Customer Reviews

Not Man Apart: Lines from Robinson Jeffers (A Sierra Club-Ballantine book)

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This now out-of-print book from the Sierra Club from 1965 of photos from various Big Sur area photographers and poetry by Robinson Jeffers, is a green earth book so appropriate for us today. It is perhaps part of what got us all more green conscious and ecologically minded. The selection of photos was heavily influenced by Ansel Adams advice to editor Dave Brower, and includes some Adams, Weston, Baer, Crouch, Hyde, and others in color and black and white. The editorial introductions show a history of concerns that only now the rest of us are beginning to pay attention to. If only we had started earlier.

This book led me to read more Jeffers and to find other work by, so far, two of the lesser known photographers represented here, Steve Crouch and Morley Baer. Baer's own book "Stones Of The Sur" with more Jeffers poetry shows he is a photographer of the quality of Ansel Adams. Steve Crouch too, had a rare and beautiful vision as I found in his exquisite book of his own writing and photographs "Fog And Sun, Sea And Stone." All highly highly recommended.

I don't think that stumbling across this book was my introduction to Robinson Jeffers, but certainly its glorious marriage of image and phrase played a part in my still-ardent infatuation. This is simply a perfect book, from the thoughtful and appreciative introduction by Loren Eisley to the last beautiful page. When I first came upon the photo of stars with the lines that begin, "I have heard the summer dust," I wept, and my eyes barely handle even recalling the resonance Jeffers' words gave to that cold, rich picture.

This is truly a "coffeetable book," with beautiful photographs to while away the afternoon, brief passages of text to catch the eye and mind, and a fabric of natural philosophy woven between the photos and Jeffers' words that will draw you into a world very different from our casual days.

Jeffers is a voice of consolation for the pessimist, his poems symphonies to the natural world, eternal or not. His human gestures -- Tamar, California, Cawdor, the Thursos and Medea -- are compelling and operatic, but it is when he and the natural world are alone, staring into each other, that he is at his best, and that best is here.

I don't have this book in front of me, it's an ocean away right now, but 30 years ago it introduced me to the Big Sur coast and to Robinson Jeffers. This series of books introduced me to places I grew to love, the Sierras, Hawaii (Kauai in particular), the coast Redwoods, and Big Sur. It was natural that Jeffers be the voice for Big Sur, since he lived there. You read the poetry and wonder how much was shaped by the life he led there. You look at the photos and see the rocks resisting the sea, but the sea will claim them in the end. But still the mountains rise behind, a place for hawks and men.

I am writing this today because the L.A. Times online had an article about Jeffers and his home. It reminded me of this book, and of his poetry.

I lived in the Monterey Bay area for 14 years, and it is still hard to get enough of Big Sur and that wonderful coast. Living close by, you know that the folks who live there are hardy because the Highway 1 can be closed by a landslide for up to several months. And fire can sweep through those canyons oh so fast. I hope to return soon, and see if the swimming hole in the river where my kids learned to swim has restored itself after the fires.

If you can't get there, this is a good introduction to the landscape of that coast, and to the art of Robinson Jeffers.

Wonderful pictures of BIG SUR.

An unusual photo portrait.

I love it!