The Prayers of Dallas [Paperback]

Frederick Turner (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: WordTech Communications (October 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933456426
• ISBN-13: 978-1933456423
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,819,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Frederick Turner is an American poet, polymath and academic. He was born in Northamptonshire, England, in 1943. After spending several years in central Africa, where his parents, the anthropologists Victor W. and Edith L. B. Turner, were conducting field research, Frederick Turner was educated at the University of Oxford (1962-67), where he obtained the degrees of B.A., M.A., and B.Litt. (a terminal degree equivalent to the Ph.D.) in English Language and Literature. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1977. His brother is Robert Turner.

Turner is presently Founders Professor of Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas, having held academic positions at the University of California at Santa Barbara (assistant professor 1967-72), Kenyon College (associate professor 1972-85), and the University of Exeter in England (visiting professor 1984-85). From 1978-82 he was editor of The Kenyon Review. He has been married since 1966 to Mei Lin Turner (née Chang, a social science periodical editor), and has two sons.


Turner is the author of ten books of poetry, a novel, and numerous books on literature, philosophy, and classicism, including the controversial The Culture of Hope: A New Birth of the Classical Spirit. He has authored a number of scholarly works on topics ranging from beauty and the biological basis of artistic production and appreciation to complexity and Julius Thomas Fraser's umwelt theory of time. Mr. Turner is also the author of two science fiction epic poems, The New World and Genesis.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine book by an excellent poet and thinker, January 8, 2010

By 

J. Maceachern (dallas, tx) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Prayers of Dallas (Paperback)

The Prayers of Dallas describes in verse the inner dialogues of 50 Dallas residents with whomever or whatever they believe is their higher spiritual power. Frederick Turner is a master poet, and this book is characteristically ambitious and experimental yet firmly grounded. It's clear that Turner feels imaginatively at home in the city that he loves. I can't say for sure whether the book adequately captures the soul of Dallas itself--I admire Mr. Turner's enthusiasm for the city and his apparent insight into its character, but I don't share them. Nonetheless, I believe the author is an important poet and thinker who is far ahead of his time, and this is a fine example of his ability.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece, October 21, 2008

By 

Troy Camplin (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Prayers of Dallas (Paperback)

I actually had the immense pleasure and honor of seeing this work produced -- by Turner himself. He and several others performed this work, with an installation done by the artist Todd Camplin. One can see the full range of Turner's poetic skills in this piece. He does not avoid controversy, yet demonstrates a poetic compassion for antagonist and protagonist alike. Still, he does not hold back -- this is not an amoral work. It is ethical without being preachy; it is funny and sad and tragic and, in the end, hopeful. If the city can have a soul -- and, if we take Nietzsche's sense of a soul, it can and does -- then Turner shows us the soul of Dallas. It's not always good, but in the end, it's certainly not bad, either. This is a beautiful work I strongly recommend.