Product Description
One of the greatest living poets in English here explores the work of six writers he often finds himself reading "in order to get started" when writing, poets he turns to as "a poetic jump-start for times when the batteries have run down." Among those whom John Ashbery reads at such times are John Clare, Thomas Lovell Beddoes, Raymond Roussel, John Wheelwright, Laura Riding, and David Schubert. Less familiar than some, under Ashbery's scrutiny these poets emerge as the powerful but private and somewhat wild voices whose eccentricity has kept them from the mainstream--and whose vision merits Ashbery's efforts, and our own, to readthem well. Deeply interesting in themselves, Ashbery's reflections on these poets of "another tradition" are equally intriguing for what they tell us about Ashbery's own way of reading, writing, and thinking. With its indirect clues to his work and its generous and infectious appreciation of a remarkable group of poets, this book conveys the passion, delight, curiosity, and insight that underlie the art and craft of poetry for writer and reader alike. Even as it invites us to discover the work of poets in Ashbery's "other tradition," it reminds us of Ashbery's essential place in our own. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Gem of Oddities
This book is much smaller than I thought it would be, but this only enhances its gem-like charm; from its rich cover to its finely homespun interior. I thought at first I had heard it all before from Ashbery, in his short Schubert and Roussel essays, and in comments dropped in Reported Sightings; but even when covering the same ground he subtly brings forth new worlds. It's refreshing to hear him talk of these beloved poets, like a tour through the comfortable rooms of his mind, which of course also offers countless insights into Ashbery's own career of poetic journeys. I recommend this book to both literary scavengers of the past and arcane poets of the future, but especially to the intriguing combination of both living a dream right now.

a doorway
Every once in a while, I come across a book that opens up new doors for me. They introduce to me to areas of life that I otherwise might never have encountered. Other Traditions by John Ashbery is just such a book.

I have always had a love for, but limited knowledge of, Poetry. It was Edward Hirsch's great book How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry that first introduced me to Ashbery's work. He is, in my opinion, one of the greatest living poets. Therefore, I jumped at the opportunity to read Other Traditions.

Other Traditions is the book form of a series of lectures given by Ashbery on other poets. Ashbery writes about six of the lesser-known artists who have had an impact on his own life and work. All of them are fascinating. They are:

-John Clare, a master at describing nature who spent the last 27 years of his life in an Asylum.

-Thomas Lovell Beddoes, a rather death obsessed author (he ended up taking his own life) whose greatest poetry consists of fragments that must often be culled from the pages of his lengthy dramas.

-Raymond Roussel, a French author whose magnum opus is actually a book-length sentence.

-John Wheelwright, a politically engaged genius whose ultra-dense poetry even Ashbery has a hard time describing or comprehending.

-Laura Riding, a poet of great talent and intellect who chose to forsake poetry (check out the copyright page).

-David Schubert, an obscure poet who Ashbery feels is one of the greatest of the Twentieth Century.

The two that I was most pleasantly surprised by are Clare and Riding.

Clare has become (since I picked up a couple of his books) one of my favorite poets. He is a master at describing rural life. I know of no one quite like him. Ashbery's true greatness as a critic comes out when he depicts Clare as "making his rounds."

Riding, on the other hand, represents the extreme version of every author's desire for the public to read their work in a precise way--the way the author intends it to be read. Her intense combativeness and sensitivity to criticism is as endearing as it is humorous.

Other Traditions has given me a key to a whole new world of books. For that I am most grateful.

I give this book my full recommendation.

What Ashbery Values
Here are six essays by John Ashbery about six of his favourite minor poets, ranging from John Clare, born in 1790s England, to David Schubert, born 1913 in New York.John Brooks Wheelwright and Laura Riding are included, from the early 20th century, as is Raymond Roussel (a French precursor to anti-novelists, a specialist in parenthetical labyrinths, and endlessly detailed descriptions of bottle-labels).We have, too, the doomed author of "Death's Jest Book," the 19th-century poet Thomas Lovell Beddoes.

These essays are engaging and readable, informed and informative without being pedantic.There are anecdotes, too (about Riding, most notably, who is aptly diagnosed by Ashbery as "a control freak").We notice that half of the authors are homosexual or possibly so, most either committed suicide or had a parent who did so, three were affected by mental problems, and the majority were ardent leftists (Riding being an exception).

To this reader, the two Johns, Clare and Wheelwright, are the most immediately endearing, and David Schubert's disjunctive colloquial tone does fascinate.Some of the comments about the gang of six do shed some light into Ashbery's curious methods:Clare's mucky down-to-earthiness and Beddoes' elegant, enamelled "fleurs-du-mal" idiom both being "necessary" components of poetry, in Ashbery's view.Some of Wheelwright's elastic sonnets have a Saturday Evening Post-type folksiness that is often found in Ashbery's own poetic inventions; Schubert's poems (in Rachel Hadas's words) "seem(ing) to consist of slivers gracefully or haphazardly fitted together."An aside: Look at the first two lines of Schubert's "Happy Traveller."Couldn't that be John Ashbery?About Raymond Roussel, whose detractors accuse him of saying nothing, Ashbery mounts an impatient defence that reads like a self-defence: "If 'nothing' means a labyrinth of brilliant stories told only for themselves, then perhaps Roussel has nothing to say.Does he say it badly?Well, he writes like a mathematician."

We learn that Ashbery is not fond of E E Cummings, and he is unconvincingly semi-penitent of this "blind spot":Cummings, with his Herrick-like lucidity, his straightforward heterosexuality, and his resolute nonleftism, would not appear to fit nicely into Ashbery's pantheon.Ashbery even takes a few mischievous swipes at John Keats -- rather, he quotes George Moore doing so.Ashbery will doubtless forgive his readers if our enthusiasm for the poetry of Keats and Cummings remains undiminished.

There is much in the poetry explored by "Other Traditions" that is dark and bothersome; but there are felicities.These lectures form a fascinating kind of ars-poetica-in-prose by one of America's cleverest and most vexing of poets.

Unusual perspective on poetry
Instead of offering predictable comments on well-known poets, John Ashbery has chosen to explain his preference for seemingly eccentric figures like John Clare and Raymond Roussel. While Ashbery is a difficult poet, his prose is reader-friendly; this book, then, provides insight into Ashbery's own unique poetic sensibility, as well as into the poets and writers he has chosen.

This book provokes thought about issues of literary value. Why does Ashbery find supposedly "minor" figures more inspiring of his own writing?Are his arguments for the value of these figures ultimately convincing?Do marginality and eccentricity have an intrinsic value for him?Before reading this book I did know something about Laura Riding, Raymond Roussel, and John Clare; the other writers came as revelations to me.I am not convinced that every figure treated is of equal interest, but I am fascinated by Ashbery's own responses to these practically unknown "cult authors." ... Read more

Product Description
239 pages ill. some color;Includes bibliographical references. Subject: Grooms, Red - Exhibitions. 1985 Oversized paperback copy. Ex Library with markings. Inside solid. Cover has some creasing and wear. ... Read more

Product Description
hardcover, 166 pp; 1970 Macmillan Publishers; a collection of writings & plates of especially descriptive art. ... Read more

Product Description
Over a period of four decades--from the early 1960s until his death in 1994--artist, writer, and designer Joe Brainard contributed greatly to the arts in a number of media. From his early paintings and assemblages, which built upon the work of Jasper Johns and Joseph Cornell, to his set designs for LeRoi Jone's "The Dutchman" and Frank O'Hara's "The General Returns from One Place to Another"; from his comic book collaborations with various poets, "C Comics" and "C Comics 2", to his later drawing, collage, painting, and assemblage work, Brainard exemplified the link between avant-garde art, writing, and theater that defined the New York School. In addition to a checklist and bibliographies of work by and about Brainard, this exhibition catalogue includes the artist's published and unpublished writings, as well as interviews and letters. Also included are essays by John Ashbery, Carter Ratcliff, and Constance Lewallen, who chronicles Joe Brainard's formative years in Oklahoma and move to New York City, his involvement with Pop Art, assemblage and painting, and his literary and artistic associations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Oh Joe!
I first learned about the artist Joe Brainard in two articles published in Art In America in July 1997, written by Edmund White and by Carter Ratcliff. I saved those features and came across them recently. Sharing my renewed enthusiasm for this artist with a friend, he informed me that he had seen a wonderful retrospective of Joe Brainard at the Berkeley Art Museum last yearand that he had purchased a fine catalogue of the exhibit. I was delighted to find this incredible catalogue at Amazon.com. A tremendous overview of this underappreciated genius with relevant text and fantastic color reproductions of exhibited work. Amazing to see work created 20-30 years ago that has so obviously influenced a generation of contemporary artists. This book is highly recommended to anyone interested in contemporary art. If you don't know the work of Joe Brainard, this retrospective will impress, and if you are already an admirer of this extraordinary talent, this is a must have for your art library. ... Read more

Product Description
John Ashbery and You approaches Ashbery's critically neglected recent poetry with an ear to his use of the supremely elastic pronoun "you" and an eye toward his construction of his books as books. Together, these devices produce effects new to Ashbery's oeuvre and offer readers new ways "in" to his work. John Ashbery and You argues that starting with April Galleons (1987), and reaching an apex in Your Name Here (2000), the poet has been paying increasingly keen and affectionate attention to his readers. Vincent tracks these techniques but above all offers his readers tools to reapproach a dauntingly difficult body of work.

Some critics have suggested that Ashbery is producing books too quickly for criticism to keep up or that the later books represent, as Vincent summarizes it, "a kind of logorrhea . . . and therefore don't really register as separate events as much as episodic eruptions of one big volcano which is the Later Ashbery." Vincent contends that critics are not keeping up with Ashbery not so much because it is all of a piece, but rather because his work varies so much from volume to volume. Each of the volumes from the latter part of Ashbery's career represents an individual and different poetic project, depending precisely on the unit of the book to produce its effects.

By showing us that the entry point to Ashbery is not any given individual poem within a volume, but the entire volume, Vincent gives us a new and productive approach to reading the recent work of one of our most challenging poets. ... Read more

Product Description
Each audio production is accompanied by a book containing the texts of the poems and a commentary by J.D. McClatchy.

John Ashbery (1927) was born in Rochester, New York.He has published 19 books of poetry including Girls on the Run: A Poem (1999); Wakefulness (1998); And the Stars Were Shining (1994); A Wave (1984) which won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1975) which received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.Ashbery was the first English-language poet to win the Grand Prix de Biennales Internationales de Poésie (Brussels), and has also received the National Book Award, The Shelley Memorial Award, and fellowships from The Academy of American Poets and the Fulbright Foundation.He is a former Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets and is currently the Charles P. Stevenson, Jr., Professor of Languages at Bard College.He divides his time between New York City and Hudson, New York. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great Selections
I have listened to these recordings until the actually tape gave out. The selections are Ashbery's most approachable and possibly best poems one can read. He reads in a relatively fast pace, and a touch on the flat side, but I mean that in a good way. He doesn't make his poetry sound precious or grand like a Stevens or Eliot. When this makes it to cd I will buy it again.

Great! But Why Only on Cassette?
This recording features Ashbery reading sixteen poems--some very short, some rather long--in order of their publication. Side one consists of "Soonest Mended," "Parergon," and "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror" (yes, the whole poem!). Side two consists of "Pyrography," "Daffy Duck in Hollywood," "Wet Casements," "And Ut Pictura Poesis Is Her Name," "My Erotic Double," "At North Farm," "More Pleasant Adventures," "Around the Rough and Rugged Rocks the Ragged Rascal Rudely Ran," "This Room," "Memories of Imperialism," "Redeemed Area," "Your Name Here," and "The Underwriters." One could wish for greater balance: there are no poems here from Ashbery's first books (those published in the '50s and '60s), and the last five poems are all from his latest book, YOUR NAME HERE. All sixteen are interesting poems, however. Unlike most of the writers in this series, Ashbery is alive; presumably he was allowed to choose which poems would be included, and one expects any writer to favor his most recent work.

The tape comes with a 63pp. book that includes the texts of the poems, excerpts from interviews, and an informative introduction by J.D. McClatchy. The back jacket reproduces the typescript of "Your Name Here."

Ashbery's reading is clear and unrushed. It is also relatively uninflected: he lets the words speak for themselves, rather than turn his readings into theatrical performances.

My only real complaint is that Random House has released this (along with the rest of this series) only on cassette. Compact discs would last longer, and they would also allow listeners to punch up individual poems instantly, without having to guess at rewinding and fast-forwarding. They'd certainly be more useful to teachers. ... Read more

Product Description
An architectural gallery of the city of Hudson featuring antique maps and more than 200 photographs, most dating from 1850 to 1930. The city of Hudson, founded in 1783, has been called "a dictionary of American architecture design" because of its many 18th and 19th-century buildings that have survived to the present day. From an unlikely, but very successful, whaling and merchant seaport 120 miles from the sea, to a boom-and-bust factory town, and then to a depressed and failing city with a frontier reputation for prostitution, gambling, and official corruption, the city of Hudson, New York, founded on the shores of the upper Hudson River by New England Quakers in 1783, has recently blossomed into a vibrant antiques and arts center with a national reputation.

Through these cultural and economic ups and downs, much of the city's remarkable architectural legacy somehow survived the plagues of the centuries, making Hudson today "a dictionary of American architecture." As remarkable as the survival of so many of Hudson's 18th and 19th-century buildings, is the survival of a magnificent collection of photographs intimately documenting the city from the 1850s to the 1920s, published herein for the first time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Good browsing, good reading
A thoroughly entertaining account of a Hudson River city with a truly fascinating history. I recommend it to anyone interested in nineteenth-century America, American architecture, especially the vernacular architecture of the northeast, and America as it once was. The vintage photographs are wonderful!

NYCUES
This is/was a great book and it is beautifully writtenI have spent many weekends and summers in this area of the hudson valley. This book brought to life, the colorful past of this wonderful city.

Could have been so much better...
The old photos are the best part, but everything else, especially the quality of the printing & the total lameness of the writing is inexcusable. A very sad exercise in vanity publishing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Essential
A wonderful collection of poems that rest in the small spaces in the corner of your field of vision.Some of the best of them are only 10 or so words long.Accessible, yet moving; it is hard to read more than three in one sitting.

Pick it up! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Haikuesqes Amongst John Ashbery's Lines


I take a scheduled bus from the hills of the Eastern Galilee to the capital of Israel.Thank G-d (god) the vehicle does not take a long seashore route around Samaria with its hostile population of stone throwers but boldly runs down the Jordan Valley and ascends to Jerusalem.

the Wailing Wall
on the women's side
more caper shrubbery

Darkness falls quickly. I find myself in a modern theater located in the city's best neighborhood.
Shimon Peres, an architect of the New Middle East, former minister of many ministries lends his rich voice to art festival."What language should I speak? English or Hebrew?" he asks. A quick Jewish mind
in the audience breaks out verbally:"Arabic!"
Mr. Peres delivers a do-gooder's speech advocating coexistence and cooperation. His cantor-like voice reaches far and high: "A free democratic Palestinian state!" Somebody adds "An armed one also."
"What?" says Mr. Peres, but no elucidation follows.


Old City skyline:
MINARETS, CHURCH BELL TOWERS
NO SIGN OF THE JEWS

THE FESTIVAL CONTINUES IN A TURKISH CARAVANSERAI
A STONE THROW FROM MOUNT ZION.
BARD COLLEGE PROFESSOR JOHN ASHBERY IS A CELEBRITY HERE. HE READS HIS POEMS AND THEY APPEAR ON THE SCREEN IN ENGLISH AND HEBREW.
HIS LONGER POEMS CONTAIN HAIKU-LIKE LINES:
"IN THE FLICKERING EVENING THE MARTINS GROW DENSER."
HE HAS AUTHORED HIS OWN HAIKU AND HAIBUN
BUT WHAT HE CALLS HAIKU ARE REALLY SHORT DITTIES:

"WHAT IS THE PAST,
what is it all for?
A MENTAL SANDWICH?"

WHEN MINGLING STARTS I GATHER ENOUGH CHUTZPA TO TALK TO HIM. I GIVE HIM SOME HAIKU FLIERS AND I EVEN SUGGEST WRITING RENKU TOGETHER WITH OTHER POETS.
MR. ASHBERY DISPASSIONATELY FILES MY MATERIALS.
AND HE IS LED AWAY.

JERUSALEM ROOF
4 AM-MUEZZIN, 6AM-CHURCH BELLS
SILENCE OF JEWS
... Read more

Product Description
Ashbery fans will welcome this collection of one hundred and twelve poems where the signature qualities of Ashbery's greatest work are on every page with a new intensity and power.
Amazon.com Review
Of this excellent work, MarjoriePerloff writes: "Literary echoes, puns, paragrams, andmini-narratives collide so as to create the image of a world burstingwith memories and overflowing with possibilities--a world like no oneelse's." John Ashbery, long admired for his wit, craft, andassured (if sometimes bewildered) tone, has outdone himselfhere. Notice especially the tour de force, "Eternity Sings theBlues." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Can You Hear, Bird: Poems by John Ashbery
Fabulous poems, esp the oft-quoted "Obedience School."
Found book at Barnes and Noble, but much less expensive ordering same thru Amazon. ... Read more

Product Description
After John Ashberry's "Flow Chart" (1991), "Hotel Lautreamont" (1992) and "And the Stars were Shining" (1994), this work provides an A-Y of poems, moments in which voices, images and tones come in for his attention. The poems are generally short, except for "T" when "Tuesday Evening" occurs. The poem begins in tight rhymed quatrains; as the evening extends, the verse relaxes to elicit and swallow up more and more, until only rhyme pins together the impulse and reflection. Ashberry's imagination remains subject to time's encroachment and the heart's vagaries. Ashberry was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award for "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror" (1975). ... Read more

Product Description
This book examines the function of repetition in the work of Walt Whitman, Wallace Stevens and John Ashbery. All three poets extensively employ and comment upon the effects of repetition, yet represent three distinct poetics, considerably removed from one another in stylistic and historical terms. At the same time, the three are engaged in a very interesting relation to each other, a relation readers tend to explain in terms of repetition, by positing Whitman and Stevens as the two alternative 'beginnings' out of which Ashbery emerges. Krystyna Mazur analyses the work of the three poets to discern patterns which may operate across a relatively broad spectrum of examples, as well as to consider the variety of ways in which repetition can structure a poetic text. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Make your point already...
I am a senior English major at the University of Vermont and at first I was surprised to think that that this book might be a bit over my head. I now see that Mazur is simply horrible at logically conveying her very complicated literary opinions.She also just might be too smart for her own good, but she should still be able to make a coherent point. Mazur continually runs the reader in circles with her overly complicated sentence structures and writing style, and worse, she never really makes concrete conclusions to follow her already incomplete theses.

Here is an appropriate analogy to put Krystyna Mazur in a nutshell: She is like that kid that sits in the front row of class, thinks he's super smart...and so he talks a lot. The first few days you listen to him, because it sounds somewhat good and seems to know what he's talking about. But then the more you listen, the more it becomes apparent that even though he has a seemingly impressive vocabulary, he never actually says anything meaningful. Then you begin to wonder if he is even using these words you've never heard correctly. Eventually it gets to the point where every time that kid speaks in class, I roll my eyes and try not to groan out loud.

Hope this helps. ... Read more