Diana Starr Cooper, author of Night After Night, wrote in a letter to a friend of the author: 
I still think that In the Shadowless Light [i.e., [Epiphany] is a great work of art, at a level which probably its writer could never achieve again––and given the inspiration for it, maybe no one would want to. But it’s stayed as a fixed star in the firmament for me all these years. Epitome is a mainly prose summary of the book, And Say What He Is: The Life of a Special Child, published under pen-names (J.B. and Emily Murray) in 1975 by the MIT Press. It is also an Introduction to “In the Shadowless Light,” which was first subtitled “Meditations on the Death of a Son.” (The reader is recommended to sleep on Epitome before turning the page to read Epiphany.) Juan Pascoe, who printed John Ridland’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight at his Taller Martín Pescador in Tacámbaro, Mexico, commented, pre-publication, on the current work: It's a pretty dense book, rich but hard to take. A dark epilogue to a tragic Shakespearean play. A trek into the intimacy of a marriage; sure, into poetry, too, but always on the edge of a knife. A deeply religious Indian physician, Dayalan Devanesen, wrote: I speed-read Epitome and Epiphany last night. I had a tremendous emotional response to this wonderful work. I certainly had an epiphany as I read it through. It kept transforming my concepts of human beauty and love and pushed me to transcend many ingrained stereotypes. Little John certainly lives on as the epitome of a beautiful, smiling child of God. You have placed him in a most gentle and beautiful way in spite of all the pain and anguish to live in the hearts and minds of those who read this work. Little John is indeed resurrected. Finally, a young woman, Alexandra Umlas, who has returned to work for an MFA degree in poetry, concludes: The poems [in Epitome] are gifts. Reading them is like being at a reading, where the poet can talk about the poem and you can hear his voice. It is very different, a much more encompassing experience than having just a poem on the page. In “Epiphany” you truly did “set [y]our best thinking upon him,” and so the reader is blessed by the words, and by the presence of Little John, who is there, who is in the father and in the mother, and now in the reader. I welcome him into my own heart and am better for having him there. I loved the Shipap—the bright possibilities of it. “Epiphany” really is a masterpiece of metaphor and an embodiment of its power to transform. The three drawings of Little John by Donald Lent were made on the dates indicated, the latest on the front cover, before he left UCSB to become a Professor at Bates College in Maine. These, with the back cover photograph my wife or I took in Boulder when Little John was five years old, are an essential part of the book as designed by Dowitcher Press.

Epitome & Epiphany: An Abstract and an Afterpiece

Parenting & Relationships

Ridland, John

Disabilities & Hyperactivity

Dowitcher Press

This engaging collection of poems is both personal and universal, nostalgic and immediate. With a keen sense of observation and humility, and with subtle humor even in the face of tragedy, John Ridland bridges the past, present, and future by acknowledging the human need to reconcile ourselves with our memories. Infused with a poignant optimism, these poems seamlessly align experience with the evolution of the self. Ridland creates a compelling and demanding mixture of literary allusions and diverse forms that will satisfy and resonate from beginning to end.

Happy in an Ordinary Thing (New Odyssey)

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

Truman State Univ Pr

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (A New Verse Translation in Modern English)

Poetry. SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT by the anonymous Gawain-Poet (or Pearl-Poet) is, like Beowulf, one of the greatest classics of English literature. Hailed as the finest Arthurian romance, this technically brilliant tale of enchantment, faith, temptation, and chivalry is tautly constructed, with a wonderfully rich vocabulary and vivid language that blends sophisticated atmosphere with psychological depth. John Ridland's new Modern English translation, unlike most presentations, is complete, covering every passage and word of the Middle English, Northwest Midland dialect original with the same line numbering, contents and meaning. His is the only version written in a familiar modern meter—pleasurable to modern ears, yet retaining the spirit of repetition and alliteration of the medieval original. And Dr. Ridland's introduction and notes are enlightening. This translation is a must-have for unlocking all the pleasures and delights of the original classic.  "With his loving rendition of a great classic into vigorous metrical lines, John Ridland has given SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT a fresh lease on life. I've seen several other versions of this masterpiece, but none so engagingly readable as Ridland's. His preface, too, is useful and illuminating. Here is a book to enjoy right now and to cherish forever."—X.J. Kennedy "John Ridland gives us a recognizably English GAWAIN, and a very pleasurable one at that. The language is ours. It is slightly elevated, as befits a work so finely crafted, but only enough to demand our attention. Originally written in the same alliterative verse as Beowulf, SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT was archaic in its own day; now, over six-hundred years later, alliterative verse can be as inaccessible as the pentatonic harp tunes that apparently accompanied it. Ridland gives the poem a long, loose line that sings in the lyrical passages, creeps in the spooky ones, and cavorts in the comic ones. Just as important, the densely mythic ethos, fully intact, enriches every word."—Richard Wakefield  "Panoramas of banqueting and hunting, closely observed rituals of dressing, arming, and game preparation, and rich descriptions of landscape and weather—Ridland's translation presents these in all their delightful, over-the-top particularity."—Maryann Corbett  "The language in which the consummate poet and translator John Ridland serves up this delicious story in verse is exactly what it deserves. The descriptions are exuberant, the narrative flows and exhilarates like the wine at the courts we're asked to imagine, and the exchanges between complex characters so subtly flavored by intelligent diplomacy that it makes the dialogue of much current fiction seem, by contrast, like a six-pack on the front stoop. Read this book. I suspect that, like all enchantments, it shifts and assumes different forms to different eyes. But I do guarantee surprises, and inexhaustible delight."—Rhina P. Espaillat

Able Muse Press

Pearl is an intricate fourteenth-century poem written by one of the greatest Middle English poets--the anonymous artist who also gave us Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This medieval masterpiece presents the meditative Dream Vision of a father (the Dreamer) mourning the loss of a young daughter (his Pearl). Having recently translated Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to critical acclaim, John Ridland now tackles the even more challenging Pearl. He succeeds in giving us another innovative and pleasurable translation that retains line-by-line fidelity with the source material, while bringing the fourteenth-century Northwest Midland dialect into an unstrained contemporary idiom. Ridland's inventive meter and rhyme convey the sonic beauty of the original. Moreover, his preface provides a comprehensive background and analysis of Pearl, points out the techniques deployed by the original poet, and explains Ridland's own approach to translating the poem. This translation will delight and reward the reader.PRAISE FOR JOHN RIDLAND'S TRANSLATION OF PEARL: John Ridland's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight made that fourteenth-century chivalric romance not only accessible but alive to our twenty-first century sensibilities. Now his translation Pearl,  also by the anonymous Gawain Poet, does the same for that poignant dream vision. The poem's formal complexities are still here, mutatis mutandis, but they enhance rather than obscure the story of a grieving father's dream vision of his lost daughter in paradise. Six hundred years vanish, and the reader feels an intimate, profound emotional connection with the universal human experiences of loss, grief, and hope. --Richard Wakefield, author of A Vertical MileAn attractively readable translation, which makes a real attempt to convey the metrical beauty and intricacy of the original. --Ad Putter and Myra Stokes, editors of The Works of the Gawain PoetAfter reading John Ridland's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight some time ago, I thought, "Well, he's done it now: doomed himself to never achieving anything as remarkable as this again, because it's impossible." But I was wrong: his new translation of Pearl--an even more challenging work by the same anonymous fourteenth-century Gawain Poet--is equally musical and moves with the same charmed pace in the telling that is perfect for what is being told. --Rhina P. Espaillat, author of Her Place in These DesignsJohn Ridland's translation offers us, in accessible, contemporary English, all the dazzling complexity and beauty of Pearl's structures, rhythms, and rhymes. --Maryann Corbett, winner, Willis Barnstone Translation Prize; author of Street ViewABOUT THE TRANSLATOR: John Ridland, PhD, taught English at the University of California, Santa Barbara, for forty-three years. His recent book of translation is the Middle English anonymous poet's masterpiece, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Able Muse Press, 2016). His other publications include A Brahms Card Ballad,  first published in Hungarian translation, Happy in an Ordinary Thing,  and a book-length translation of Petöfi's John the Valiant. With Dr. Peter Czipott, Dr. Ridland has translated several other Hungarian poets, including Sándor Márai's The Withering World (Alma Classics, 2013) and Miklos Rádnoti's All That Still Matters at All (New American Press, 2014). In 2014 Askew Publications issued his epic poem, A. Lincolniad.

Pearl: A New Verse Translation in Modern English

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

Books by Ridland, John

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

Epitome & Epiphany: An Abstract and an Afterpiece

Happy in an Ordinary Thing (New Odyssey)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (A New Verse Translation in Modern English)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (A New Verse Translation in Modern English)

Pearl: A New Verse Translation in Modern English