Literature 2011 press.princeton.edu 3 writers on writers • 4 american literature & studies • 7 20/21 • 8 british literature • 10 comparative literature • 12 oddly modern fairy tales • 13 soren kierkegaard • 14 c. g. jung • 16 translation/transnation • 18 asian studies • 20 poetry • 26 w. h. auden • 27 film • 28 biography • 29 of related interest • 32 music • 33 index/order form New New Create Dangerously Michelangelo the immigrant Artist at Work A Life on Paper Edwidge Danticat Leonard Barkan “Danticat’s tender new “Leonard Barkan’s book about loss and evocative Michel- the unquenchable angelo: A Life on passion for homeland Paper limns the makes us remember the mysteries of ex- powerful material from pression in the so- which most fiction is called hieroglyphs wrought: it comes from of michelangelo childhood, and place. no and traces, with matter her geographic Barkan’s charac- and temporal distance teristic brilliance, from these, Danticat writes about them with the how word and image overlay, interplay, consort, immediacy of love.” and ultimately compose the solitary artist’s —Amy Wilentz, New York Times Book Review signature language.” —Brenda Wineapple, author of White Heat: The Edwidge Danticat was born in haiti. She is the au- Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Went- thor of two novels, two collections of stories, two worth Higginson books for young adults, and two nonfiction books. Leonard Barkan is the class of 1943 University The Toni Morrison Lecture Series Professor of comparative Literature at Princeton 2010. 208 pages. cl: 978-0-691-14018-6 $19.95 | £13.95 University. 2010. 384 pages. 165 color illus. 40 halftones. 3 line illus. cl: 978-0-691-14766-6 $49.50 | £34.95 Forthcoming The Joy of Secularism 11 Essays for how We Live now Edited by George Levine “this thoughtful and thought-provoking collection avoids complacency and includes many voices, some of them warning against the perils of enchant- ment, secular or religious. it draws on poetry, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and primate studies to consider again the place of the human and the possibili- ties of meaning.” —gillian Beer, author of Darwin’s Plots george Levine is professor emeritus of English at rutgers University and the founder and former director of the rutgers center for cultural Analysis. may 2011. 272 pages. 3 halftones. cl: 978-0-691-14910-3 $35.00 | £24.95 New New The Princeton Reader Great Books, Bad Arguments contemporary Essays by Writers and Republic, Leviathan, and Journalists at Princeton University The Communist Manifesto Edited by John McPhee & Carol Rigolot W. G. Runciman “this is an extremely “Why have Plato’s Repub- valuable collection of lic, hobbes’s Leviathan, some of the best writing and marx’s Communist in the field of journalism.” Manifesto retained —charlotte grimes, their enduring appeal, Syracuse University despite their often wildly implausible assumptions From a Swedish about human motivation hotel made of ice to and political action? no the enigma of UFos, one is more qualified from a tragedy on Lake to answer this question minnetonka to the gold than Britain’s most eminent sociologist cum mine of cyberpornography, The Princeton Reader philosopher and historian, garry runciman.” brings together more than 90 favorite essays by —gareth Stedman Jones, King’s college, Univer- 75 distinguished writers. this collection of nonfic- sity of cambridge tion pieces by journalists who have held the Fer- ris/mcgraw/robbins professorships at Princeton W. g. runciman is a fellow of trinity college, University offers a feast of ideas, emotions, and University of cambridge. experiences—political and personal, light-heart- 2010. 144 pages. ed and comic, serious and controversial—for cl: 978-0-691-14476-4 $19.95 | £13.95 anyone to dip into, contemplate, and enjoy. John mcPhee’s many books include Annals of New the Former World, for which he was awarded the Not for Profit Pulitzer Prize in 1999. carol rigolot is executive Why Democracy needs the humanities director of the humanities council at Princeton Martha C. Nussbaum University. 2011. 408 pages. 1 halftone. “nussbaum . brings Pa: 978-0-691-14308-8 $35.00 | £24.95 to this perennial [edu- cl: 978-0-691-14307-1 $90.00 | £62.00 cation] debate an im- passioned urgency . Also edited by John McPhee & and broad erudition. Carol Rigolot nussbaum’s defense With a preface by John mcPhee of this worthy cause is The Princeton Anthology of Writing deeply learned.” —mick Sussman, New Favorite Pieces by the Ferris/mcgraw York Times Book Review Writers at Princeton University martha c. nussbaum is “this is a significant collection of first-rate factual the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor writing, and a valuable contribution to the liter- of Law and Ethics in the Philosophy Department, ary scene.” Law School, and Divinity School at the University —Virginia Quarterly of chicago. 2001. 388 pages. Pa: 978-0-691-08681-1 $35.00 The Public Square For sale only in the United States, Canada, and the Philippines 2010. 184 pages. cl: 978-0-691-14064-3 $22.95 | £15.95 press.princeton.edu featured books • 1 books by andrei codrescu Andrei codrescu is an award-winning poet, novelist, essayist, and nPr commentator. he edits the online journal Exquisite Corpse and taught literature and creative writing at Louisiana State University for twenty-five years before retiring in 2009 as the maccurdy Distinguished Professor of English. New Forthcoming The Poetry Lesson Whatever Gets You through Andrei Codrescu the Night A Story of Sheherezade and the “Andrei codrescu’s new book is a small comic Arabian Entertainments masterpiece. it is so funny that i laughed out Andrei Codrescu loud as i was turning the pages. the account of the first poetry writing class of the semester is as “Like a supercomputer concealed inside an accurate as it is surreal. What makes the writing exotic, aphrodisiac fruit, codrescu’s retelling so delightful is the juxtaposition of student rep- of this ancient bawdy wonderwork ends up by artee and the professor’s jaundiced—but never surprisingly calculating the future of our race.” predictable—response.” —tom robbins, author of Even Cowgirls Get —marjorie Perloff, author of The Vienna Paradox: the Blues A Memoir “this extraordinary rewriting of the Arabian “The Poetry Lesson is a gem—a consistently Nights is a tour de force. Andrei codrescu writes engaging and entertainingly rambling meditation with verve, eloquence, and a fervent imagination.” on teaching and poetry that is filled with Andrei —Jack Zipes, adapter of the Signet classics codrescu’s quicksilver mental responses.” Arabian Nights —Phillip Lopate, author of Notes on Sontag Whatever Gets You through the Night is an irrever- The Poetry Lesson is a hilarious account of the ent and deeply funny retelling of the Arabian first day of a creative writing course taught by a Nights and a wildly inspired exploration of the “typical fin-de-siècle salaried beatnik”—one with timeless art of storytelling. an antic imagination, an outsized personality and June 2011. 232 pages. libido, and an endless store of entertaining literary cl: 978-0-691-14337-8 $24.95 | £16.95 anecdotes, reliable or otherwise. neither a novel nor a memoir but mimicking aspects of each, The The Posthuman Dada Guide Poetry Lesson is pure Andrei codrescu: irreverent, tzara and lenin play chess unconventional, brilliant, and always funny. Andrei Codrescu 2010. 128 pages. 1 line illus. cl: 978-0-691-14724-6 $19.95 | £13.95 The Public Square 2009. 248 pages. Pa: 978-0-691-13778-0 $16.95 | £11.95 to receive notices about new books, subscribe for email at press.princeton.edu/subscribe 2 • featured books Forthcoming PaperbacK—SEconD EDition Winner of the 1996 Prix du rayonnement de la langue et de la littérature françaises, Académie française Clear and Simple as the Truth Writing classic Prose Francis-Noël Thomas & Mark Turner “could well be the most important discussion of style since the great classical rhetoricians.” —Wayne c. Booth, University of chicago Francis-nöel thomas is professor emeritus of humanities at truman college, city colleges of chicago. mark turner is institute Professor and professor of cognitive science at case Western reserve University. April 2011. 240 pages. 1 line illus. Pa: 978-0-691-14743-7 $19.95 | £13.95 writers on writers Writers on Writers is a series of brief, personal, and creative books in which leading contemporary writers take the measure of other important writers (past or present) who have inspired, influenced, fascinated, or troubled them in significant ways.t hese books illuminate the complex and sometimes fraught relation- ships between writers, while also revealing the close ties between creative and critical writing. New On Whitman C. K. Williams “in On Whitman, Williams takes an ap- proach that’s more innovative than it sounds: he keeps his focus on the poems. he wants to strip away the heavy theoriz- ing and layers of biography that have accrued around his fellow poet. Williams’s aim is to restore the strangeness and power he encountered when, at age 16, he one of Choice’s outstanding Academic titles for 2009 made a Whitman anthology his first poetry purchase. ‘For a young poet, reading Notes on Sontag Whitman is sheer revelation, sheer wonder, Phillip Lopate a delight bordering on then plunging into disbelief. how could all “Lopate has produced an ab- this come to pass?’ his slender book offers a convincing answer.” solute gem of a book. in places —Jeremy mccarter, Newsweek personal (he knew Sontag for Beautifully written and rich with insight, this is a book that many years), but more often refreshes our ability to see Whitman in all his power. focused on the work itself— essays, fiction, films, reviews— c. K. Williams has won the Pulitzer Prize, the national Book Award, this book stands as the best the national Book critics circle Award, and the ruth Lilly Poetry appreciation of Sontag in print Prize.