eagle's Mile, «was a flicker of light ‘from another direction,' and when I caught it –; or thought I did –; I followed where it went, for better or worse.» In this new work, Dickey edges away from the narrative-based poems of his...

<P>This volume represents, under one cover, the major work of the man whom critics and readers have designated the authentic poet of his American generation. For this collection, James Dickey has selected from his four published books all those poems that reflect his truest interests and his growth as an artist. He has added more than a score of new poems –; in effect, a new book in themselves –; that have not previously been published in volume...