Poet, journalist, and crime novelist, Kenneth Fearing (1902–61) wrote poems filled with the lingo of advertising and radio broadcasts and tabloid headlines, sidewalk political oratory, and the pop tunes on the jukebox. He evoked the jitters of the Depression and the war years in a voice alternately sardonic and melancholy, and depicted a fragmenting urban world bom-barded by restless desires and unnerving fears. But this portraitist of his era also foreshadowed much that was to come in American writing. This volume reveals him as a vernacular prophet of media culture and consumerism, and at the same time as a lyric poet of tremendous gifts.
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Robert Polito is the author of Savage Art, a biography of the crime novelist Jim Thompson, and of the forthcoming Detours, a study of noir culture in America.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The great noir poet,
This review is from: Kenneth Fearing: Selected Poems (American Poets Project) (Hardcover)
I don't own this edition but do have fond memories of poring over the old Indiana University Press edition in the library...Fearing was the only poet to complement perfectly the great period of film noir and I always enjoyed his poetry more than his prose...he is the great master of modern alienation in verse, middle class suburban neurotic breakdown, unspoken fear and paranoia, portraying the poison of untrammeled American commercial culture at its most corrosive. It's not surprising that we never learned the lesson from him because he is also the most criminally neglected American poet of the century. Thanks to Mr. Polito for resurrecting him.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully Done,
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This review is from: Kenneth Fearing: Selected Poems (American Poets Project) (Hardcover)
Kenneth Fearing: Selected Poems (American Poets Project)
First of all, it is well worth noting that every Library of America volume I've ever purchased has been of first quality, well executed and gorgeous - their American Poets Project is no different. A delightful representation of Kenneth Fearing's work...the poems contained herein from his first volume, Angel Arms, are worth the price alone. A Depression-era poet, his poems feel particularly relevant today, further, his work has influenced a multitude of today's popular poets. Familiarity with Fearing's work lends insight to the poems of Asbery, Simic and others. Despite amazon's tediously slow delivery, I highly recommend this volume.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
grit and wit of hip hop feels modern in early 20th century poems,
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This review is from: Kenneth Fearing: Selected Poems (American Poets Project) (Hardcover)
A real discovery for me, having thought I knew what went on in 1920s, 30s American writing. These poems capture the street, the world of advertising and film noir, rhythms of jazz and popular music, and critique society instead of disengaging from the world like so much poetry of the time seems
to do.
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