The Gary Snyder Reader: Prose, Poetry, and Translations

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Beat poet, world traveler, forest-fire lookout, student of Chinese and Japanese, of Zen and Tao, ecological thinker and activist, renderer of folklore and myth, and (most recently) author of the celebrated book-length poem Mountains and Rivers Without End, Snyder has done and written more in one lifetime than most poets would in 10. This enormous volume gives admirers of any of Snyder's talents a chance to discover all the rest. Its 400-odd pages of prose include critical, speculative and political essays (a few previously uncollected). Arguments like "Poetry and the Primitive" share space with travel journals, letters to friends (most notably Philip Whalen) and with two long interviews. Suffused with commitments to ecology, and to Buddhist modes of life, Snyder's prose also reveals a knack for moment-by-moment description, as he spends weeks mountaineering, or in the outback, or in a Zen temple. Snyder's poetics emerged from his knowledge of East Asian work, and from the ferment of '50s California. His poems can be as spare and abstract as a pair of brushstrokes, or as detail-packed as his diaries. Here "Huckleberries scatter through pine woods,/ Crowd along gullies, climb dusty cliffs"; there "Deer trails slide under freeways... And deer bound through my hair"; and everywhere clarity and immediacy link thought to fact, treeline to verse-line. Forty pages present Snyder's poetic translations, which include Bai Juyi's famous (in China) "Long Bitter Song." Snyder calls human beings to a responsible life as creatures among creatures, part of interwoven, vulnerable systems. His poems and prose together hope "to see what could be restored to the life today. A lot of it is/ simply in being aware of clouds and wind." (June) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Snyder, winner of the 1975 Pulitzer prize for poetry for Turtle Island, has gathered 46 years of writing into one massive volume, drawing on previously published as well as unpublished material. He includes poetry, essays, letters, journals from his travels, meditations, and notes that reflect the philosophical and cultural evolution of his thoughts--producing a collection that entertains, educates, and provokes. Snyder shares his interest in Eastern literature and culture, his love for the environment, and his views on humanity and society. A chronology of Snyder's life is helpful in placing his cycle of literary events within the context of his life. This comprehensive body of work has captured his spirit and intent. Recommended for larger public and academic libraries.--Cynde Bloom Lahey, New Canaan Lib., CT Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

A compendium of writing by the contemporary American poet, environmental activist, and Zen Buddhist. The poems represent all his stages from the Beat movement to recent achievements, including translations from Japanese and Chinese not published before. Among the prose selections are letters, travel journals, meditations on Buddhism, commentary on communal living, and notes from the lookout tower on Sourdough Mountain. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

James Campbell

The Gary Snyder Reader offers the opportunity to review the career of one of the most enduring poets of the Beat Generation—a career which, though it has produced much good poetry, seems retrospectively to have been kept on a short leash.
—From The Times Literary Supplement.