The Journals Of Susanna Moodie [Hardcover]

Margaret Atwood (Author), Charles Pachter (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 1997

Margaret Atwood's The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970), regarded by many as her most fully realized volume of poetry, is one of the great Canadian and feminist epics. In 1980, Margaret Atwood's longtime friend, the distinguished Canadian artist Charles Pachter, illustrated, designed, and published a handmade boxed portfolio edition of 120 copies of the poem with silkscreen prints, created as an act of homage to the poet. Atwood herself has said of Pachter's work, "His is a sophisticated art which draws upon many techniques and evokes many echoes." The poem and the prints inspire one another. This is the first facsimile edition of the original, as well as the first one-volume American edition of the poem, with an introduction by Charles Pachter and a foreword by David Staines.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The poetic/artistic exploration of what it means to find yourself thrown into a hostile environment, these poems by Margaret Atwood and silk-screen illustrations by Charles Pachter are based on the journals of Canadian pioneer Susanna Moodie. The setting allows Atwood to write cutting lines about the fundamental tensions in creating and defining a self. One such tension, the assertion of will on the world as well as on one's self, set against the spirit-crushing tribulations of loneliness and hopelessness, is especially electric. The Journals of Susanna Moodie is a beautiful and hypnotic book.

About the Author

MARGARET ATWOOD'S poetry, like her fiction — including The Handmaid's Tale and the Booker-winning The Blind Assassin -- is known and acclaimed around the world. Her last collection, Morning in the Burned House, won the Trillium Book Award in 1995. The author of more than forty works of fiction, poetry, critical essays, and books for children, Atwood has received top honors and awards in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and many other countries. She lives in Toronto. In 2008, Atwood was awarded the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award Laureate for Letters, considered to be the Spanish-language Nobel.

Charles Pachter, born in Toronto in 1942 and trained in Toronto, Paris, and Cranbrook, has particularly enjoyed producing suits of prints for Canadian poets.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 80 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; First Edition edition (October 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395880432
• ISBN-13: 978-0395880432
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,679,114 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

MARGARET ATWOOD, whose work has been published in over thirty-five countries, is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. In addition to The Handmaid's Tale, her novels include Cat's Eye, shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; and her most recent, Oryx and Crake, shortlisted for the 2003 Booker Prize. She lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful and informative poetry, January 13, 2000

By 

Cara (Kootenays, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Journals of Susanna Moodie: Poems (Paperback)

"The Journals of Susanna Moodie" poems are interesting and spare in style. I have not gone through the whole collection, but Margaret Atwood has written a thought-provoking account (through poems) of Susanna Moodie. Any serious or avid poem reader should consider this collection of related poems.