Review of Milton In America by Peter Ackroyd. In 1660, John Milton was both the poet of “Lycidas,'' “L'Allegro,” and “Il Penseroso” and the well-known Protestant author of controversial tracts condemning the royal government of England and defending the beheading of Charles I… Novelist Peter Ackroyd chooses this moment in Milton's life to set his new novel. We find the blind writer skulking through English backroads in a covered wagon. A young rapscallion, who becomes his guide through the visible world and his amanuensis, hops in. (Originally published in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Sunday, July 13, 1997. Click here or on title.)
Review of W.B. Yeats: The Man and The Milieu by Keith Alldritt. Biographer Keith Alldritt resurrects William Butler Yeats as the Jolly Green Giant of Irish authors, who romps the hills and sings immortal tunes, while revolutions, world wars and other apocalyptic events serve as mere backdrops for the illumination of his literary imagination. (Originally published in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. June 8, 1997. Click here or on title.)
In the fall of 1979, I received a missive from Allen Ginsberg, scribbled in typical Ginsbergese, rife with ampersands and dashes, his response to a 19-year-old's small batch of poems. It was as if I awoke to a dream to which I'd suddenly become accustomed, a feeling that came to characterize most of my experience of him. (Originally published in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. April 20, 1997. Click here or on title.)
