101 Books, Number 26

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

26: The Dark Half, 1989, by Stephen King (1947–)

I’d put off reading Stephen King—

I mean, you can’t ready everything!

But 1990–I had gone

To California in the dawn

Of my obsessive London years

To study with some gifted peers.*

And King was very hot back then—

And so, I thought, Well, I have been

Perhaps a little uppity.

And so I took this King with me.

Now, I’m not such a “horror guy”:

It’s not my genre—cannot lie.

But Stephen King, I learned, can write

And this compounded all my fright

As I read this grim horror tale,

My terror swelling into gale.

Well, I would read more Stephen King—

But couldn’t read, well, everything:

The dude just cranks them out so fast—

My jaw just drops—I am aghast.

I’ve not kept up, I will admit.

(Perhaps I’ve grown, well, tired of it?)

But, oh, that King’s a talent, Yo!

So read a few before you go.

*Six-week summer seminar  on Jack London’s works sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities; Sonoma State Univ.; Rohnert Park, Calif., led by Prof. Earle Labor, the world’s leading Jack London scholar. This seminar led directly to the books I published about London.

101 Books, Number 27

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

28: The Magic Christian, 1959, by Terry Southern (1924–95)

Oh, I can say I’d never read

A book that seemed in any way

Like this one—yes, ’twas quite a day

When Southern words flowed in my head.

I think it was in ’65

When I read this—an English class.*

It kind of put me on my ass

With laughter: It was so alive.

I hadn’t known a book could deal

With things like this—oh, it is wild.

You read it—change to man from child—

It alters how you think and feel.

I read his others through the years—

But none would grab me quite the same

(In fact, some were a little … lame).

But this one? Laughed till there were tears.**

*American Thought III, Prof. Abe C. Ravitz; Hiram College

**The film, 1969, with Peter Sellers, did not affect me so strongly.

101 Books, Number 28

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

29: Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer, 1943–1954, by Jeffrey Cartwright, 1972, by Steven Millhauser (1943–)

I loved this book when it came out—

I love it still today.

A novel full of wonder—full

Of much artistic play.

It says it is biography—

A boy here tells the tale

Of one of his dear boyhood friends

Whose life was one short trail.

I read it quickly—then again.

I passed it on to friends.

A book of that most special sort

You hope just never ends.

This was his first, and you can bet

I gobbled all his next

And fell in love with all of them,

Each most creative text.

I ended up reviewing some—

A gift from who-knows-where.

For Millhauser, believe me, friends,

Can craft a world from air.

101 Books, Number 29

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

30: Bartholomew and the Oobleck, 1949, by Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel, 1904–1991)

The sky is leaking gooey green!

Bartholomew is on the scene

And figures he must figure out

What all this oobleck is about.*

This book came out when I was five—

And Dr. Seuss made me alive.

Oh, sure, I was alive with breath—

And thus would know both love and death—

Imagination he awoke—

And each new book, a masterstroke.

I felt I was Bartholomew—

And had to do what he would do:

Solve every problem, land or sky—

Keep doing so until I die.

So thank you, Dr. Seuss, a lot

For pictures, characters, and plot.

And for that Grand Awakening

(Of which you were my first fair king).

My life’s progressed—yes, on and on—

And still I want that oobleck gone!

*He does.

101 Books Number 30

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

31: This Is My Country Too, 1965, by John A. Williams (1925–2015)

I had not known him—not at all—

Until I read that he had died.

And then I answered Williams’ call—

And read his works—felt ... modified.

In this one—journalism’s best—

He drives around the USA

And passes every kind of test

That racists drag into his way.

The book is fearless—brave and true—

And Williams’ pen is dipped in blood,

And all those portraits that he drew

In words that formed a fatal flood

Reminded me how much we need

To change our stupid racial ways:

We can’t let attitudes impede—

And set all that we love ablaze.

I read the rest of Williams’ art—

And found myself somewhat in awe

Of Williams, who had done his part

To alter what’s become our law.

101 Books, Number 31

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

31: The Taming of the Shrew, 1589–92 (?), by William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

I spent about a decade with

This play I loved to teach.

My 8^th-grade students liked it, too—

But did I overreach?

There is no question—none at all—

About that noted Bard:

He has a lot to teach us, but

He can be very hard.

Into the world of Will we dived—

And many came to care—

Although there were some times, of course,

When we came up for air.

Petruchio and Katherine—

That broiling, brawling two—

And others who are in that play—

It’s such a motley crew.

We screened the Zeffirelli film,

A film I love to watch,

For Richard Burton, as you know,

Is excellent—topnotch.

We memorized some lines, as well,*

And learned about the times,

About the music, clothing, homes,

Economy and crimes.

And realized the play tells how

Both lovers must submit—

Surrender to the marriage—oh,

The miracle of it!

Yes, Shakespeare was a Superman—

He knew what he wrote of.

His pen would touch the paper, and

We learned of life and love.

*Petruchio's speech, beginning, "Well, come, my Kate, we will unto your father's ...."

101 Books, Number 32

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

33: Great Expectations, 1860–61 (serialized), by Charles Dickens (1812–70)

I could not read this book at first—

My ninth-grade quiz scores were the worst.

I swore I’d not read Dickens—no!

Oh, not until the sun had burst.

But years will pass, as you well know,

And young men (sometimes) then will grow

Into a new maturity

And rise like some rich sourdough.

In college came a victory—

I read the book again, and—see!—

There is so much there to enjoy—

And other readers will agree.

And so I grew—a man (no boy

Who wanted just a flashy toy—

Some wooden horse that brought down Troy)

Who’d learned how words bring greatest joy.

101 Books, Number 33

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

34: Collected Poems, 1943–2004, by Richard Wilbur (1921–2017)

His recent death disturbed The Force—

In literary ways, of course.

There are few poets I have read

Who wove their words with golden thread

The way that Wilbur did—with ease?

His forms were formal (shaped to please);

His rhymes were subtle—not clichéd.

His subjects—wrenching, well-conveyed.

My mother knew him fairly well—

Their church, the same,* and she would tell

Me what he sometimes said and did—

And I became her jealous kid!

He signed some books of verse for me—

Most treasured things, I guarantee.

I’ve memorized a handful, too—

My treasured friends—so pure, so true.

*St Stephens Church (Episcopal); Pittsfield, Mass.

101 Books, Number 34

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

34: Sister Carrie, 1900, by Theodore Dreiser (1871–1945)

I read this book in ’64–

Or think it was (my memory’s poor?).

A class in Hiram College days

When I still lived in such a haze.

The book was long, and I believed

To finish it I’d be relieved

To have an odious task complete—

But I was wrong, for I would meet

A writer who—in whole and part—

Explored the helpless human heart.

I turned the pages; Carrie fell.

And so did I: a Dreiser spell.

I read some others through the years—

And saw him there with pioneers

Who wrote about the painful dark

In novels wrenching, real, and stark.

101 Books, Number 35

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

35: Middlemarch, 1871-72, by George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans, 1819–1880)

A book of hers I didn’t read—

Although I did read Adam Bede

And other works (though not with speed).

This is a book I listened to—

Yes, book-on-disk I chose to do

On daily drives (more than a few)

I took back in 2009–

My cancer wasn’t doing fine—

And I had radiation (whine!).*

I loved the story—first to last;

I loved the varied, clever cast—

Though some of them left me aghast.

I’m not a fan of hearing books—

I’d rather give them lingering looks

In quiet, friendly, home-fire nooks.

But Eliot? I’d read or hear—

For either way her voice is clear—

She draws from me the laugh, the tear.

*In January 2009 I was driving down to the Cleveland Clinic, M-F (about 45 min away), where I got thirty daily radiation treatments. I listened to this book, going and returning, and after my last treatment, I arrived home with about ten minutes left. I sat in the car and finished it.

101 Books, Number 36

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

36: Colored People, 1994, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (1950–)

I had my students read this book

For ten of my last years.

A memoir—West Virginia—where

Gates grew and conquered fears.

He writes about his schooling there—

His relatives, the town

Of Piedmont, and, of course, of race,

Which didn’t bring him down.

He worked so hard and ended up

At Harvard (as you know),

Where he writes books and, now and then,

A special TV show.

We met him once,* did Joyce and I,

In Cleveland, where he spoke.

We shook his hand and talked a bit—

We loved to hear him joke.

He’s done so much research—he writes

With knowledge and with skill.

He’s made the journey to the top

Of scholarship’s steep hill.

*Thursday, January 18, 2003, at the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards; Cleveland Play House

101 Books, Number 37

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

37: The Last Man, 1826, by Mary Shelley (1797–1851) 

Her best-known novel, Frankenstein, 

She’d published eight long years ago— 

It’s still a favorite book of mine. 

Yet there’s another book aglow 

With Mary Shelley’s active mind— 

A very futuristic tale— 

The end, it seems of humankind— 

A common sight: a coffin nail. 

An illness has swept o’er the earth— 

And people die so helplessly. 

There is no hope—in love, in birth. 

And fear now reigns so thoroughly. 

We follow several women, men— 

And see some die (so bad, so sad)— 

And we are not too sure just when— 

Or if—there’ll be a Galahad. 

The future that she shows us here— 

Is ominous—depressing, too— 

For some of it seems very near— 

Some fatal, viral Waterloo. 

101 Books, Number 38

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

38: Goldilocks, 1978. by Ed McBain* (1926–2005)

He wrote so many, many books—

Oh, yes, it’s quite a pile.

And if you stacked them, first to last,

They’d probably reach a mile.

His first was 1952;

His last, 2005.

That’s not such bad production, eh?

(For one who is alive.)

And Goldilocks—the first he wrote

With fairy tales in mind.

They featured lawyer Matthew Hope—

The best guy you could find!

He wrote some other Hope books, too—

The last in ’98.

And I read all of them (of course!)

And loved them—no debate.

I read a lot of others, too,

But, oh, he wrote with speed!

In fact he cranked them out too fast

For dudes like me to read!

*born Salvatore Albert Lombino; also wrote under the pen name Evan Hunter

101 Books, Number 39

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

39: Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, 2013, by Mary Roach (1959–)

I had to write a book review

About the latest book from Roach,*

And since my usual approach

Is reading all an author through,

I took the journey through her prose

And felt each time along the way

She had the freshest way to say

So many things that no one knows.

Well, some folks know them—that’s for sure—

And Roach goes looking for the ones

To interview—in fact, she runs

Toward them, takes their tour

Through knowledge most of us ignore—

Or choose to shun or to avoid—

We want no verbal Polaroid.

Discomfort—yes, deep in our core—

That’s what a Roach book will provide—

We learn about our gruesome guts,

And sex (no if’s, no and’s—but butts!).

We learn about what just has died.

And so discomfort is one way

To learn about the world we’re in—

And who we are, and where we’ve been—

And what we’ll be one future day.

*My review of Roach’s Gulp was in Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 7, 2013. 

101 Books, Number 40

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

40: The Red Badge of Courage, 1895, by Stephen Crane (1871–1900) 

Okay, at first I read the comic book* 

Before I read that full-length text. 

But just remember: Every cook 

Reads recipes—and food comes next. 

I loved the story, from the first— 

A kid, I often played at war. 

What’s not to love? I thought. The burst 

Of cannon! Storming of a distant shore! 

But I grew older, read the work 

Of Crane—yes, every book he wrote. 

And in his paragraphs would lurk 

A very understated vote 

Against all war—and what it means. 

Oh, readers have a task to do— 

Consider all the in-betweens— 

And see the author’s total view. 

I’ve traveled to the homes of Crane**— 

The graveyard where he now must lie.*** 

I think of what he helped explain— 

And grieve, again, such artists die.

*Classics Illustrated 

**Port Jervis, NY; Asbury Park, NJ; June 8, 2004

***Evergreen Cemetery; Hillside, NJ; June 9, 2004

101 Books, Number 41

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

41: Hamlet, 1600–01, by William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

The first time that I read this play*

It made small sense to me.

“Who’s there?”—the first words of the script

Began the mystery.

But then I had to teach the thing,**

And so I had to learn

The history—that language stuff—

From stem to weiderst stern.

And—big surprise!—I loved the thing!.

Each year I taught the play

I made some new discoveries—

Felt—brighter?—every way.

I liked to read the play aloud

With students every year—

Just hearing it, I soon would learn,

Eliminated fear.***

I’ve seen it many times on stage—

And films, of course, as well.

And now I really have to say:

It’s caught me in its spell.

*Summer, 1967, at the end of my 1^st year of teaching

**Western Reserve Academy, 1979-80, 2001-11

***Theirs and mine!

101 Books, Number 42

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

42: Great Plains, 1989, by Ian Frazier (1951–)

I’ve loved the plains since I was young—

An Oklahoma boy, you know,

And sang with my young Southwest tongue

That “Oklahoma!” song—no glow

In my young voice—but still.The Plains!

We’d taken trips across the West—

In deserts and in driving rains—

But trips out West? For me: the Best!

And Frazier’s agile, thoughtful book

Delighted me, from first to last.

Such pleasure Ian Frazier took

In dealing with the land, the cast.

He grew up here in Hudson, and

We’ve met him many happy times.

We too both love that Western land

So noted for it heroes, crimes.

He writes for the New Yorker now—

Has written other books galore.

I’ve read them all (each earns a “Wow!”)—

But Great Plains made me yearn for more.