From Booklist
Dear Editor (2002) was the first in a lively two-part epistolary history of Poetry, the pioneering literary magazine that has published every significant poet from Edna St. Vincent Millay to A. R. Ammons, Mary Oliver, Billy Collins, and beyond. In the second volume, Joseph Parisi, Poetry editor from 1983 to 2003, reflects on the fact that whenever the magazine was endangered (all too often), good fortune interceded. But nothing compares with the astounding munificence of philanthropist and amateur poet Ruth Lilly, who transformed Poetry in 2002 with a bequest of more than $100 million. Parisi is keen and caustic in his eye-opening account of the frenzy that followed, just as he is incisive and peppery in his commentary accompanying the 500-plus letters from the past 40 years that he and coeditor Stephen Young judiciously selected from the magazine's invaluable archive. Poetry lovers will be thrilled with the many distinctive and distinguished poets and equally interesting editors represented here in letters candid, shrewd, funny, and venomous. Matched by Parisi's sage interpretations of such complex subjects as the effect on poetry of the Vietnam War and the great migration of poets to the academy, Between the Lines is a uniquely intimate overview of the flourishing of contemporary American poetry. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
Reading Between the Lines is so much fun it feels wrong. (Kay Ryan, author of The Niagara River )
As exciting and tumultuous as the times in which the letters were written. (Amy K. Weiss Library Journal )
Fascinating reading. (California Bookwatch )
Reading Between the Lines is a lot like dipping into your older sister's diary--you feel vaguely guilty, but the entires are so compelling you quickly get over it...this book is a particularly good read. (Beth Hester Virginian-Pilot )
These volumes present the formation of an enormously important strain of literary judgement in 20th-century American poetry. (Choice )
A rich cultural history of the creative process. (Grand Forks Herald )
Poetry lovers will be thrilled with the...distinctive...poets...represented here in letters candid, shrewd, funny, and venomous. (Donna Seaman Booklist )
As exciting and tumultuous as the times in which the letters were written. (Amy K. Weiss Library Journal )
Fascinating reading. (California Bookwatch )
Reading Between the Lines is a lot like dipping into your older sister's diary--you feel vaguely guilty, but the entires are so compelling you quickly get over it...this book is a particularly good read. (Beth Hester Virginian-Pilot )
These volumes present the formation of an enormously important strain of literary judgement in 20th-century American poetry. (Choice )
A rich cultural history of the creative process. (Grand Forks Herald )
Poetry lovers will be thrilled with the...distinctive...poets...represented here in letters candid, shrewd, funny, and venomous. (Donna Seaman Booklist )
