In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus: New and Selected Poems, 1955–2007

Kennedy, X. J.

ISBN 10: 0801886546 / ISBN 13: 9780801886546

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007

About this Item

First edition, first printing (full number line) of this soft cover. Text is clean and unmarked, binding tight, no indications of previous ownership. As New but only because it's not sitting in a book store. In fact, in better condition than some you might find there.

Seller Inventory # 004230

Bibliographic Details

• Title: In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus: New and Selected Poems, 1955?2007
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801886546
• ISBN 13: 9780801886546
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: As New

About this title

Synopsis

2008 American Library Association Notable Book in Poetry

For more than half a century, readers and listeners have taken special pleasure in the poetry of X. J. Kennedy. In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus is an ample gathering of his best work: memorable songs, startling lyrics, poems that tell poignant stories, character studies that vie with those of Edwin Arlington Robinson. A master of verbal music, Kennedy has long been praised for his wit and humor; as this collection reveals, many of his poems also reach surprising depths and heights. Donald Hall comments, "many of Kennedy's poems are wit itself. His wit is his way of understanding. No one else writing is capable of the effects in which Kennedy specializes."

This book skims the cream from several slim volumes and six past collections including the prize-winning Nude Descending a Staircase, Cross Ties, and The Lords of Misrule. It restores to print over fifty poems unavailable for decades and adds more than two dozen new poems collected for the first time. Kennedy has long occupied a unique place in American poetry; In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus now offers the first comprehensive collection to span his entire career.

About the Author

X. J. Kennedy has written poetry, children's verse, and fiction as well as textbooks on writing and literature. Before becoming a full-time writer, he taught at the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina–Greensboro, Tufts University, Wellesley College, the University of California–Irvine, and Leeds University. He now lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, with his wife and sometime coauthor, Dorothy M. Kennedy.