Essays from Epilogue 1935-1937 (Lives & Letters: the Millennium Graves) [Deluxe Edition] [Hardcover]

Laura (Riding) Jackson (Author), Robert Graves (Author), Mark Jacobs (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1857545184 | ISBN-13: 978-1857545180 | Publication Date: October 2001 | Edition: Limited edition

The "Epilogue" essays, published when the literary partnership of Laura Riding and Robert Graves was at its height, illustrate their working relationship and the background to their later very different careers. Conceived in the mid-1930s by Laura Riding, "Epilogue: A Critical Summary" was originally to be called "The Critical Vulgate", a title suggesting that the thematic concerns would go beyond the literary, attempting to discover, in a secular spirit reminiscent of Voltaire's, the truth regarding all sorts of subjects, from God down. In 1935 "The Idea of God" led off the experiment of "Epilogue". The effort was to be encyclopaedic, and in this respect the project foreshadows Riding's later life-work, the massive "Rational Meaning" which she undertook with her husband Shuyler B. Jackson and which detained her until her death. Like much of the work she initiated, "Epilogue" is a collaboration involving as key figures Riding, Graves and others. The original volumes, published by Seizin Press (Majorca) and Constable jointly, are scarce. Quite apart from their intrinsic interest, they offer rich source material for the two authors. Laura (Riding) Jackson never reprinted her "Epilogue" work, while Graves republished some of his, in revised form. This selection alerts readers to a rigorous, impassioned and remarkably alive creative and critical moment.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 420 pages
• Publisher: Carcanet Pr; Limited edition edition (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857545184
• ISBN-13: 978-1857545180
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 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: #5,152,441 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Most Welcome Collection, July 14, 2009

By 

Ken Robison (Ithaca, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Essays from Epilogue 1935-1937 (Lives & Letters: the Millennium Graves) (Hardcover)

You may never have read interaction between two brilliant writers such as you can read here in the daring work of Laura Riding and Robert Graves. Here is new focus striven for with excellence in the foreground.

This book is long overdue and should be in anyone's library who is interested in the unforgettable women of the 20th century, of which Laura [Riding] Jackson was certainly the prime literary example. Her life's work in essays alone remains unforgettable to me.

If you are willing to accept the challenge of finding out why she was unlike the rest, you might find great reward, true originality. But I warn you. She was interested in only the most serious of readers. You might have to slow down to digest it. Like reading Kant.

Then avail yourself of her own story, so touchingly conveyed in her authorized biography by Elizabeth Friedmann, A MANNERED GRACE. Women came a long way in the 20th century, and no one topped Laura Riding for chutspah and the love of language as the force of truthtelling, honed by a sense of spiritual challenge.