Just Before Dark
Collected Nonfiction
-
- $16.99
-
- $16.99
Publisher Description
Twenty-five years of essays from one of America's most prolific and acclaimed writers, the New York Times–bestselling author of Legends of the Fall.
The bestselling author of thirty-nine books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry—including Dalva and Returning to Earth—Jim Harrison was one of our most beloved and acclaimed writers, adored by both readers and critics. In Just Before Dark, Harrison's essays and articles have been selected from twenty-five years of work, from venues as diverse as Playboy, The Nation, Outside, and the American Poetry Review. They explore the passions and concerns of a classic American writer—from ice fishing to bar pool, nouvelle cuisine and night walks—with keen insight and great humanity. It is an exceptional reminder of why Harrison was one of our most cherished and important writers.
"One of the most interesting and entertaining bodies of work by any writer of his generation." —Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Best known for his fiction, Harrison here sorts magazine pieces written over four decades. ``Food'' celebrates the pleasures of cooking, eating and drinking, with exuberant disdain for trendy health-consciousness. ``Travel and Sport'' defends hunting and fishing as time-honored, ecologically sound pursuits that, practiced responsibly, draw us closer to the natural world. ``Literary Matters'' includes book reviews and dissections of the author's own working methods. Harrison, who came of professional age in the 1960s, favors a casual, intimate journalistic style that reveals as much about himself as his topics. We learn about the loss of an eye when he was seven and the deaths of his father and sister when he was 19. While a few phrases and stories turn up more than once, and while some of the early-'70s sporting pieces display a hip swagger that now seems hilariously dated, the essays taken together suggest the life experience and philosophy that underpin such novels as Legends of the Fall and Dalva.
