JEFFERS ~ THE CARMEL COAST
LAWRENCE CLARK POWELL

Rereading recently Lawrence Clark Powell's Robinson Jeffers, the man & his work (Haskell House) originally published by Primavera Press of Los Angeles, with the decorations by Rockwell Kent, foreword by Jeffers himself, one is holding in hand one of the gorgeous masterworks of California. Powell has been forgotten by way too many readers, mostso the new young readers who could delight in his slow down world of book lore and customs and embracing books and writers whole to his chest. All his books are a singing testimony to the love of writers, books and libraries. He didn't sit on a tenured post or busy his days with writing grant proposals — he got up off his fanny and went to visit the writers he advocated and literally moved in for awhile with the family of man and took his notes and sharpened his eye and dirtied his brow. In Jeffers' case, he swept himself up in the legends of the rocky Carmel coast, going inland too with those sunny creviced hillsides. Forgetting Jeffers or Powell is forgetting the physical literary landscape. I like this map that comes along with the book. It tells many stories, deepens some myths, clears the eye to where-what-is while reading Jeffers. Take a look. Go find the poems. Click on the map to make it bigger.

~ In Memory ~

J. G. Ballard