James Laughlin (1914-97) was a poet of distinction as well as the founding publisher of New Directions. A Commonplace Book of Pentastichs, the last book of his own that he helped to prepare, is a compilation of 249 poems composed in a five-line stanza form first introduced in The Secret Room (1997). A note to "Thirty-nine Pentastichs" in that earlier volume explains: "a 'pentastich' refers simply to a poem of five lines, without regard to metrics. The word is Greek derived, from pentastichos, though few survive from ancient times... The present selection is of recent short-line compositions in natural voice cadence, many of them marginal jottings and paraphrases of commonplace book notations." Musing on the full collection, Hayden Carruth writes in his introduction: "For the reader it is a survey of literature that will never be found in the classroom--praise whatever gods may be--but indubitably will be found in loving and longlasting proximity on many a bedside table." Here, then, are armchair marginalia and apercus to be savored at random.

About the Author
Hayden Carruth (1921-2008) was a 20th century American poet, literary critic and editor. James Laughlin (1914-1997) founded New Directions in 1936 while still a student at Harvard. He wrote and compiled more than a dozen books of poetry as well as stories and essays; seven volumes of his correspondence with his authors are available from W.W. Norton.


Book Information
ISBN 9780811213868
Author Hayden Carruth
Format Hardback
Page Count 95
Imprint New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publisher New Directions Publishing Corporation
Weight(grams) 343g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 160mm * 15mm