Descent (Notable Voices) [Paperback]

John Haines (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This volume bears witness to John Haines' position as a true man of letters. The essays, reviews, chronicles, memoirs, and poems (spanning four decades) testify to the breadth and depth of his concerns. The life - rooted for decades in Alaska - and the writing are bound together inextricably... What interests Haines throughout this volume is to clear away the numerous confusing, self-justifying and downright mendacious vapors that surround various human projects--be it drilling for oil or writing poems. He is a critic in the pure sense--a truth teller who has no use for relativism...Haines's voice is true and clear...an intensely American voice in that it insists we can be connected to the land in ways that may redeem and vivify us. It insists that the place of poetry is central not peripheral. It is rooted in memories that come from one man's life... This volume adds to the trove that he has bequeathed us." (Baron Wormser )

About the Author

JOHN HAINES, poet, essayist, and teacher was born in 1924. After studying painting, he homesteaded in Alaska. He is the author of numerous collections of poems and critical essays. Among his honors are two Guggenheim Foundation Fellowships for poetry, an NEA Arts Fellowship, and the American Academy of Arts & Letters Literary Award.

Product Details

• Paperback: 212 pages
• Publisher: Cavankerry (March 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193388018X
• ISBN-13: 978-1933880181
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #597,211 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine overview of a distinguished literary career., May 22, 2010

By 

Miles D. Moore (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Descent (Notable Voices) (Paperback)

Now in his eighty-sixth year, Alaskan poet and essayist John Haines has issued "Descent," a judicious sampling of his critical and autobiographical prose taken from his published work of the last four decades. These distinguished, superbly crafted pieces cover Haines' youth, his experiences as a sailor during World War II, his days as a homesteader by the Richardson Highway outside Fairbanks, his deep concerns about the environment, his encounters with famous contemporaries such as Yevgeny Yevtushenko, and his critiques of American and world poetry.

In each of these essays, Haines demonstrates an elegant, thoughtful prose style and a stubborn refusal to kowtow to poetic fashion. He is and has always been his own man, praising only what he sees as genuine and rejecting what he finds precious, sloppy, or false. "Forgotten Virtues," his admiring portrait of his Richardson Highway neighbor Billy Melvin, tells us much about Haines himself. "He had gained no wealth, but had managed to keep his honesty and survive in a difficult time," Haines says of Melvin, and the same can be said for Haines himself. In "The Story of a Poem," Haines tells of the writing of perhaps his greatest poem, "A Poem Without Meaning," which occupied him on and off for 28 years. Some of the most bracing reading in the book comes from the series of "Poetry Chronicles" Haines wrote for "The Hudson Review." In these review-essays, Haines leaves us in no doubt that he despises the ivory-tower conception of a poet. Poetry, to be any good in Haines' view, must be engaged in the real world, which means among other things the political and social worlds. Here is what he has to say about two poets he particularly admires, the American Thomas McGrath and the Pole Adam Zagajewski: "With the example of McGrath and Zagajewski in mind, I would suggest once more our need for a poetry that can include political thought and the philosophy of political life. If poets cannot be teachers, they are merely entertainers and of passing importance."