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101 Books, Number 50

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

50: My Ántonia, 1918, by Willa Cather (1873–1947)

I taught this book some years ago*—

And had not read much Cather then.

And, oh, was there a lot to know!

But I had energy, back then.

And so, Nebraska, here we come!

New Hampshire,** too (her grave is there)

And Grand Manan*** … I grew less dumb—

And soon began so much to care.

I read her books—yes, every one.

And read her published letters, too.

In fact, the latter? Letters? Fun!

A title I got to review.****

There really is no journey like

A trip through someone’s work and days—

A trip upon an awesome pike

Where every vista can amaze.

*Fall, 2005, our “summer reading” book for juniors at Western Reserve Academy

**She’s buried in the Old Burying Ground; Jaffrey, NH.

***An island in the Bay of Fundy (off New Brunswick); she had a summer cottage there (still standing—we saw it).

****The Selected Letters of Willa Cather; I reviewed it for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 14, 2013.

101 Books: Halfway

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

Halfway Point: Between 51 and 50

I’ve reached the point—about halfway—

In this my journey through these books—

The ones I’ve read for work, for play,

The ones so worth their second looks.

Again—there is no order to

This list. As they occur to me—

That’s how I give them all to you—

And, just remember, all is free!

A hundred one—that’s quite a lot—

And each has meant so very much.

Those webs of words—well, me they caught.

They’ve had, for me, the magic touch.

So, buckle up! We’ve miles to go

Before we sleep and wake again.

And one thing I have hoped to show:

I loved them all, both thick and thin.

101 Books, Number 51

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

51: The Poems of Emily Dickinson, 1999, Emily Dickinson (1830–86)

I read her poems long before

This volume came along.

(A friend and I converted one

Into a (sort of) song.)*

I’ve memorized a lot of hers—

A dozen? Or a score?

I wish my sad old brain had room

For many, many more.

Remarkable, her language, for

She uses words so few,

But she had  mastered language, and 

She knew just what to do.

She scanned the universe—a task

That is so very hard.

She did so from the confines of

Her very own backyard.

Intelligent? A genius? Yes!

She found where language starts—

Begins with feeling and with thought—

Then moves into our hearts

In lines of hers so perfect that

There is no other way

To transfer to our hearts what her

Pure genius had to say.

*College roommate Chuck Rodgers and I did “If You Were Coming in the Fall.”

101 Books, Number 52

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

52: Arrowsmith, 1925, by Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951)

I read this book in high school—why?

I wasn’t such a reading guy

Back in those ancient days gone by.

So ... Arrowsmith—a doctor, Yo,

Who did his research so he’d know

What drugs were yes, what drugs were no.

A plague arrived—he found a cure—

And he could really not endure

Those doctors who were purely pure

And wanted to, well, test some more

Before they used it—What a corps

Of cowards! So our hero swore

That he would use it—use it now!

And cure the multitudes—and—wow!—

It worked—he’d known it would, somehow.

I later saw his boyhood town*—

And read the works that brought renown**—

A few remain—I’ll buckle down ...

… And read them.

*Sauk Centre, Minn.; we visited on July 1, 2006

**Main Street, Babbitt, It Can’t Happen Here, etc.

101 Books, Number 53

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

53: The Colossus of New York, 2003, by Colson Whitehead (1969–)

2003. The first I read

By Whitehead—such a gifted man.*

So I make sure I find the bread

To buy his new ones when I can.

His sentences just dazzle me—

He breaks the rules—creates some new—

Oh, he eschews conformity

And blazes trails toward the true.

I have not read quite everything

That he has published—well, not yet—

But I will do so—his lines sing—

Before my sun of life has set.

*His most recent novel, The Underground Railroad, 2016, won both the National Book Award for Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize.

101 Books, Number 54

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

54: Ever Since Darwin, 1977, by Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002)

I read so much of Stephen Gould—

Those essays were superior.

And though I was inferior

In science, Gould me coolly schooled.

Of course I didn’t understand,

Well, everything he wrote about.

But through his work I would find out

’Bout evolution (secondhand).

I wrote to him—and he wrote back—

About a novel set back when—

A prehistoric tale—our kin!—

By that old writer: London, Jack.*

That letter now hangs on my wall—

It’s framed so that the thing will last

No matter how much time has passed—

A Gould-ian kind of curtain call.

He died so young—it’s just not fair

That people who have much to teach

Are soon so far beyond our reach—

We need to breathe their air so rare.

*Before Adam, 1907; Gould replied to my letter about Before Adam on July 13, 1999

101 Books, Number 55

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

55: The Complete Essays, 1580,* by Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)

I read them all—2010.

A little bit each day.**

The book was thick, and this, I thought,

Would be the only way.

A teaching colleague*** (friend!) and I

This journey well commenced,

And soon we learned what this great man

Was for and was against.

He wrote about so many things—

Some major, some so small

That you might hardly think that they

Were worth essays at all.

And when we finished, I’d been schooled

About so very much—

Like writing, thinking, feeling … Life!

Oh, such an artist’s touch!

(That dude had really quite a brain—
Well worth the work to read Montaigne!)

*I read the Penguin Classics edition, 1993—in English (sigh); pic shows my copy.

**10 pp/day

*** Nick Lewis, Western Reserve Academy

101 Books, Number 56

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

56: Moby-Dick, 1851, by Herman Melville (1819–1891)

I read this book in study hall—

That’s right—in high school (took a while).

I couldn’t understand it all—

And not a lot there made me smile.

I’d read it as a comic book*—

The pictures really helped a lot!

The movie** had a certain “look,”

And soon enough, well, I was caught.

I’ve read that book—again, again—

And every time it seems so … new.

I see the humor—mourn the men—

Perhaps again I’ll read it through?

I’ve seen the grave where Melville lies***—

I’ve seen the farm**** where Melville wrote

The book—I’ve seen Nantucket’s skies.

I’ve sailed the Pequod (fatal boat) …

Well, in my mind I have done so.

I’ve read his other books—yes, all.

But still remains so much to know

About that book—and Ahab’s fall.

*Classics Illustrated, 1942

**Moby-Dick, 1956, directed by John Huston, starring Gregory Peck as Capt. Ahab

*** Woodlawn Cemetery; the Bronx, NY

**** Arrowhead, his farm in Pittsfield, Mass., now a museum

101 Books, Number 57

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

57: The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, 1977, by Carl Sagan (1934–96)

Yes, Dragons was the first I read

From Carl Sagan’s pen.*

I read his many others, too—

He changed what I had been.

He had a very graceful way,

Explaining things to me.

I couldn’t wait to read his next—

I knew he’d help me see.

Oh, I won’t claim I understood

The total of his words.

For some of what he wrote, I fear,

Flew off like startled birds

Before I’d heard what those rare fowl

Were singing all about.

Oh well—I tried—just give me that—

I promise not to pout.

He died too young—oh, far too young.

So much was left to teach.

But Sagan—I will give him this

Extended my short reach!

*He probably didn’t use a pen—but a good rhyming word!

101 Books, Number 58

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

58: The Blessing Way, 1970, by Tony Hillerman (1925–2008)

These Leaphorn books ensnared me—fast.

I read them one and all.

But have not read the new ones that

His daughter writes (the gall!).*

Tribal police—the Navajo—

The Southwest—murder there!

But Leaphorn—Chee—they solve the crimes

In bloody desert air.

I met him once—yes, Hillerman,

A bookstore signing date.**

I got to talk with him awhile—

Oh, such is fortune, fate.

I mourned to hear that he had died—

Oh, such a grievous loss.

Oh, no more Leaphorn! No more Chee!

How can I get across

How literary loss can be

As bad—or nearly so—

As actual death in this, “real” life?

I’m betting that you know!

*I don’t like reading series books written by others who pick up the task when the original author has died.

**Barnes & Noble; Montrose, Ohio; June 5, 2004

101 Books, Number 59

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

59: Jack London: An American Life, 2013 , by Earle Labor (1928–)

I owe so very much to him*—

He gave life to my London life.

And so I’ll go out on a limb—

I’ll pound the drum and play the fife

In celebration of his scholarship—

His friendship, generosity.

He caught me when I’d nearly slip—

My eyes he opened so I’d see.

A 1990 seminar

With Earle and others paved the way

For me to travel, near and far—

The Yukon, San Francisco Bay—

Oh, all those places London saw

And wrote his many books about.

The frozen North, the cold so raw—

Oh, there cannot be any doubt—

Yes, Earle had launched me on a quest

To learn and read and travel on.

So as an influence? Just the best.

I owe him, deeply. He was dawn.

*I wrote and published several books about London—Earle-inspired: a YA biography of Jack London (1998), annotated editions of The Call of the Wild (1995, 1997)

101 Books, Number 60

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

60: The Fixed Period, 1882, by Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)

Its kind of cheating—yes, I know—

A second Trollope novel, Yo.

But this one is so very odd—

A time when people act like God,

Decide how long a life should be—

Then end it (somewhat mercifully)

If it exceeds allotted time—

Which seems, of course, a moral crime.

But all goes well—until the first

Achieve the age and in a burst

Of opposition cry, “No way!

I do not want to die today!”

So what ensues? I will not tell—

Just read to see if all is well!

101 Books, Number 61

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

61: Election, 1998, by Tom Perrotta (1961–)

This is the book that started me

On my fine happy journey through

Perrotta’s work. I’d gone to see

The film,* but really had no clue

That movie would bring on the book—

And that the book would bring much more—

Oh, such a gleeful time I took

Afloat on prose—oh, did it soar!

I’ve read them all since ’98–

And buy the next when it appears.

(Okay, not all of them are great—

But some bring laughter; others, tears.)

Perrotta is a favorite now—

Oh, one of many—this I know.

And I have taken such a vow:

Not one of them will I forego!

*Election, 1999, with Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon (link to film trailer)

101 Books, Number 62

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

62: The Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley,* 1980–88, ed. Betty Bennett (1935–2006)

I read these letters early on—

I’d only just begun

My Mary Shelley research life—

And still I am not done!

Professor Bennett—what a job

She did with these rare texts!

I gobbled each—nutritious food!—

Then moved on to the next.

The annotations—marvelous.

The insights keen and rare.

The more I read, the more I thought,

The more I came to care.

And soon a correspondence with

Professor Bennett I

Commenced. And she was such a help!

I was a lucky guy.

The Shelley World lost such a friend

When Betty passed away.

I miss her books—her email, too.

I long to hear her say

Yet one more thing about the life

Of Mary Shelley and

The others who composed her world

Who formed that magic land.

*Mary Shelley (1797–1851)

101 Books, Number 63

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

63: The Kid Comes Back, 1946, by John R. Tunis (1889–1975)

Roy Tucker was the “kid,” the one

Who lived and who “came back.”

He’d served in World War II—

Survived a bad attack.

Back to the Brooklyn Dodgers he

Returned—but problems rose:

His injury had slowed his game—

So what do you suppose?

He underwent some therapy;

Improved a lot (surprise?)

And roared back to the game he loved—

What perseverance buys!

I loved this book in boyhood—

I read it many times.

Re-reading this fine baseball book?

The least of boyhood crimes!

101 Books, Number 64

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

64: Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay, 2001, by Nancy Milford (1938–)

This is a title I reviewed—

And here I think it’s best to say

I had a poor, dim attitude

About this poet named Millay*

Until and read this book—and then

I dived into Millay’s rich verse

And realized that I had been

A fool of sorts (just hear me curse!).

She’d fallen out of favor in

The academic world, so she

Had disappeared, I fear, back when

I had been studying poetry.

But as I read of her wild life—

Her gifts and, yes, of course, her fame—

Her less-than-loyal years as wife—

About that puzzling middle name**—

I realized I’d much to learn—

And so my reading years commenced—

For books remain the way to earn

The best of things, I am convinced.

And Milford’s text is full—alive—

The way I love biography—

You read the thing—and you arrive

At Truth—or close as you can be.

*1892–1950

**the “St. Vincent” part of her name—for the hospital that had saved the life of a relative

101 Books, Number 65

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

65: Cross Country, 2006, by Robert Sullivan (1963–)

It’s got the greatest subtitle*

Since days of long ago—

Too long for me to reproduce—

And … rhyming problems, Yo!

I loved this book—for it brought back

The road trips I have done—

Throughout my life, those trips have been

The purest kind of fun.

I liked this book so much that I

Read all his others, too.

He writes of rats and whales and folks

As weirdly weird as you!

I coaxed him to come to our school,**

And here he spent a day

With classes—an assembly talk—

A pleasure, every way.

I read his books when they come out—

The day that they arrive,

For he creates a Wonder Pool—

And into it I dive!

*Fifteen Years and 90,000 Miles on the Roads and Interstates of America with Lewis and Clark, a Lot of Bad Motels, a Moving Van, Emily Post, Jack Kerouac, My Wife, My Mother-in-Law, Two Kids, and Enough Coffee to Kill an Elephant

**Western Reserve Academy, April 14–15, 2009