Winter Hours by Mary Oliver

Winter Hours by Mary Oliver

"On the subject of writing poetry, Oliver is the most enlightened and enlightening author I have read." -Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times

From the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award comes Winter Hours, Mary Oliver's most personal book yet. And never more so than in this extraordinary and engaging gathering of nine essays, a work of reflective memoir accompanied by a brief selection of new prose poems and poems.

With the grace and precision that have won her legions of admirers, Oliver talks here of turtle eggs and housebuilding, of her surprise at an unexpected whistling she hears, of the "thousand unbreakable links between each of us and everything else." She talks of her own poems and, in a series of brilliant literary essays, of some of her favorite poets: Poe, writing of "our inescapable destiny," Frost and his ability to convey at once that "everything is all right, and everything is not all right," the "unmistakably joyful" Hopkins, and Whitman, seeking through his poetry "the replication of a miracle." And Oliver offers us a glimpse as well of her "private and natural self--something that must in the future be taken into consideration by any who would claim to know me."

In prose as precise and graceful as her poetry, Oliver invites readers to consider:

• The Writer's Craft: A look inside the poet's workshop, from the strange labor of sitting still to the joyous act of building a house with salvaged wood.
• Profound Nature Writing: Meditations on the wildness of the world, from the secret life of turtles to the "thousand unbreakable links" that connect us to everything.
• Essays on the Masters: Illuminating studies of the poets who shaped her, including the inescapable destinies of Poe, the quiet distress of Frost, and the joyful praise of Hopkins.
• A Private Self: Oliver's most personal work, offering a rare glimpse into the "private and natural self" behind the celebrated poems.

A private person by nature, Mary Oliver (1935-2019) gave very few interviews over the years. Instead, she preferred to let her work speak for itself. And speak it has, for the past five decades, to countless readers. The New York Times recently acknowledged Mary Oliver as far and away, this country's best-selling poet. Born in a small town in Ohio, Oliver published her first book of poetry in 1963 at the age of 28; No Voyage and Other Poems, originally printed in the UK by Dent Press, was reissued in the United States in 1965 by Houghton Mifflin. Oliver has since published twenty books of poetry and six books of prose. As a young woman, Oliver studied at Ohio State University and Vassar College, but took no degree. She lived for several years at the home of Edna St. Vincent Millay in upper New York state, companion to the poet's sister Norma Millay. It was there, in the late '50s, that she met photographer Molly Malone Cook. For more than forty years, Cook and Oliver made their home together, largely in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where they lived until Cook's death in 2005. Over the course of her long and illustrious career, Oliver has received numerous awards. Her fourth book, American Primitive, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984. She has also received the Shelley Memorial Award; a Guggenheim Fellowship; an American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Achievement Award; the Christopher Award and the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award for House of Light; the National Book Award for New and Selected Poems; a Lannan Foundation Literary Award; and the New England Booksellers Association Award for Literary Excellence. Oliver's essays have appeared in Best American Essays 1996, 1998, 2001; the Anchor Essay Annual 1998, as well as Orion, Onearth and other periodicals. Oliver was editor of Best American Essays 2009. Oliver's books on the craft of poetry, A Poetry Handbook and Rules for the Dance, are used widely in writing programs. She is an acclaimed reader and has read in practically every state as well as other countries. She has led workshops at various colleges and universities, and held residencies at Case Western Reserve University, Bucknell University, University of Cincinnati, and Sweet Briar College. From 1995, for five years, she held the Catharine Osgood Foster Chair for Distinguished Teaching at Bennington College. She has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from The Art Institute of Boston (1998), Dartmouth College (2007) and Tufts University (2008).

Molly Malone Cook (1925-2005), was born in San Francisco. One of the first photographers hired by the Village Voice, in 1960 she opened what was probably the first photography gallery on the East Coast. She also owned a bookstore, which was occasionally staffed by the filmmaker John Waters. Later, Cook became a literary agent to Oliver and other writers. Oliver and Cook lived together for more than forty years.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780395850879
ISBN 10	0395850878
Title	Winter Hours
Author	Mary Oliver
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Houghton Mifflin
Year published	2000-04-24
Number of pages	128
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.