Full Description
The career of Eli Mandel (1922-1992) was one of the most prolific and distinguished in all of Canadian literature, yet in recent years his work has gone unsung compared with that of such peers as Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, Robert Kroetsch, Irving Layton, and P.K. Page. Though he was a critic, anthologist, and editor of national prominence, Mandel's legacy resides most securely in his poetry, which earned many accolades.
From Room to Room: The Poetry of Eli Mandel presents thirty-five of Mandel's best poems written over four decades, from the 1950s to the 1980s. The selection covers the most prominent themes in Mandel's work, including his Russian-Jewish heritage, his Saskatchewan upbringing, his interest in classical and biblical archetypes, and his concern for the political and social issues of his time. The book also highlights the way in which Mandel's work bridged the formal attributes of modernist poetry with contemporary, sometimes experimental, poetics.
Complete with a scholarly introduction by Peter Webb and a literary afterword by Andrew Stubbs, From Room to Room makes a worthy addition to the Laurier Poetry Series, which presents affordable editions of contemporary Canadian poetry for use in the classroom and the enjoyment of anyone wishing to read some of the finest poetry Canada has to offer.
Contents
From Room to Room: The Poetry of Eli Mandel, selected with an introduction by Peter Webb
Foreword Neil Besner
Biographical Note
Introduction Peter Webb
Minotaur Poems
Estevan Saskatchewan
The Fire Place
In the Caves of My City
City Park Merry-Go-Round
Doll on the Mantelpiece
Epilogue
Mary Midnight's Prologue
Charles Isaac Mandel
David
Hippolytus
The Meaning of the I CHING
Girl on a High Wire
Houdini
The Madness of Our Polity
The Speaking Earth
From the North Saskatchewan
Two Dream Songs for John Berryman
On the 25th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz
Room XV
On the Renewal of Bombing in VietNam December, 1972
Envoi
from Out of Place
the return
signs
doors of perception
near Hirsch a Jewish cemetery
STRIKE sept 1931
estevan, 1934
petroglyphs at st victor
the doppelganger
Pictures in an Institution
On the Murder of Salvador Allende
The Madwomen of the Plaza de Mayo
In My 57th Year
Zenith: Saving to Disk
Afterword Andrew Stubbs
Acknowledgements
