Most Popular Books by James Dickey

“You''re hooked, you feel every cut, grope up every cliff, swallow water with every spill of the canoe, sweat with every draw of the bowstring. Wholly absorbing [and] dramatic.”—Harper''s Magazine The setting is the Georgia wilderness, where the states most remote white-water river awaits. In the thundering froth of that river, in its echoing stone canyons, four men on a canoe trip discover a freedom and exhilaration beyond compare. And then, in a moment of horror, the adventure turns into a struggle for survival as one man becomes a human hunter who is offered his own harrowing deliverance. Praise for Deliverance “Once read, never forgotten.”—Newport News Daily Press “A tour de force . . . How a man acts when shot by an arrow, what it feels like to scale a cliff or to capsize, the ironic psychology of fear: these things are conveyed with remarkable descriptive writing.”—The New Republic “Freshly and intensely alive . . . with questions that haunt modern urban man.”—Southern Review “A fine and honest book that hits the reader''s mind with the sting of a baseball just caught in the hand.”—The Nation “[James Dickey''s] language has descriptive power not often matched in contemporary American writing.”—Time “A harrowing trip few readers will forget.”—Asheville Citizen-Times "A novel that will curl your toes . . . Dickey''s canoe rides to the limits of dramatic tension."—New York Times Book Review "A brilliant and breathtaking adventure."—The New Yorker

Although the notebooks identify the influence of writers such as George Barker, Hart Crane, and Dylan Thomas, they primarily present a man endeavoring to chart his own artistic course or destination.

Classic poems from a famous American poet This volume represents, under one cover, the major work of the man whom critics and readers have designated the authentic poet of his American generation. For this collection, James Dickey has selected from his four published books all those poems that reflect his truest interests and his growth as an artist. He has added more than a score of new poems—in effect, a new book in themselves—that have not previously been published in volume form. Specifically, Poems 1957-1967 contains 15 of the 24 poems that were included in his first book, Into the Stone (1960); 25 of the 36 that made up Drowning With Others (1962); 22 of the 24 in Helmets (1964); the entire 22 in the National Book Award winner Buckdancer''s Choice (1965); and, under the titles Sermon and Falling, the exciting new poems mentioned above. Seldom can the word "great" be used of the work of a contemporary in any art. But surely it applies to the poems of James Dickey.

Direct and dramatic poems point out the contrasts and agonied of this amoral age.

Presents the tale of an American pilot shot down during the firebombing raid on Tokyo near the end of World War II, whose escape becomes a violent journey of self-exploration.

James Dickey: The Selected Poems is the first book to collect James Dickey''s very best poems. Like many visionary poets of the ecstatic imagination, Dickey experimented in a wide variety of literary styles. This volume brings together the finest work from each of the periods in Dickey''s extremely controversial career. For over three decades, until his death in 1997, Dickey was one of the nation''s most important poets; these are the poems that brought him a popular readership and critical acclaim.

"In The One Voice of James Dickey, Gordon Van Ness skillfully documents James Dickey''s growth from a callow teen interested primarily in sports to a mature poet who possessed literary genius and who deliberately advanced himself and his career. The letters from 1942 through 1969 depict Dickey gradually establishing a self-identity, deciding to write, struggling to determine a subject matter and style, working determinedly to gain initial recognition, and eventually seeking out the literary establishment to promote himself and his views on poetry. The letters also portray a complex personality with broad interests, acute intelligence, and heightened imagination as well as a deep need to re-create his past and assume various roles in the present." "From Dickey''s extensive correspondence, Van Ness has selected not only those letters that best reveal the chronological development of Dickey''s career and his conscious efforts to chart its course, but also those that portray his other interests and depict the various features of his personality. The letters are grouped by decade, with each period placed in perspective by a critical introduction. The introductory sections offer a psychological understanding of Dickey''s personality by identifying the needs and fears that affected his actions. They also explain the American literary and cultural scene that Dickey confronted as he matured. Together, the letters and commentary yield a sense of Dickey''s complex personality - both the man as a writer and the writer as a man - while arguing that he remained "one voice."" "Because how a writer writes - the appearance of a writer''s words on a page - makes a statement, the letters are reproduced here without alterations. There are no silent deletions or revisions; the original spelling and punctuation have been preserved. Dickey''s letters gathered in The One Voice of James Dickey portray a poet''s consciousness, chronicling its growth and revealing its breadth. They do not contain the whole truth, but they are what we have."--Jacket.

For over three decades, James Dickey has been one of the nation''s most important poets and a prominent man of letters. The Whole Motion collects his poetic oeuvre into a single volume: 235 poems from his first book, Into the Stone (1960), to The Eagle''s Mile (1990), along with previously uncollected poems and unpublished "apprentice" works.

Poems that marked a new direction for a master poet

Over 400 letters that are as entertaining as they are erudite, revealing the fierce and complicated intellect of one of the most popular American poets and novelists of the 20th century. Written between 1943 and Dickey''s death in 1997, most of them deal with literature, particularly poetry; the recipients include Robert Penn Warren, Ezra Pound, William Styron, Richard Wilbur, Stanley Burnshaw, Theodore Roethke, James Wright, John Berryman, Andrew Lytle, Denise Levertov, Peter Viereck, Philip Booth, Anne Sexton. Of particular interest are the apprenticeship letters in which the young poet develops contacts and shapes a career; and the late period in which the ailing man of letters confronts his guilt and debilitation as well as various family tragedies.

The acclaimed poet''s reflections on fifty-three Old and New Testament passages are accompanied by Marvin Hayes'' distinctive etchings.

The title poem was composed for President Carter''s 1976 inauguration ceremony. Thirty other poems are included.

In Self-Interviews, James Dickey speaks thoughtfully and with candor of his life as a poet. He recalls how poetry came to be his career, tracing its growing importance in his life from his youth in Georgia through his years overseas with the Air Force, as a student at Vanderbilt, as a teacher, and as a successful advertising executive. He also tells of how he reworked the life around him into poetry, of the fleeting impressions and lingering thoughts that were the seeds of some of his finest poems, including “Cherrylog Road,” “The Lifeguard,” “The Fiend,” and “Falling.” Following only a rough outline, Dickey recorded these spontaneous monologues in June, 1968, not long after the publication of his Poems, 1957–1967, which collected the work from his first five books. These musings, then, date from what was in many ways a natural vantage point on his artistic development, a moment ripe for recollection and analysis. Dickey uses the occasion not only to look back on his career but also to consider his preferences and goals as a poet. “I would like to be able to write a poetry,” he reveals, “that would have something for every level of mind, something that would be accessible to a child and would also give college professors and professional critics something, maybe something they haven’t had much of recently, or indeed ever.” This book is not so much the autobiography of a poet as it is the biography of a poet’s work. Unique and revealing, Self-Interviews is an intimate profile of a decade in the art of one of America’s finest poets.

Published to coincide with his son Christopher Dickey''s memoir, "Summer of Deliverance, " this collection of poems and prose distill''s James Dickey''s tremendous talent and influence, and sheds light on his remarkable career.

This collection includes a foreword by poet Richard Howard, president of the PEN American Center and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his 1969 collection, Untitled Subjects.

James Dickey''s creativity as a poet is well known. But there have been few opportunities for his readers to become familiar with the full dimensions of his mind, with the thoughts and perceptions that lie just outside the matter of his poetry. Sorties brings together the contents of a journal kept by Dickey for several years and six discerning essays on poetry and the creative process. The journal follows Dickey''s mind as it alights on a wide array of topics, ranging from the work of his colleagues to the plotting of a new novel, from the onset of old age to pride over accomplishments in archery and guitar playing. Dickey can be blunt in his opinions, as when he states that "a second-rate writer like Norman Mailer will sit around wondering what on earth it is that Hemingway had that Mailer might possibly be able to get." But the journal also reveals a great capacity for sympathy, as when Dickey tells of his father''s long illness, and a revealing candor--"I am Lewis," he writes of his novel Deliverance, "every word is true." The journal is at its most revealing, however, when Dickey discusses the craft of poetry. "It is good for a poet to remember," he writes, "that the human mind, though in some ways very complicated, is in some others very simple." This awareness that poetry must understand the simplicities of human existence is a recurring concern for Dickey, and he writes with disdain of the "brilliant things" that too often clog poetry, the stale self-absorption that warps the perceptions of many poets. In the essays that make up the second part of the book, Dickey also focuses on poetry, exploring the relation of the poet to his works, the promise of a younger generation of poets, and the place of Theodore Roethke as the greatest American poet. Wide-ranging and acute, Sorties opens up for the reader the discriminating mind that lies behind some of the most accomplished and memorable poetry written in America in this century.

A child hunts the animals of the world with a pop gun and the snare of his imagination.

A portrait of blind Frank Cahill''s encounter with the truth about the son he has never met, and about himself.

For the person who questions life in the world of the twenty-first century and who struggles within themselves, this book named Excelsior sheds new light. More than an extended autobiography, this writing by E. James Dickey provides insight into everyday issues that can be found within the spiritual roots of our lives. In essence, Excelsior transforms life from the negative to the positive in a way that is helpful, meaningful, and joyous!

NEED INSPIRATION? The answer may be found in the labor of love The Amazing Power of The Holy Spirit by E. James Dickey! This power-packed writing promises new insights and inspiration to all who are in need of spiritual sustenance today. It is full of examples, stories, scriptural references, and for the deep thinker, strong theological proclamations. These pages on The Amazing Power of the Holy Spirit promise new insights and inspiration to all who love the written word, especially in relation to the critical need of spirituality today.

Housman, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Robert Frost, Walter de la Mare, and Robert Bridges.

Poems deal with love, death, nature, travel, childhood, the nature of poetry, alienation, sickness, and hope