The Odd Last Thing She Did

LEITHAUSER, Brad

ISBN 10: 0375401415 / ISBN 13: 9780375401411

Published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1998

About this Item

First edition. Fine in fine dustwrapper. Poetry.

Seller Inventory # 447246

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Odd Last Thing She Did
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York
• Publication Date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0375401415
• ISBN 13: 9780375401411
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Poetry

About this title

Synopsis

The Odd Last Thing She Did is Brad Leithauser's fourth book of poems--and his first collection in eight years.

Once again his poems evince a profound love of nature and a mastery of poetic forms. But they also reflect a deepening interest in storytelling, as Leithauser, who has also published four novels, here brings the narrative drive that propels his fiction into the domain of verse.

With compassion and imagination, Leithauser enters into the mysteries of lives both real and fictional: a middle-aged businessman who marries the identical twin of his deceased wife; a beautiful young woman whose life ends on a beautiful summer day; an elderly couple conducting a confused, touching romance in a nursing home; a young World War II soldier returning, wounded, to his fiancee.

And, as always, Leithauser's poems about the natural world are both coolly precise and warmly
engaging. A marsh in March, the play of sunlight underneath a bridge, a long-delayed spring, the contemplation of a moonless earth--all lead the poet, and ultimately the reader, into meditation and wonder.

About the Author

Brad Leithauser was born in Detroit and graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He is the author of three previous volumes of poetry--Hundreds of Fireflies, Cats of the Temple, and The Mail from Anywhere--four novels, and a book of essays. He is the recipient of many awards for his writing, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Ingram Merrill grant, and a MacArthur Fellowship.

He and his wife, the poet Mary Jo Salter, are the Emily Dickinson Lecturers in the Humanities
at Mount Holyoke College. They live with their two daughters, Emily and Hilary, in South Hadley, Massachusetts.