{"product_id":"9781466808003","title":"The Freedom of the Poet","description":"\u003cp\u003eLess than a year before his death in 1972, John Berryman signed a contract with his publisher for a book of prose, \u003ci\u003eThe Freedom of the Poet\u003c\/i\u003e, for which he had made a selection from his published and unpublished writings.  In his draft of a prefatory note, he acknowledged the influence of Eliot, Blackmur, Pound, and Empson on his critical thought, pointing out that \"my interest in critical \u003ci\u003etheory\u003c\/i\u003e has been slight,\" and concluding: \"But I have also borne in mind throughout: remarks by Franz Kafka ('the story came out of me like a real birth, covered with slime and blood') and Joseph Conrad: 'All the great creations of literature have been symbolic, and in that way have gained in complexity, in power, in depth and in beauty.'\"  \u003cbr\u003eThere are thirty-six pieces in all, including not only such justly famous writings on Elizabethan figures as \"Shakespeare at Thirty\" and \"Thomas Nashe and \u003ci\u003eThe Unfortunate Traveller\u003c\/i\u003e\" but also \"Shakespeare's Last Word\" and \"Marlowe's Damnations,\" published for the first time; essays on American writers like Dreiser, Crane, James, Lardner, Fitzgerald, and Bellow, and on poets like Hardy, Pound, Ransom, Eliot, Thomas, Lowell, and Williams; unpublished essays on Cervantes, Whitman's \"Song of Myself,\" Conrad, and Anne Frank; \"Thursday Out,\" an account of a trip to India, and stories, published and unpublished, including \"Wash Far Away,\" \"The Lovers,\" \"All Their Colours Exiled,\" and \"The Imaginary Jew.\"\u003cbr\u003eThe poet's \"freedom\" in Berryman's definition is not license but escape, release--even death.  The title piece--the second part of his essay on \u003ci\u003eThe Tempest\u003c\/i\u003e--confirms this with his statement about Prospero: \"This longing--for release, for freedom--...is neither disillusioned nor frightening.  It is radiant and desirous.\"\u003cbr\u003eThis final book which John Berryman himself prepared exhibits his erudition and scholarship, his critical insight and empathy, and a first-rate poet's powerful prose.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Farrar, Straus and Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47166636523760,"sku":"9781466808003","price":7.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781466808003_p0.jpg?v=1769890881","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781466808003","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}