The Masculine Road: The Red, White, and Black

"You don't make a boy into a man simply by feeding him a certain kind of food," says Bly, as he describes the three necessary and sequential life phases symbolized by three colors - the "red, white and black," in the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale "Iron John." He casts a penetrating light on these male life stages, describing complications that arise, for example, when a boy skips the red and goes directly to the white. He also discusses how these stages, when fulfilled, affect men's relationships with women.

Poet, translator and teacher, Bly is the author of many books including Light Around the Body (Harper & Row 1967), Loving a Woman In Two Worlds (Dial 1985), Man In the Black Coat Turns (Harper & Row 1982), The Winged Energy of Delight: Selected Translations (Harper Perenniel 2005), My Sentence Was a Thousand Years of Joy: Poems (Harper Perennial 2006). He is also author of Iron John (Addison-Wesley 1990) and The Sibling Society (Addison-Wesley 1996).