Milosz's ABC's

by Milosz, Czeslaw; Levine, Madeline

• ISBN13: 9780374527952
• ISBN10: 0374527954
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-01-09
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Summary

Memories, dreams and reflections from the Nobel Laureate The ABC book is a polish genre-a loose form related to a hypertext novel-composed of short, alphabetically arranged entries. In Milosz's conception, the ABC book becomes a sort of autobiographical reference book, combining entries concerning characters from his earlier work with references to some of his memory poems. He also writes of real, historical figures like Camus who were particularly influential during his formative years, and of broader topics such as "The City," "Unhappiness," and "Money." Another fascinating entry in Milosz's bold opus,Milosz's ABCsis an engaging tribute to a brilliant mind. Czeslaw Miloszwas awarded the 1978 Neustadt International Prize in Literature and the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. Since 1962 he has been a professor, now emeritus, of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley. Among his recent publications areTo Begin Where I Am,Striving Towards Being: The Letters of Czeslaw Milosz and Thomas Merton,andRoad-side Dog. He lives in Berkeley, California, and Krakow, Poland. The ABC book is a Polish genre, a somewhat loose literary form composed of short, alphabetical entries. In Czeslaw Milosz's conception, the ABC book becomes a cross between autobiographical exposition and reference-book writing, combining citations of characters from his earlier prose works and poems with references to real, historical figuressuch as Camus, Ceacute;zanne, Edward Hopper, Arthur Koestler, and Mark Edelman; the Polish writers Gombrowicz and Herbert; and the poets Baudelaire and Frostwho were particularly influential during his formative years. Throughout, the book investigates the times, towns, and terrains that have led this poet to think and write as he does. Milosz also looks to broader topics like "Unhappiness" and "Money" and "Churches." Another outspoken and fascinating travelogue from Milosz's bold and crucial journey,Milosz's ABCsis an engaging tribute to a brilliant mindthe memories, dreams, and reflections of a literary master. "It is a source of wonderment and pleasure that at the age of 89, Czeslaw Milosz, arguably the greatest living poet, continues to publish exploratory works of self-definition and commemoration.Milosz's ABC's, expertly translated from the Polish by Madeline G. Levine, remakes the relatively recent Polish genre of the ABC booka kind of subgenre of memoirso that it becomes a flexible hybrid form, a probing and quirky reference book."Edward Hirsch,The New York Times Book Review "It is a source of wonderment and pleasure that at the age of 89, Czeslaw Milosz, arguably the greatest living poet, continues to publish exploratory works of self-definition and commemoration.Milosz's ABC's, expertly translated from the Polish by Madeline G. Levine, remakes the relatively recent Polish genre of the ABC booka kind of subgenre of memoirso that it becomes a flexible hybrid form, a probing and quirky reference book . . . In the end,Milosz's ABC'sis a benedictory text, an alphabetical rescue operation, a testimonial to those who have suffered and gone before us, a hymn to the everlasting marvel and mystery of human existence."Edward Hirsch,The New York Times Book Review "Milosz's greatness as a writer has something to do with his gift for going straight to the heart of a questionbe it moral, artistic, political, autobiographicaland answering it directly . . . He is among those members of humankind who have had the ambiguous privilege of knowing and standing up to far more reality than the rest of us."Seamus Heaney

Author Biography

Czeslaw Milosz is the winner of the 1978 Neustadt International Prize in Literature and the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. Since 1962 he has been a professor, now emeritus, of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley. His most recent publications are Striving Towards Being: The Letters of Czeslaw Milosz and Thomas Merton (FSG, 1997)and Road-side Dog (FSG, 1998). He lives in Berkeley, California and Krakow, Poland.

Table of Contents

"Fascinating and charming--The web woven here, in the wisest and most charming of styles, is intricate indeed."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Lyrically poetic . . . The tone is intimate but the content - which includes politics, history, art, poetry, and religion - is impressively broad and rich."
--Dana Gioia, San Francisco Magazine

"Splendid . . . Milosz's ABC's is a benedictory text, an alphabetical rescue operation, a testimonial to those who have suffered and gone before us, a hymn to the everlasting marvel and mystery of human existence--Milosz [is] arguably the greatest living poet."
--Edward Hirsch, The New York Times Book Review

"Eloquent . . . A remarkable fusion of passion and balance."
--Richard Eder, The New York Times

"The book captures what is perhaps most characteristic and attractive in Milosz's entire literary output. His writing can be simultaneously a protest against the disappearance of people, objects and images from the physical world, and a celebration of time's unstoppable forward motion . . . Few writers in our time can rival Milosz's ability to render justice to the strange spectacle of the world. We should be grateful for the wisdom of his extraordinary life."
--Jaroslaw Anders, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A remarkable testament to the place of memory in the definition of a conscious self . . . As the two brief entries 'truth' and 'time' eloquently suggest, a life shaped by the terror of political instability and institutionalized brutality relentlessly goes on seeking that order which is the natural desire of every human mind."
--Harold Isbell, Commonweal

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