And to Each Season...

by Rod McKuen

Rod McKuen's most personal book of poetry.

Genres: Poetry

120 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1972

About the author

Rod McKuen (born April 29, 1933) was a bestselling American poet, composer, and singer, instrumental in the revitalization of popular poetry that took place in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Born Rodney Marvin McKuen in Oakland, California, McKuen ran away from home at the age of eleven to escape an alcoholic stepfather and to send what money he could to his mother. After a series of jobs, from logger, ranch hand, railroad worker to rodeo cowboy, throughout the west, McKuen began in the 1950s to excite audiences with his poetry readings, appearing with such well-known poets as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg; during this time, he often used the pseudonym "Dor".

McKuen moved to New York City in 1959 to compose and conduct for the TV show The CBS Workshop. By the 1960s he had achieved fame, far surpassing in sales the works of the Beat poets who preceded him. During the early 1960s he spent most of his time in France. This began his project to translate the work of legendary singer/songwriter Jacques Brel, into English. After Brel died he said, "As friends and as musical collaborators we had traveled, toured and written - together and apart - the events of our lives as if they were songs, and I guess they were. When news of Jacques’ death came I stayed locked in my bedroom and drank for a week. That kind of self pity was something he wouldn’t have approved of, but all I could do was replay our songs (our children) and ruminate over our unfinished life together."[1]

He became an icon across college campuses for his ability to capture in verse the feelings of anxiety, love, confusion, and hope that were common during the Vietnam era. His public readings had the drawing power of a rock concert.

McKuen's commercial success is unparalleled in the field of modern poetry. His poetic works have been translated into a dozen languages and sold over 65 million copies. Throughout his career he has continued to enjoy sell-out concerts around the world and appears regularly at New York’s famed Carnegie Hall.

Edward Habib's liner notes for McKuen's Amsterdam Concert album make the often-repeated claim that Rod McKuen is the best-selling and most widely read poet of all time. This claim is probably rooted in the fact that McKuen's works -- unlike those of Shakespeare or Dante Alighieri -- are copyrighted, and his total sales can be more readily quantified.

As a songwriter, he contributed to the sale of over 100 million records. His material has been recorded by such artists as Frank Sinatra (who in 1969 recorded A Man Alone, an album of McKuen's songs), Johnny Cash who (just before his death) recorded McKuen's "Love's Been Good To Me", Waylon Jennings, The London Philharmonic, Greta Keller, Perry Como, and Madonna. Perhaps his most well-known song is "Jean", recorded by Oliver in 1969 for the soundtrack to the film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. In 1959, McKuen released a novelty single on the Brunswick label called "The Mummy". Bob Mcfadden and Dor was listed as the artist.. In 1961, he had a hit single titled "Oliver Twist".. McKuen has proven to be a prolific songwriter, penning over 1500 songs. He collaborated with a variety of internationally renowned composers, including Henry Mancini and John Williams, and a highly successful series of albums with Anita Kerr. His symphonies, concertos, and other classical works have been performed by orchestras around the globe. His work as a composer in the film industry has garnered him two Academy Award nominations.

Throughout his multi-award-winning career, McKuen paired his artistic endeavors with a spirit for social reform. Before a tour of South Africa in the 1970s, McKuen demanded “mixed seating” among white and black concert-goers, opening the doors for successful tours by a variety of African-American performers, including Sammy Davis, Jr. and Ella Fitzgerald. He also spearheaded efforts to raise AIDS awareness and fund charities for children and senior

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the simplicity of the poems in this volume - like coffee with a friend on a rainy autumn day.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A much more personal collection, I have to say I'm a little sad that I'm out of poetry by McKuen to read.

[Helen Pugsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasnt for me. Not bad. Not great. Just okay.

[Chuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rod McKuen was a very well known recording artist of the late sixties and early seventies. He is also the most published poet of all time. I am the absolutly the last person that should be judging good or bad poetry. I will leave that to people much smarter than me. What I did take from this book was McKuen's attempt to take incidences from his life and personalize them in his own words. I found some very moving, particularly some surrounding his feelings about his mother {Mother's Day"}, there were others that I had no sense of, but most had glimpses and looks into his life that I felt that I had shared to some degree. In his forward he stated when speaking about his inner feelings; "This book is an attempt to free such a prisoner-or more than one-from mine.I am not sure that it suceeds. No one of us, I think, can name, let alone free, those demons-friendly or otherwise-that keep us from being the kind of men we'd like to be." An easy read, and a glimpse into the mind of the young people of the Viet Nam era.

[Joey · Rating 3 out of 5]

"When I Was Nine" was five star. The rest was average or less than.

[Bohemian Book Lover · Rating 1 out of 5]

*Author's Foreword was
*The only good part for me. My motivation to read this came from the quote by a Japanese poet found right at the beginning of the Foreword:
*"Every man keeps a prisoner groaning in his heart..." This book of mediocre & corny free-verse lyrics was an attempt to free
*Such a prisoner from the author's heart. There was a line or two here & there that stood out, but overall the poems didn't really "unlock" anything for me. Luckily it was short enough to scan read or I would've DNFed it. Safe to say I won't be picking up another book by Rod McKuen.

[Sarah Rigg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found McKuen in high school and read several of his collections available at the local library.

[mya · Rating 3 out of 5]

i dont usually read poetry but this was a really nice change of pace, it was really personal i liked it

[Maryjane Nordgren · Rating 4 out of 5]

some lines virate within me

[Suzanne Macdowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was so lucky to find now one but TWO volumes of his poetry at a used book store. It was like visiting an old and beloved 🧡

[Ollie Montgomery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honest poems but nothing special

[Kevin Braswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah, he's basically a soft blanket and warm tea on a cold day. Takes you to an orange and brown era. Like looking at a friend's doodles on the margin of their schoolwork.

[Denise Ballentine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm kind of nostalgic about Rod Mckuen, as I liked him when I was much younger. This collection though, seemed rather shallow and benign. Nothing here really gripped me. Pretty much surface poetry without depth. Really prefer Billy Collins, Emily Dickenson, Maxine Kumin...etc.

[Cameron Garrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

The poems didn’t really intrigue me until the end when he talked about his cats.

[Daniel Dunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the poems are great, as always, but this book ends with some awful stanzas about cats.