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Poets on Poetry
Selected Prose
"By the end of the book, Ashbery has laid out not only a course in contemporary poetics but a portrait of the artist teaching himself to become a thoroughly Modernist poet---in small bites, easy to savor, easy to digest."
--- Los Angeles Times Book Review
"This is a marvelous book by one of our greatest poets. Reading John Ashbery's Selected Prose is like listening to a brilliant talker who not only keeps us entertained and laughing, but who also has wise things to say about all sorts of interesting subjects."
--- Charles Simic
"At last! Many of the fugitive pieces collected in this volume---on Gertude Stein, on Frank O'Hara, on Marianne Moore or Adrienne Rich---published as many of them were in out-of-the way places, have already become collectors' items, providing fascinating---and often startling--- assessments of their subjects as well as new insight into Ashbery himself. Now here they are between two covers, along with many hitherto unknown pieces on subjects ranging from Michel Butor to Mary Butts, Jane Freilicher to Mark Ford. For anyone who cares about the contemporary poetry/art scene, this is an indispensable collection."
---Marjorie Perloff, Stanford University
Selected Prose contains a broad selection of texts by internationally acclaimed poet and critic John Ashbery. This third collection of Ashbery's critical writings dramatically expands the terrain covered by the first two, Reported Art Chronicles 1957-1987 and Other Traditions (first presented as the Norton Lectures at Harvard). These essays on writers, artists, filmmakers and the life of a poet provide insight into Ashbery's evolution as one of the major poets in English. Ashbery's criticism is as essential to the cultural history of the twentieth century as was that of T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden. His unique sensibility has had a profound impact on the literature and arts of our time, and his influence is certain to be felt for decades to come. Editor Eugene Richie's introduction provides a meaningful context for fifty years' worth of critical and creative prose by one of America's finest poets.
--- Los Angeles Times Book Review
"This is a marvelous book by one of our greatest poets. Reading John Ashbery's Selected Prose is like listening to a brilliant talker who not only keeps us entertained and laughing, but who also has wise things to say about all sorts of interesting subjects."
--- Charles Simic
"At last! Many of the fugitive pieces collected in this volume---on Gertude Stein, on Frank O'Hara, on Marianne Moore or Adrienne Rich---published as many of them were in out-of-the way places, have already become collectors' items, providing fascinating---and often startling--- assessments of their subjects as well as new insight into Ashbery himself. Now here they are between two covers, along with many hitherto unknown pieces on subjects ranging from Michel Butor to Mary Butts, Jane Freilicher to Mark Ford. For anyone who cares about the contemporary poetry/art scene, this is an indispensable collection."
---Marjorie Perloff, Stanford University
Selected Prose contains a broad selection of texts by internationally acclaimed poet and critic John Ashbery. This third collection of Ashbery's critical writings dramatically expands the terrain covered by the first two, Reported Art Chronicles 1957-1987 and Other Traditions (first presented as the Norton Lectures at Harvard). These essays on writers, artists, filmmakers and the life of a poet provide insight into Ashbery's evolution as one of the major poets in English. Ashbery's criticism is as essential to the cultural history of the twentieth century as was that of T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden. His unique sensibility has had a profound impact on the literature and arts of our time, and his influence is certain to be felt for decades to come. Editor Eugene Richie's introduction provides a meaningful context for fifty years' worth of critical and creative prose by one of America's finest poets.
- GenresPoetryNonfiction
336 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2004
70 people want to read
About the author
John Ashbery
290 books479 followersFormal experimentation and connection to visual art of noted American poet John Ashbery of the original writers of New York School won a Pulitzer Prize for
Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror
(1975).
From Harvard and Columbia, John Ashbery earned degrees, and he traveled of James William Fulbright to France in 1955. He published more than twenty best known collections, most recently A Worldly Country (2007). Wystan Hugh Auden selected early Some Trees for the younger series of Elihu Yale, and he later obtained the major national book award and the critics circle. He served as executive editor of Art News and as the critic for magazine and Newsweek. A member of the academies of letters and sciences, he served as chancellor from 1988 to 1999. He received many awards internationally and fellowships of John Simon Guggenheim and John Donald MacArthur from 1985 to 1990. People translated his work into more than twenty languages. He lived and from 1990 served as the Charles P. Stevenson Jr. professor of languages and literature at Bard college.
From Harvard and Columbia, John Ashbery earned degrees, and he traveled of James William Fulbright to France in 1955. He published more than twenty best known collections, most recently A Worldly Country (2007). Wystan Hugh Auden selected early Some Trees for the younger series of Elihu Yale, and he later obtained the major national book award and the critics circle. He served as executive editor of Art News and as the critic for magazine and Newsweek. A member of the academies of letters and sciences, he served as chancellor from 1988 to 1999. He received many awards internationally and fellowships of John Simon Guggenheim and John Donald MacArthur from 1985 to 1990. People translated his work into more than twenty languages. He lived and from 1990 served as the Charles P. Stevenson Jr. professor of languages and literature at Bard college.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 7, 2014
I just love JA's attitude towards just about everything ...
January 29, 2024
Not really a review of the book, but me riffing off on it. You can read it here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/tosh/p/...
https://open.substack.com/pub/tosh/p/...
January 7, 2009
Ashbery reflection on poets and artists who have influenced him. It's a fascinating book, especially if you're a fan on John.
April 26, 2018
I like how through reading this plus the biography, he seems to continuously find so-and-so to be "difficult."
I also like how just a few of his greatest literary loves continue throughout his life, mainly Roussel and Auden, that you can see him turning back to throughout all his writings. It seems that early Auden was not so conservative, and Roussel wrote 60 pages describing the image /logo on a water bottle?
I also like how just a few of his greatest literary loves continue throughout his life, mainly Roussel and Auden, that you can see him turning back to throughout all his writings. It seems that early Auden was not so conservative, and Roussel wrote 60 pages describing the image /logo on a water bottle?
February 9, 2017
Just read the pieces on Marianne Moore, Out One, Fantomas, and The Seventh Victim... but they were all phenomenal.
September 24, 2016
For a collection of articles written over the decades, this is chock full of insightful pieces that still feel ageless. Ashbery's critical prose is sharp, funny, and surprisingly commonsensical. Revelatory essays on Pierre Reverdy, Marianne Moore, Raymond Roussel, Elizabeth Bishop, Giorgio de Chirico, Jacques Rivette, Val Lewton's "The Seventh Victim" -- plus his New York School peers Frank O'Hara, Joe Brainard, and James Schuyler. Recommended.
February 11, 2008
Collected essays, prefaces, intros...some repetition that seems obvious, but nevetheless very enjoyable.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews