Longfellow Reads Longfellow: Dreams That Cannot Die (CD version) [Audio CD]

Layne Longfellow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2002

Acclaimed by U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, Layne Longfellow adapts Longfellow's most beloved poems for performance. Music by Michael Hoppé, composer of the Visionary Award winning The Lover: The Love Poems of Carl Sandburg.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It is time that the sense and the sound of this major American voice were brought freshly to our ears." -- Billy Collins, Poet Laureate of the United States

"Layne Longfellow invokes the contemplative strength of Henry Longfellow with grace and resonance. -- Matthew Pearl, author, The Dante Club

"Your CD is stunning, poignant, and hits deep...a bridge across time." -- Peggy Seeger, singer, songwriter

About the Author

Layne Longfellow created Lecture Theatre, presenting keynote lectures throughout North America and abroad. Elected to the Speakers Hall of Fame in 1986, he is an innovator in using live and recorded music, humor, poetry, photographs, and video as context for academic theory and data as context for academic theory and data. His 1983 "Beyond Success" presentation was recently selected among the 12 best of the past 25 years; "The Mountain Waits," a CBC documentary of Longellow's mountaineering seminar for executives, was awarded the Gold Medal for Outdoor Films at the New York Festival of TV and Film.

He is the author of Imaginary Menagerie, a children's book, Visual Feast, a book of visual puns (both Chronicle Books), several Lecture Theatre audios and videos, and cocreator of "Body Talk" and "Feel Wheel," psychological games released by Psychology Today for professional use. His most recent written work, "The Language of Commerce Interprets Living Systems," is in Discourses in Search of Members (University Press of America, 2002). His early neuro-psychological research appeared in Science.

Dr. Longfellow received a B.A. (Ohio University) and Ph.D. (University of Michigan) in experimental psychology, with fellowships from the National Science and Woodrow Wilson Foundations; an NIMH Post-Doctoral Fellowship supported his two years of work with Dr. Carl Rogers. He served as Director of Executive Seminars at The Menninger Foundation, Academic Vice President of Prescott College, and on the faculty of Reed College.

Dr. Longfellow also graduated from Jackson High School, Ohio, in the foothills of Appalachia. His great-great-grandfather Michael Longfellow migrated to southern Ohio from Maine, coincident with Henry Longfellow's leaving Maine for Harvard.

Dr. Longfellow created two editions of "Longfellow Reads Longfellow: Dreams That Cannot Die." The Standard Edition gives the full experience of the poems themselves. The readings and music, the printed texts of the poems, and Longfellow's biography are identical to the Illustrated Edition, but in conventional CD packaging. The graphic design on both editions is by Glenna Lang; recordings were done by John Etnier of Studio Dual, and the mixing and mastering by Jonathan Wyner of M-Works.

The Illustrated Edition is a celebration of the nineteenth-century bookmaker's art. Its visual elegance reflects the eloquence of the poetry.

The illustrations reproduce steel engravings from my personal copies of his collected works of 1856 and 1885-the original texts of the poems are duplicated from the 1885 volume. The covers reproduce those of Samuel Longfellow's 1886 biography of Henry, issued in an edition of 300; I have number 94.

The remaining illustrations are portraits from the collection of the Longfellow National Historic Site. I think they present the humanness and the family life of Longfellow directly to the reader's heart. There are four portraits of Longfellow that mark your progress through the sections of the book and through his life.

In this edition, I've introduced each poem with a glimpse into Longfellow's world, through excerpts from his journals and diaries. His creativity is obvious when you see the experiences and images and anecdotes from his life that he then transformed into poems, into verse that lives on nearly two centuries later.

The sources that I used, both historical and contemporary, are in the bibliography. The book closes with a reproduction of HWL's signature. I wanted the Illustrated Edition to be as personal as the adaptations, and to reflect this immortal poet and fine human being both warmly and respectfully.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Lecture Theatre, Inc. (October 2002)
• ISBN-10: 0972274200
• ISBN-13: 978-0972274203
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,607,458 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Maudlin, January 3, 2009

By 

William Marut "Do not disturb my circles" (GLASTONBURY, CT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Longfellow Reads Longfellow: Dreams That Cannot Die (CD version) (Audio CD)

I bought this CD at LONGFELLOW'S WAYSIDE INN OF SUDBURY in Sudbury, Massachusetts. I brought it home and listened to it, expecting to hear a high-quality reading of Longfellow. It was not to be. 1) The reader does not read Longfellow -- he paraphrases Longfellow. I know that sounds hard to believe, but it's true. To add insult to injury, the actual words of Longfellow's poems are included in the booklet that comes with the CD, so you see what you are actually missing. 2) The reader has one emotion, and one emotion only: maudlin. 3) The maudlin reading is accompanied by maudlin music. To imply that Longfellow's poetry needs musical accompaniment to convey its "meaning" is presumptuous and insulting. But so, I guess, is paraphrasing it and reading it as if one were on tranquilizers.

5.0 out of 5 stars Utterly superb fellows, these Longfellows, June 2, 2008

By 

W. L. Rubink "wrubink" (Edinburg, TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Longfellow Reads Longfellow: Dreams That Cannot Die (CD version) (Audio CD)

This is fantastic. Excellent interpretation, very soothing. The music complements the poetry reading perfectly. Hear excerpts at www.longfellowpoetry.com. If you haven't read Longfellow for a while, this will have you asking for more.