1990, hardcover edition, Harper &amp; Row, NY. 305 pages. Black and white photo gallery. Autobiography of Bob Hayes, once billed as the "fastest man in the world." He set all kinds of records in college and won two Gold Medals at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. He later played pro football. After that experience, he became involved with drugs and alcohol and wound up in prison. Quite a story

Run, Bullet, Run: The Rise, Fall, and Recovery of Bob Hayes

Hayes, Bob

Pack, Robert

Biographies & Memoirs

Harper&Row

"Poetry," wrote Wordsworth, "is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is the countenance of all Science." Robert Pack's new book is a heady mixture of the finer spirit.A selection from his last five books, along with a collection of new poems, Fathering the Map takes us from the personal reflections distilled in the lyrics of Waking to My Name (1980) to the worldly reckonings of Inheritance (1992) and back again. In the dramatic monologues of Faces in a Single Tree (1984), in the narrative of a wayward life from womb to double ending in Clayfield Rejoices, Clayfield Laments (1987), in a cosmic tour conducted by the physicist Heinz Pagels with Before It Vanishes (1990), Pack has fashioned poems of intimate experience, scientific meditations, philosophical wonder, poems that breathe the knowledge of man and woman, young and old, artist and human animal.Pack's work has won the acclaim of writers, critics, and readers from Robert Penn Warren to Cynthia Ozick to Stephen Jay Gould, who comments that the "precious contacts of science and poetry are now sadly rare, but Bob Pack revitalizes the ancient union with incisive poems that sing with lyricism or bite with insight—but always seem to add wisdom to the scientist's epigram.""The poet improves his style and spirit as he extends his reach," Howard Nemerov has written, and in his new work Pack reaches back to some of his earliest memories, and so forward to a personal mythology that circles from the primal instant to the present ecological crisis. "Robert Pack's poetry is deeply rooted in his won family life," Richard Wilbur has remarked, "and yet his imagination has always included us all."And Cynthia Ozick has said of Pack's poetry: "We rejoice as we read."

Fathering the Map: New and Selected Later Poems

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

University of Chicago Press

Minding the Sun

With characteristic sensitivity and intelligence, Robert Pack reflects on man's relation to and responsibilities toward nature. Throughout, his verses are informed with an ecological vigilance born of his devotion to the New England landscape.The opening section marks a return for Pack to the musical sensuality of the lyric. These short lyrics are uniquely his: the sequence begins in Vermont and concludes in the Andromeda galaxy, providing an opportunity to hold in mind the nurturing sun of our solar system.The poems of the collection's middle section, written in the flowing narrative and meditative mode familiar to Pack's many admirers, take up the themes of human sexuality and consciousness. And the final section, replete with puns and paradoxes, shows Pack at his most playful as he muses on art, technology, romantic and marital desire, and the stubborn longing for transcendence. The poet concludes the volume with a sobering plea, "The Trees Will Die," to heed the sun's example, to cherish and protect our planet and all its living things.

With characteristic sensitivity and intelligence, Robert Pack reflects on man's relation to and responsibilities toward nature. Throughout, his verses are informed with an ecological vigilance born of his devotion to the New England landscape. The opening section marks a return for Pack to the musical sensuality of the lyric. These short lyrics are uniquely his: the sequence begins in Vermont and concludes in the Andromeda galaxy, providing an opportunity to hold in mind the nurturing sun of our solar system. The poems of the collection's middle section, written in the flowing narrative and meditative mode familiar to Pack's many admirers, take up the themes of human sexuality and consciousness. And the final section, replete with puns and paradoxes, shows Pack at his most playful as he muses on art, technology, romantic and marital desire, and the stubborn longing for transcendence. The poet concludes the volume with a sobering plea, "The Trees Will Die," to heed the sun's example, to cherish and protect our planet and all its living things.

Elk in Winter

Robert Pack is a narrative master blessed with a keen ear for everyday speech. In poems that recall Robert Frost's meditative regard of nature, Pack's newest collection, Elk in Winter, resolves universal questions in the particular, the personal, and the intimate. This rich and varied volume moves from comedy to elegy, from lyric to narrative, in which individual characters are revealed and rendered symbolic by the stories that enclose them. What finally unites the poems of Elk in Winter is Pack's desire to appeal to the ear as much as to the heart, and to discover and reveal the passionate music of ideas.

Robert Pack is one of America’s most eminent nature poets, and his virtuoso talents are on glorious display in Still Here, Still Now, his nineteenth volume of verse. With styles ranging from lyric to narrative, and themes stretching from biblical concerns to meditations on contemporary science, Pack’s poetry is composed in strongly rhythmic cadences and a diction that is direct and accessible. In four different sections of thematically and stylistically divergent verse, Still Here, Still Now delivers many of the elements of Pack’s poetry readers have come to admire and expect—both the humorous and the elegiac. The first section of the book contains traditional lyrics that celebrate family ties and seek consolations for the passing of personal and evolutionary time. The poems in this group address a named or unnamed auditor in a voice of intimate engagement. Featuring the most narrative selections in the book, the second section consists of fable-like stories, rich with innuendo and implication. The characters in these poems make choices that press against the events and circumstances that challenge and define them. Embodying what Harold Bloom has called Pack’s “courage to surmount suffering,” the poems of the third section are largely devoted to biblical themes and philosophical speculations on the meaning of happiness and the uses of suffering. Here, Pack’s empathy for the human condition as well as his forebodings about the prospect of human survival are on poignant display. The final section of the book turns to Pack's abiding interest in landscape and the ways in which the place one inhabits contains and animates our individual lives. Ripe with many years, Pack remains a vital presence in American letters. Still Here, Still Now is an affecting and graceful addition to the oeuvre of a poet whose compelling and distinct voice will continue to resonate among his loyal readers.

Still Here, Still Now

A biography of Kang Sheng, the man who manipulated Mao and created the legacy of tyrannical cruelty that continues to exist in China

The Claws of the Dragon: Kang Sheng - The Evil Genius Behind Mao - And His Legacy of Terror in People's China

History

Byron, John

Americas

Simon&Schuster

Kang Sheng held tremendous power in China for more than 50 years. As a member of Mao's inner circle, he created China's dreaded secret police, unleashed the demonic Cultural Revolution, and oversaw the murder and torture of millions of Chinese. The Claws of the Dragon is a stunning revelation of the inner workings of Chinese politics and government. 16 pages of photos.

The Claws of the Dragon: Kang Sheng-The Evil Genius Behind Mao and His Legacy of Terror in People's China

Asia

Touchstone Books

From the inside cover: Jerry Brown has the largest constituency of any American politician except the President. As governor of California, he has achieved record popularity in public opinion polls. He repeatedly humiliated Jimmy Carter in the 1976 primaries and is considered the most likely Democratic challenger of 1980.

Jerry Brown, the philosopher-prince

UNKNO

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pack, Robert. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Pack, Robert

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pack, Robert. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Run, Bullet, Run: The Rise, Fall, and Recovery of Bob Hayes

Fathering the Map: New and Selected Later Poems

Minding the Sun

Minding the Sun

Elk in Winter

Elk in Winter

Still Here, Still Now

The Claws of the Dragon: Kang Sheng - The Evil Genius Behind Mao - And His Legacy of Terror in People's China

The Claws of the Dragon: Kang Sheng-The Evil Genius Behind Mao and His Legacy of Terror in People's China

Jerry Brown, the philosopher-prince