The Ivory Thought: Essays on Al PurdyUniversity of Ottawa Press, 2008 M02 28 - 282 pages If one poet can be said to be the Canadian poet, that poet is Al Purdy (1918–2000). Numerous eminent scholars and writers have attested to this pre-eminent status. George Bowering described him as “the world’s most Canadian poet” (1970), while Sam Solecki titled his book-length study of Purdy The Last Canadian Poet (1999). In The Ivory Thought: Essays on Al Purdy, a group of seventeen scholars, critics, writers, and educators appraise and reappraise Purdy’s contribution to English literature. They explore Purdy’s continuing significance to contemporary writers; the life he dedicated to literature and the persona he crafted; the influences acting on his development as a poet; the ongoing scholarly projects of editing and publishing his writing; particular poems and individual books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction; and the larger themes in his work, such as the Canadian North and the predominant importance of place. In addition, two contemporary poets pay tribute with original poems. |
Contents
1 | |
9 | |
13 | |
LAC Alfred W Purdy | 31 |
Ivory Thots and the Last Romantic | 51 |
Purdy among the Tombs | 63 |
Editing Purdy Purdy Editing | 71 |
Al Purdys Hiroshima Poems | 91 |
Al Purdys Rhetoric of Failure | 159 |
Song and Silence in Al Purdys Family Elegies | 173 |
Purdys Reliquary Poetics | 191 |
On Trying to Wear Als Shirts | 213 |
Reflections on a Dynamic Collaboration | 221 |
Al Purdy Sam Solecki and Canadian Tradition | 227 |
Conclusion Retrospective and Prospective | 239 |
247 | |
Other editions - View all
The Ivory Thought: Essays on Al Purdy Gerald Lynch,Shoshannah Ganz,Josephene Kealey Limited preview - 2008 |