From Publishers Weekly
Brassy, raw and, at times, enduringly powerful, the poetry of James Dickey (1923-1997) made big waves in the 1960s and '70s; he's now best known for his first novel, Deliverance (1970), a tale of male trauma and violence in the Georgia wilderness and the source of John Boorman's 1972 film. Dickey's other productions include the mammoth novel Alnilam (1987) and several books of criticism. Hart, a professor at the College of William and Mary, has assembled excerpts from all of Dickey's novels, along with his yearning, provocative essays and 116 pages of Dickey's poemsAearly, Roethkeish apprentice stanzas; disturbing, prizewinning '60s poems like "Buckdancer's Choice" and "Power and Light"; and the all-but-unreadable long-lined narratives of Dickey's final phase. Dickey's anguished celebrations of destructive extremes, hard men and hard drinking can make his work seem dated, even embarrassing ("God man hunter artist father/ Be with me.... Give me my spear"). But Dickey's best poems make his frustrations, and his mythographic ambitions, sources of memorably tormented potency. No one else could have created "The Sheep-Child," whose speakerAthe impossible offspring of farm boys' bestialityA"saw for a blazing moment/ The great grassy world from both sides... My hoof and my hand clasped each other,/ I ate my one meal/ Of milk, and died/ Staring." Dickey's essays, reflections on the lives and goals of modern American poets, stand up surprisingly well. After Dickey's son's memoir, Summer of Deliverance, has darkened the South Carolina poet's image, this generous compilation does much to bolster his literary prominence. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The New York Times Book Review, J.D. McClatchy
In The James Dickey Reader, Henry Hart has made a spare, judicious selection of Dickey's work--as poet, novelist and critic--in an attempt to show a writer whose mastery of the trials of instinct remains a vital source of energy in a literature weighed down by its genteel literary traditions.

Review
Gordon Lish Only death could exhibit the cheek to think it had the reach to get a grip all the way around James Dickey. Life gave up, reckoning it would never have the arms for it. In any event, James Dickey is not dead, and shall not be, as this book notifies us, sampling by sampling. Indeed, the thing that beats in him -- the heart of none other than the unrepeatable man -- must make the gods puny and afraid.

Book Description
This collection of James Dickey's poems and prose includes choice selections of the author's poetry, fiction, and essays, as well as some early unpublished poetry and excerpts from his unfinished novel Crux. Organized chronologically by genre, this is the definitive collection of works by one of the twentieth century's most important talents.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This collection of James Dickey's poems and prose includes choice selections of the author's poetry, fiction, and essays, as well as some early unpublished poetry and excerpts from his unfinished novel Crux. Organized chronologically by genre, this is the definitive collection of works by one of the twentieth century's most important talents.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly