Summary
Its success was something no one before had ever known. The Spartacus Road is the route along which this rebel army outfought the world's finest military forces between 73and 71 BC, bringing both fears and hopes that have never wholly left the modern mind.
Sweepingly erudite and strikingly personal, The Spartacus Road is a book like none other--at once a journalist's notebook, a reflection on life's fragility, including the author's own fight against cancer; and a classicist's celebration. As he travels along the Spartacus Road and into the classical Italian landscape, Stothard breathes new life into a singular war in antiquity, recounting one of the greatest stories of the ages.
Author Notes
Elizabeth Hun Schmidt , a former poetry editor at the New York Times Book Review, is the editor of the acclaimed anthology Poems of New York and The Poets Laureate Anthology. She lives in New York City and currently teaches American literature at Sarah Lawrence College.
Elizabeth Hun Schmidt , a former poetry editor at the New York Times Book Review, is the editor of the acclaimed anthology Poems of New York and The Poets Laureate Anthology. She lives in New York City and currently teaches American literature at Sarah Lawrence College.
Billy Collins was the Poet Laureate of the United States and the State of New York. He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College and a Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute. A Literary Lion of the New York Public Library and author of many collections of poetry, including Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds and Horoscopes for the Dead, he lives in Westchester, New York.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The United States has a long tradition of choosing a national poet, though the term poet laureate only came to be used here after 1985. Before that, since its inception in 1935, the post was called consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress. So far we've had 43 of them, including some of America's most famous and best-loved poets, such as Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and, of course, Billy Collins, perhaps the most popular poet to hold the title (2001-2003), and also the author of the foreword to this enjoyable anthology, which offers a sampling of work from all 43 laureates, plus short introductions about each one. Former New York Times Book Review poetry editor Schmidt calls the laureates "the gatekeepers of the American idiom," and above all, that's what a reader will find here: a good sampling of what the mainstream of American poetry has to offer-the careful descriptions of Bishop, the powerful critiques of Brooks, the surreal landscapes of Simic, Merwin's deep images, Bogan's careful stanzas, Lowell's blustery lines. There are a few occasional poems, but mostly, it's a gathering of great poets hanging together because they held an important job. This will be a wonderful holiday gift for poetry lovers. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Guardian Review
So keen was the Library of Congress not to ape its former colonial masters when it decided to appoint an American national poet in 1937, that it couldn't bring itself to use the "L" word. The post was called "consultant in poetry" and it wasn't until nearly 50 years later, in 1986, that Robert Penn Warren became "poet laureate consultant in poetry", although he also made clear that he was no "hired applauder" and would not be writing "odes on the death of the president's cat". It has proved a sound model and its willingness to appoint women and absence of butts of sack have all now been incorporated into the UK version. Elizabeth Hun Schmidt's reverse chronology - from current laureate WS Merwin back to Joseph Auslander in 1937 - provides a comprehensive overview via generous biographical introductions to, and selections of poetry from, the 43 holders of the post including Lowell, Bishop, William Carlos Williams, Frost, Brodsky and, proving there are no hard feelings towards the old country, Stephen Spender. Some have chosen to engage with the public world - Gwendolyn Brooks's pool hall losers, William Stafford's Vietnam era injunction to his government "never to kill and call it fate" - but most have used the post to boost poetry to an often uncomprehending wider world. As Billy Collins (laureate 2001-03) illustrates in his lively foreword, when he recalls a question asked after a high school reading: "How many people would have to die for you to become president?" Nicholas Wroe - Nicholas Wroe So keen was the Library of Congress not to ape its former colonial masters when it decided to appoint an American national poet in 1937, that it couldn't bring itself to use the "L" word. - Nicholas Wroe.
Booklist Review
What does the U.S. poet laureate do? Billy Collins describes the open-to-interpretation position as he knew it in his witty foreword to this unique anthology. Editor Schmidt provides a more systematic overview in her introduction to this highly pleasurable and wonderfully informative collection of poems by the 43 poets appointed to the only official job in the arts in the United States, one fraught with ironies as poets balk at being a servant to any entity other than the muse. Schmidt begins in 2010 with Kay Ryan and travels back to Joseph Auslander, the first consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress, as it was known when Archibald MacLeish, a poet and FDR's Librarian of Congress, established the post in 1937. Schmidt succinctly profiles each poet, while the nearly 500 poems map a great republic of the imagination. There's Stanley Kunitz's elegy to a whale and Elizabeth Bishop's portrait of a sandpiper. Allen Tate, Karl Shapiro, and Robert Lowell remember fallen soldiers, and Robert Pinsky considers memory. A generous, glimmering book that will enrich every poetry shelf.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist
Choice Review
With a foreword by poet laureate Billy Collins (an amusing piece downplaying the honor, noting that it is conferred with little ceremony and entails few official duties), this anthology collects work from poets who have been named poet laureate of the US--and therein lies its interest. Whereas others have gathered poets who have influenced poetry through stylistic and theoretical innovation, e.g., avant-garde poets, Schmidt (Sarah Lawrence College) presents those the Library of Congress has seen as representative of American letters. Most are still remembered as significant figures. The presence of Robert Frost, Rita Dove, W. S. Merwin, Robert Lowell, Mark Strand, Anthony Hecht, and others shows that the establishment gives its imprimatur to high-quality, relatively formal, fairly intelligible verse--poetry that engages with identifiably American themes. Aside from its cultural interest as an account of government's uneasy relationship with a reputedly esoteric art form, this book recalls some good poets who ended up on the wrong side of literary or critical fashion. This is a worthy, if not indispensable, compendium. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. R. K. Mookerjee Eugene Lang College, The New School for the Liberal Arts
Library Journal Review
"Be careful what you say to us now./ The street-lamp is smashed, the window is jagged,/ There is a man dead in his blood by the base of the fountain./ If you speak/ You cannot be delicate or sad or clever." With these lines, Josephine Jacobsen reminds readers that despite all the hardship in the world, poetry is there to report. With this sweeping behemoth of an anthology, Norton and the Library of Congress have given readers and libraries an excellent excuse to own another book. Schmidt, former poetry editor for the New York Times Book Review, has included all of the Poet Laureate Consultants (commonly known as U.S. Poet Laureates) from Joseph Auslander (1937-41) to Kay Ryan (2007-10). Even newly named Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin is included because he served as Special Bicentennial Consultant with Rita Dove and Louise Gl ck (1999-2000). Schmidt gives readers a fine selection of poems for each poet, some expected and some surprises. In addition, she includes introductions that place poets in social and literary context and elaborates their contributions to the office of Consultant. For example, William Carlos Williams's term was mired in Communist controversy and health problems, and while appointed, he never served. Verdict A hefty and worthy read that everyone will want to savor. Essential for all contemporary poetry collections.-Karla Huston, Appleton Arts Ctr., WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
