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Hayashi Kyoko's story, Ritual Of Death, centers around her experience as a schoolgirl caught in the Nagasaki bombing. She was saved by the shadow of a school porter who had crossed in front of her at the moment of the flash. Along with stories, there are poems, essays and art, including photographs. In this collection, the editor aimed for a personal kind of expression, and work that not only shows concern for life and living, but does so with the artist's skill. ... Read more

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Seventy-two views of Mt. TamalpaisIn a new collaboration by the authors of the bestselling The High Sierra of California, readers are introduced to the unique mountain overlooking San Francisco Bay. A source of story and myth since time began, Mt. Tamalpais has inspired conservationists, trail builders, botanists, artists, and poets for more than a century.With freshness and sustained delight, Tamalpais Walking explores Mt. Tamalpais s natural, cultural, historic, and spiritual dimensions. It is a book shaped by two master craftsmen collaborating on an enterprise nurtured by long and passionate involvement. The artwork is the product of Tom Killion s decades of depicting and interpreting the mountain s many moods and aspects. Gary Snyder has been hiking Mt. Tamalpais since 1948, and through poetry and a new, revealing essay he offers his thoughts on the mountain, its history, and the practice of walking meditation.Further enriched with Killion s essays on the mountain s history and selections from the work of Jack Kerouac, Ina Coolbrith, Kenneth Rexroth, and Lew Welch, Tamalpais Walking takes us deep into Mt. Tamalpais s pathways, offering original, revelatory views of a mountain prominent not just on the landscape but in the history and imagination of the West Coast. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Beautiful in many ways.
I own a Killion print. I compared it to the color plate in the book and I was amazed at how similar they are. This is a great thing.
The writing is extremely nice, but it's really the prints that make this book wonderful for me, as I am a huge Killion fan.

A top-notch, outstanding survey
Over seventy views of Mt. Tam are presented in a combination of history, prints and poetry - a fine literary collaboration by the authors of THE HIGH SIERRA OF CALIFORNIA. It's rich in essays and art and offers any Northern California library or resident a 'must have' survey of Mt. Tamalpais' importance in California history in general and Marin County life in particular. A top-notch, outstanding survey.

the most beaultiful woodcuts ever......and great history of Mt. Tam
The author, along with poet Gary Snyder have put together the most beautiful collection of woodcuts and poetry/history of Marin county's Mt. Tam ever.You will be transported by this treasure.

ideal blend of art work and text for artistic and spiritual enjoyment
The woodcut and letterpress artist Killion has a Japanese touch to his artwork. The modest graphic style and the coloring remind one of Japanese woodcuts, as does the nature subject matter. Killion's prints though concern Mount Tamalpais north of San Francisco. It's a nature area popular with hikers and campers and also arousing spiritual feelings. Gary Snyder's poetry goes along with Killion's prints concerning the Mount Tamalpais notable throughout the region for physical and spiritual reasons. Snyder's poems with haiku-like lines mirror physical aspects of nature and spirituality in connection to nature. Beyond his poetry, Snyder embraced an Asian, Zen-like spirituality and lived close to nature. He spent much time hiking about Tamalpais, and he spent time in Japan to experience Asian spirituality directly.

Besides the art work, Killian writes fetching essays for the book. Snyder contributes journal-like parts going back to the 1950s and '60s. But the two are not the only ones found. Quotes from the writings of Kenneth Rexroth, Jack Kerouac, Ina Coolbright and anecdotes on such authors representing the fusion of Asian spirituality and American openness of spirit and attraction to nature are interwoven into the text.

There are 14 full-page color woodcuts of Killion's including the frontispiece. Others are of varying sizes in full-color or shades of dark colors. Coming upon the woodcuts of all sizes throughout the pages, one is drawn to them again and again perusing their details of coastline, clouds, craggy earth, and slopes. One wants to notice Killion's technical skill and spots of originality in this art, and also enjoy again and again the aesthetic and spiritual freshets afforded by them. At the end are three pages of color woodcuts four to a page.

The book is a rare book published these days, or ever. Not falling neatly into a marketing or shelving category of the book trade, it is a risky publishing venture even considering the reputations of the artist and poet. Despite this, no effort or expense has been spared in design or production. Though it has aspects of each, Tamalpais Walking cannot be reduced to a nature book, an art book, or a book of spirituality. These aspects are joined ideally; and to some point brought together subliminally, although the book is founded in the particular place of Mount Tamalpais. Primarily it's a book of spiritual and artistic enjoyment.

Inspired Collaboration Again...
Another inspired collaboration of great art and great poetry, with interesting history in the mix as well.

I have all of Professor Killion's art books (except 28 Views) and about a dozen of his prints collected over the past 25 years or so.They get more expensive all the time, so while I used to buy big ones, now I just buy little ones. :)

Highly recommended for anyone who admires this style of block printing, or is a fan of Gary Snyder and somehow doesn't know about Tom Killion - buy it and find out what you've been missing all these years!



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One of the most path-breaking and creatively radical poets of the San Francisco Renaissance, Philip Whalen was part of the 1955 Six Gallery reading where the West Coast Beat movement famously began. Working alongside Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and Jack Kerouac, Whalen developed a conversational and visually unorthodox style that is unique in contemporary poetry. His lifelong engagement with the impermanent and sensuous, concerns deepened by his commitment to Zen Buddhism, are on rich display here, along with his warm humor and original illustrations. This Collected Poems rightfully places Whalen among the foremost poets of his time, offering readers a truly major body of American poetic work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Beat Louvre
This remarkable collection gathers the full range of work from one of the 20th century's most unpretentious experimenters with the form and matter of poetry. Granted, 800 pages is a lot of anyone, even a poet as great and under-read as Whalen, and the gain in information comes with a corresponding loss in shape. Whalen's refusal to separate writing from the business-as-usual work of living gives his poems their special tension--the "nerve movie" that's at once transcription of mind moving and competitive bid to be Art--but also invites sameness and slack, a problem more apparent here than in previous collections, especially On Bear's Head, where the batting average dazzles. Reference-wise though, having this book is like owning a wing of the Beat Louvre, and I wouldn't trade it for all of Mexico City and its blues. ... Read more

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When Gary Snyder’s long poem Mountains and Rivers Without End was published in 1996, it was hailed as a masterpiece of American poetry, yet it has not hitherto been the subject of a book-length critical study. Now, Anthony Hunt offers a detailed historical and explicative analysis of this complex work using, among his many sources, Snyder’s personal papers, letters, and interviews.

Hunt traces the work’s origins and genesis, as well as some of the myriad sources of its themes and structure, including Nô drama; East Asian landscape painting; the rhythms of storytelling, chant, and song; Jungian archetypal psychology; world mythology; Buddhist philosophy and ritual; Native American traditions; planetary geology, hydrology, and ecology. His analysis addresses the poem not merely by its content but through the structure of individual lines and the arrangement of the parts, examining such personal and cultural influences on Snyder’s work as his extensive travels in Asia, his association with the Beat movement of the 1950s, and his observations of the natural world, as well as the role of various mythological, religious, ecological, and political concepts and images.

Hunt’s benchmark study of Mountains and Rivers Without End, which he considers a "fundamental wisdom text for the modern ecological movement," is a richly perceptive work of analysis, written in a clear and straightforward style but completely sensitive to the subtleties, nuances, and intricacies of the poem. It will be rewarding reading for anyone who enjoys the contemplation of Snyder’s artistry and ideas and, more generally, for those who are intrigued by the workings of artistic composition, as well as those readers of poetry—whether ecologists, Buddhists, philosophers, or backpackers—who are interested in cultural and intellectual affairs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Mountains and Rivers
Anthony Hunt's book on Gary Snyder's long poem "Mountains and Rivers Without End" is a first-rate compantion to that complex and rewarding work.Snyder's poems are studded with allusions.Those can create a barrier for the reader who is not familiar with a range of Eastern religious beliefs, the geology and folklore of the Pacific Northwest, or Snyder's long and varied personal acquaintance.Anthony Hunt's analysis guides us along.I found that I would read a Snyder poem, read Hunt's discussion of that poem, and then go back to the original with renewed interest and excitement.In addition, the reader of Hunt's book gets an introduction to No Drama and a discussion of the great Chinese landscape scroll that inspired Snyder, among much other background material.Hunt makes Snyder accessible--a great scholarly achievement! ... Read more

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Personal favorites selected by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet himself.Beginning with the publication of The Back Country in 1968, Gary Snyder's long-cherished association with New Directions continued through the publication of his poetry books: the Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling Turtle Island (1974), and Myths & Texts (1978); as well as his prose works, Earth House Hold (1969) and The Real Work (1980), all essential titles on the New Directions list. More recently, Snyder's No Nature: New and Selected Poems, a finalist for the National Book Award, was published in 1993 by Pantheon, and his long-anticipated epic poem Mountains and Rivers without End was published by Counterpoint in1997. Snyder has had a seminal place among American landscape writers. "As a poet," he once wrote, "I hold the most archaic values on earth." He has long been associated with Beat writers such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and other poets such as Kenneth Rexroth, Robert Creeley, and Robert Duncan. His poetics are founded in Poundian modernism, Chinese and Japanese poetry, and ancient oral native traditions.

Look Out is a collection personally compiled by Gary Snyder for New Directions , containing poems and essays from all his New Directions books. It offers first-time readers a chance to see the evolution of his thought and poetry, spanning two decades, and old-time fans the opportunity to behold all the favorites, in a new Bibelot edition. Also included here is Snyder's Introduction, as well as a new poem written about the late New Directions founder James Laughlin. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Travel diary with Dharma bums
Heard Snyder at his bio-pic PRACTICE OF THE WILD, was charmed.Found this little gem, appealing to me because of my own passages through India.A travelogue of the now-famed poet over six months in India, between stints in Japan.Read and savored in an easy afternoon over dosa at Udupi Palace and coffee at Ritual Roasters, so I felt right at home rucksacking it right here in Frisco.Book is mostly a plain account, without much flourish, but gives ample entertainment as Snyder and his then-wife Joanne hit the Dharma trail through India and Nepal, encountering Alan Ginsberg along the way.An adventure that doesn't inflate adventuring, just good observations about life on the road, seeing the sights and sadhus, meeting the mystics and dancing their dance.A bit of opium and ancient porno too.Rich, succinct and steady.Gained a few nice tips about beggars, or at least how Gary and Allen dealt with them.Nice bit on Dalai Lama in about 1962, young and fresh from Tibet.Seems to have impressed Snyder, who writes a few paragraphs about him, more than other spiritualists he writes about.Good eye.Finished the book, as it turns out, the day after Gary Snyder's birthday.Happy Birthday, Gary, and thanks!

great travel diary,
this book really makes you want to get out the old rucksack and hit the road, or seas, or however you'd get to india from where ever you are....
good old allen ginsberg pops in for a bit of the trip too! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

I am either to dumb or not enlightened enough to understand most of this.
Peaceful, relaxing reading of Master Dogen's writings by Gary Snyder. Maybe if I listen to it another 10-20 times I will start to make some sense of most of the inner meanings!What is it with rivers and mountains, anyway?

great meditation tape
I find listening to this tape over and over and over like a music tape, I am getting into Dogen's mind a little, and it is actually starting to make sense!!!! Egads, I should check myself in! It is really a different experience hearing it and trying to follow it, as compared to reading it.It has become sort of like poetry for me, I guess.Thanks to Gary Snyder and Kaz and Dogen. gassho.

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The nonprofit sector has lost its way. In spite of pristine motives, an increasing number of leaders and agencies are tainting the sector’s good name with wrongdoing that few want to acknowledge. The harm of these misdeeds is truly startling.

Customer Reviews (1)

Essential Reading for Prospective and Current Nonprofit Board Members
Gary Snyder's concern for the nonprofit world is clear from his analysis of its current state.Early in the book he draws parallels between the lack of governance oversight with corporate boards, such as Enron and WorldCom, and what he sees happening with nonprofit boards.--and then he names so names as examples.

No attempt to is made to put all organizations in the same straight jacket.Snyder has respect for the differences among organizations:"If you've seen one nonprofit, you've seen one nonprofit."He leaves no doubt, however, about the importance of fundamentals such as mission, planning, orientation, and evaluation.

The heart of Snyder's analysis is "most nonprofit boards are ineffective in their governance function."This echoes the concern expressed in Governance as Leadership that "board members and staff alike begin to equate meeting with governance.This ineffectiveness is in the face of "challenges of managing nonprofits (that) are immense."

Neither does Snyder think the role of a board member is easy:"It is very hard to be an effective director of a nonprofit."He points to the fact that few directors are familiar with their important roles as "questioners, monitors, and active contributors in the operations of a nonprofit."

For board members aspiring to increase their performance, each chapter contains numerous "best practice" recommendations.Snyder also provides a very useful example of a tool to assess the chief executive's performance, a task many boards gloss over and do not do effectively.

From his perspective as the former CEO of a hospital system, member of a variety of nonprofit boards and a consultant, Gary Snyder provides solid insight and direction for organizations seeking to gain focus and direction in the role of the board and its responsibilities in and for a nonprofit organization.
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For several decades Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder has been one of the most recognizable and provocative figures on the contemporary scene, one who has commanded the attention of a large and diverse readership through the clarity, range, and originality of his vision.Left Out in the Rain charts the evolution of the poet and the man through a generous selection of poems, saved over the years, which have not appeared in any of Snyder's previous books. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

musings of a dharma bum
Hoo!this singular syllable is all that can be used to attempt to describe this.snyder's short eternal truths, his exact observations andhis simplistic morals are all explored beyond what anyone else has done orwill do.snyder's life is chronicled by himself in this series of poemsthat everyone who has heard of poetry must read. ... Read more