Hill, Michael (Seeger, Alan)

War Poet: The Life of Alan Seeger and His Rendezvous with Death

ISBN: 9781973794967
North Charleston, SC: Michael Hill, 2017. First Printing. Softcover. “’War Poet’ is a biography of American poet, Alan Seeger, killed during the battle of the Somme in July 1916, and author of ‘I Have a Rendezvous with Death,’ the favorite poem of President John F. Kennedy and one of the most powerful and memorable war poems of all time. Seeger’s death in World War I was seen as ‘one of the most romantic incidents of the war’ and his poetry as ‘the authentic voice of…war’s ennobling glory.’ Even after the war literary allusions to his epic life made their way into the works of writers F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Drawing on new and important archival material, Michael Hill paints a noble and poignant portrait of this little known but fascinating American poet” (from Back Cover). Like Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen, Alan Seeger (1888-1916) too died tragically young. Fans of American music the world over know the name “Seeger,” — as it brings to mind the indefatigable Pete Seeger (1919-2014), a key, early influence on Bob Dylan and many other (then-young) aspirant NYC folkies. As it happens, Alan Seeger was a not-so-distant relative of Pete, his sister, Peggy, and his brother, Mike. Alan Seeger was the brother of Charles Seeger, the noted American pacifist, musicologist, and uncle to Pete, Peggy & Mike. The Forrest-Gumpian symphony of synchronicities far from stops there, the prospective reader of this work will be happy to know. Alan Seeger, as it happens, was just one of those figures whose life—short as it was—proved so extraordinary and serendipitous that reading about him feels…well, effortless. For example, Seeger’s Harvard Class of 1910 included a young, fledgling poet named T.S. Eliot—by then still five years out from “Prufrock” and its eventual publication in 1915. I could go on in precisely this manner, but I’ll stop—as I want to save the bulk of mind-blowing details & “small-world” connections for the reader to discover-encounter, themselves. Trade-format softcover original; the First Edition of this attentive and profound “new history” of poet and soldier, Alan Seeger—who, along with his contemporaries from across the pond, Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen, together comprise the premier poets of WWI. In very fine condition, virtually as new with only faintest shelf-wear to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers—so minute as to almost be nonexistent—about as close to flawless as you’ll come across. Very Fine. [Item #5091]

Price: $30.00