No Other Book: Selected Essays – Literary Criticism and Prose by Randall Jarrell, A Leading American Poet-Critic

by Randall Jarrell

Randall Jarrell was only fifty-one at the time of his death, in 1965, yet he created a body of work that secured his position as one of the century's leading American men of letters. Although he saw himself chiefly as a poet, publishing a number of books of poetry, he also left behind a sparkling comic novel, four children's books, numerous translations, haunting letters, and four collections of essays. Edited by Brad Leithauser, No Other Book draws from these four essay collections, reminding us that Jarell the poet was also, in the words of Robert Lowell, "a critic of genius."

Genres: Essays, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Nonfiction, Criticism, Literature, Books About Books

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Poems, published in collections such as Little Friend, Little Friend (1945), of American poet and critic Randall Jarrell concern war, loneliness, and art.

He wrote eight books of poetry, five anthologies, a novel, Pictures from an Institution . Maurice Sendak illustrated his four books for children, and he translated Faust: Part I and The Three Sisters , which the studio of actors performed on Broadway; he also translated two other works. He received the National Book Award for poetry in 1960, served as poet laureate at the Library of Congress in 1957 and 1958, and taught for many years at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. He joined as a member of the American institute of arts and letters.

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

You cannot do better than Randall Jarrell as your guide to all things literate -- especially in the category of poetry. Some sterling essays in this collection, especially on William Carlos Williams, Walt Whitman, and Robert Frost.

In addition to erudition, you get a sense of humor. For example:

* "The public has an unusual relationship to the poet: it doesn't even know that he is there."

* "Critics are like bees: one sting lasts longer than a dozen jars of honey."

* "We readers can be, or at least can want to be, what the writer himself would want us to be: a public that reads a lot -- that reads widely, joyfully, and naturally; a public whose taste is formed by acquaintance with the good and great writers of many ages, and not fashionable precursors of those; a public with broad general expectations, but without narrow particular demands, that the new work of art must satisfy ; a public that reads with the calm and ease and independence that come from liking things in themselves, for themselves."

* "The work of art, Rilke said, says to us always: You must change your life."

Poor Emily Dickinson. Her poems have appeared in multiple versions, depending on what meddling hand was involved, but Jarrell says, "Usually Emily Dickinson's own ways are better, even when there is a dash every second word and an exclamation point every third."

On Ivan Turgenev: "There are greater writers than Turgenev, better books than A Sportsman's Sketches, as long as we are not reading it; but for as long as we read, it is beyond comparison."

On Elizabeth Bishop: "Her Poems seems to me one of the best books an American poet has ever written: the people of the future (the ones in the corner) will read her just as they will read Dickinson or Whitman or Stevens, or the other classical American poets still alive among us."

On the Twentieth Century: "Most of us know, now, that Rousseau was wrong: that man, when you knock his chains off, sets up the death camps."

When all is said and read, you'll find yourself revisiting certain poets and poems for second (or tenth) looks. Why? Because Jarrell said to and, you said, if Virgil leads, I follow.

[Chris Via]

Required reading.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite part is this on the critic's voice in contemporary book reviews (the sort you'd find in the Partisan Review or, today, in the New Criterion and n+1):

"It is a style, a tone, that is hard to picture: if the two bears that ate the forty-two little children who said to Elisha, 'Go up, thou baldhead'—if they, after getting their Ph.D.'s from the University of Göttingen, had retired to Atta Troll's Castle and written a book called A Prolegomena to Every Future Criticism of Finnegans Wake, they might have written so."

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another amazing book of essays on American poetry ( and art) written by a poet/critic whom I had never heard of before reading Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell's letters. He was a friend and someone they both said they wrote their poetry for his critical eye. Upon his recommendation, I have revisited Robert Frost and found a much darker poet than his anthologies would have had me meet. I could turn to any page and find an example of a sentence to ponder for the rest of the day:

If Picasso limited himself in anything he would not be Picasso: he loves the world so much he wants to steal it and eat it.

Some writing is well worth the time, this book is full of it!

[David Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Books devoted to essays are especially good for intermittent reading. As with a box of chocolates, you can pick and choose as time permits. Such is the case with this volume. However, not being a fan of some of the poets he chose to write about, I cannot fairly say I can critique the book at large. But, I did enjoy those essays pertaining specifically to poetry. I should add that, like many Jarrell enthusiasts, I became interested in his poetry after reading that high-school English staple, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner.” Hope to get to more of these essays one day.

[Featherbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read a bit of this before returning to library. I think I have to buy this book when we get back from Burma. Jarrell is a smart, witty critic. From Poetry Foundation entry: Robert Lowell wrote in the New York Times Book Review that Jarrell was "almost brutally serious about literature." Lowell conceded that he was famed for his "murderous intuitive phrases," but defended Jarrell by asserting that he took "as much joy in rescuing the reputation of a sleeping good writer as in chloroforming a mediocre one."

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

reading jarrell makes me very sad that he died so unhappily. as another sad man said, 'i cannot get used to the idea that you do not exist.'

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

so much fun.