Selected Poems of Max Jacob [Paperback]

Max Jacob (Author), William Kulik (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 1999

Even though he was an important founder of modernism, companion to Picasso, Modigliani, Apollinaire, and the early Surrealists, Max Jacob has remained a somewhat neglected and little-known figure. Now this delightful and utterly original poet has been given a detailed and careful presentation in English, through William Kulik's imaginative translations. In a selection that covers the whole of Jacob's career and that does particular justice to his accomplishments as a prose poet, Kulik offers us a full and sympathetic portrait, framing it with an Introduction that sketches the biography and fills out the historical context. A divided man--sexually, culturally, artistically--Jacob moves us deeply with his steady commitment to his art and its possibilities.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In these poems we re-enter, as if we'd never left it, the first world of modernism, in which the common schizophrenia was at last acknowledged, so that ever since we've been able to see and feel. Max Jacob was truly an original and monumental madman. And these translations by William Kulik are superb." -- Hayden Carruth

1889-1916
1914
1914
Absurd Metamorphosis
Achilles' Wheel
Allusion To A Circus Act
Artless Lines
'at The Outskirts Of Town Where The Forest Of Age - Old
The Balcony Of Romeo And Juliet
Ballad Of The Night Visitor
Ballad Of The Perpetual Miracle
The Best Girl
Biographical
A Bit Of Art Criticism
Burial In Quimper
Capital. Place-setting
Christian Families
The Concarneau Regatta
Conservatories
Death
Demons As I Rise
Errors Of Mercy
Father Unknown
The Feminist Question
Festival
First Symposium
Foreword To The Dice Cup/ Le Cornet A Des
From The Cock And The Pearl
Frontispiece
Glass Of Blood
Hell Has Gradations
If Guillaume's Death Had Been Christian
In Hill Country
In Paradise
'in The Age Of Enchantment: 'o Those Castles In The For -'
In The Background
Infernal Visions
Jacques, Jean
The Key
La Rue Ravignan
Leon! Leon!
Let's Bring Back The Old Themes
Life Of The Party
Litanies For The Holy Virgin
Literary Standards
Literature And Poetry
Loving Thy Neighbor
Magic Confession
Malachites
'max Is A Lunatic' (everyone)
Memoirs Of A Spy
Menage Of Godless Artists
Moon Poem
My Life
The Novel
Novel 1943
On Death
Other Characters At The Masked Ball
Other Characters At The Masked Ball
Our Earthly Virtues Are Castles In The Air
The Pilgrims At Emmaeus
Playing The Horn
Poem
Poem
Poem
Prophetic Dreams
Reconstruction
The Restless Soul Remakes Heaven
Sad Last Appeal To The Phantoms Inspirations From The Past
Searching For The Traitor
Seascape At Roscoff
The Seasons
Second Symposium
Shore
Sir Elizabeth (pronounced Soeur)
Sunday In Marseilles: Prose Impressions
Third Symposium
To Mr. Modigliani To Prove I'm A Poet
The Tough Guy's Lament
Travels
The Two Elite Audiences
A View In Perspective
War
Warning!
Watered Earth
Write Your Memoirs
The Yellow Star Again
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

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Product Details

• Paperback: 130 pages
• Publisher: Oberlin College Press (December 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 093244086X
• ISBN-13: 978-0932440860
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 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: #492,586 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good stuff from the surrealist trenches, November 9, 2000

By 

"elljay" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Selected Poems of Max Jacob (Paperback)

From all accounts an extremely weird man, even by surrealist standards, Max Jacob left behind a fair amount of sprightly, entertainingly strange verse, much of which can be found in the present volume. The majority of the entries here are brief, fanciful prose-poems in the spirit of Charles Simic's "The World Doesn't End"; if you like one, you'll probably like the other. Poems like "'Max is a Lunatic' (Everyone)" goof on his own eccentric personality; others are surprisingly direct--and, among the French surrealists, pretty uncommon--expressions of religious belief ("Ballad of the Perpetual Miracle"). A fast, pleasant read.

5.0 out of 5 stars Amusing, November 7, 2009

By 

W. David Peacock (Santa Barbara, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Selected Poems of Max Jacob (Paperback)

Jacob has a nutty imagination. He is very entertaining. I find these fanciful short poems are charming.