Password: places, poems, preoccupations.

by Alastair Reid

238 pages

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Alastair Reid was a Scottish poet, translator, essayist, and scholar of Latin American literature. He joined the staff of The New Yorker in 1959 and translated works by Pablo Neruda and Jorge Luis Borges. Although he was known for translations, his own poems gained notice during his lifetime. He had lived in Spain, Switzerland, Greece, Morocco, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and in the United States.

Among his many books for children are A Balloon for a Blunderbuss, I Keep Changing, and Millionaires (all illustrated by Bob Gill), and Supposing (illustrated by Abe Birnbaum). In 2008 he published two career-spanning collections of work, Inside Out: Selected Poetry and Translations and Outside In: Selected Prose.

Reviews

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poetry & prose collection on the general theme of foreigness and language. As this book was published in 1964 the essays on Spain were written in 1960/1 so not only ae they an interesting discussion on Spain and the Spanish characters (including a brief sojourn into Gibralter) it is also a snapshot in time when Franco was in power. Reid's love of languag is in evidence throughout. The essays of 'The World of Q' and especially 'The World of Z' - the latecomer to the alphabet are a delight. The longer piece of prose on the Tour de France & the gypsies do not seem to work s well perhaps because this poet's gift is the distillation of ideas, feelings and time.