Excerpts-

• From the cover Once upon a time, there was a man named Jack Gilbert, who was not related to me—unfortunately for me.
  
  Jack Gilbert was a great poet, but if you’ve never heard of him, don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault. He never much cared about being known. But I knew about him, and I loved him dearly from a respectful distance, so let me tell you about him.
  
  Jack Gilbert was born in Pittsburgh in 1925 and grew up in the midst of that city’s smoke, noise, and industry. He worked in factories and steel mills as a young man, but was called from an early age to write poetry. He answered the call without hesitation. He became a poet the way other men become monks: as a devotional practice, as an act of love, and as a lifelong commitment to the search for grace and transcendence. I think this is probably a very good way to become a poet. Or to become anything, really, that calls to your heart and brings you to life.
  
  Jack could’ve been famous, but he wasn’t into it. He had the talent and the charisma for fame, but he never had the interest. His first collection, published in 1962, won the prestigious Yale Younger Poets prize and was nominated for the Pulitzer. What’s more, he won over audiences as well as critics, which is not an easy feat for a poet in the modern world. There was something about him that drew people in and kept them captivated. He was handsome, passionate, sexy, brilliant on stage. He was a magnet for women and an idol for men. He was photographed for Vogue, looking gorgeous and romantic. People were crazy about him. He could’ve been a rock star.
  
  Instead, he disappeared. He didn’t want to be distractedby too much commotion. Later in life he reported that he had found his fame boring—not because it was immoral or corrupting, but simply because it was exactly the same thing every day. He was looking for something richer, more textured, more varied. So he dropped out. He went to live in Europe and stayed there for twenty years. He lived for a while in Italy, a while in Denmark, but mostly he lived in a shepherd’s hut on a mountaintop in Greece. There, he contemplated the eternal mysteries, watched the light change, and wrote his poems in private. He had his love stories, his obstacles, his victories. He was happy. He got by somehow, making a living here and there. He needed little. He allowed his name to be forgotten.
  
  After two decades, Jack Gilbert resurfaced and publishedanother collection of poems. Again, the literary world fellin love with him. Again, he could have been famous. Again,he disappeared—this time for a decade. This would be hispattern always: isolation, followed by the publication ofsomething sublime, followed by more isolation. He was likea rare orchid, with blooms separated by many years. Henever promoted himself in the least. (In one of the few interviewshe ever gave, Gilbert was asked how he thoughthis detachment from the publishing world had affected hiscareer. He laughed and said, “I suppose it’s been fatal.”)
  
  The only reason I ever heard of Jack Gilbert was that, quite late in his life, he returned to America and—for motives I will never know—took a temporary teaching position in the creative writing department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The following year, 2005, it happened that I took exactly the same job. (Around campus,they started jokingly calling the position “the Gilbert Chair.”) I found Jack Gilbert’s books in my office—the office that had once been his. It was almost like the room was still warm from his presence. I read his poems and was overcome by their...

About the Author-

• Elizabeth Gilbert is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Magic, Eat Pray Love, and The Signature of All Things, as well as several other internationally bestselling books of fiction and nonfiction. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her latest novel, City of Girls, comes out in June, 2019. 

Reviews-

• 

  Starred review from June 15, 2015
  Gilbert (The Signature of All Things) offers an empathetic and inspiring guide to mustering the courage to live a creative life. That doesn’t necessarily mean a career in the arts, she’s quick to point out (“If you’re alive, you’re a creative person,” she states); instead, she proposes a life fueled by curiosity rather than fear. Gilbert, more than most, can understand how a big success can make one feel as if the follow-up must not disappoint, writing that “I can’t tell you how many people said to me during those years , ‘How are you ever going to top that?’ ” She notes that this kind of pressure can be an instant creativity killer and encourages readers to let go of perfectionism and embrace being good enough. This mind-set, in her experience, leads to the willingness to take chances, live life to the fullest, and act on risky ideas. Gilbert divides her book into six sections, each devoted to a quality she believes necessary for living without fear: courage, enchantment, permission, persistence, trust, and divinity. In each section, Gilbert peppers sound advice with personal triumphs and failures. Nearly anyone who picks up this self-help manual should finish it feeling inspired, even if only to dream of a life without limits. Agent: Sarah Chalfant, Wylie Agency.

• 

  November 30, 2015
  Like her previous memoirs, Eat, Pray, Love and Committed, Gilbert reads for the audio edition of her latest, which explores her creativity and life as a writer. Gilbert sounds appropriately playful, making the most of the book’s many humorous moments, but she’s also capable of serious turns, such as when she describes some artists’ tortured and self-destructive methods of creation. Her performance mirrors the advice she gives in the book itself that an artist should be a “disciplined half-ass”: determined to show up every day and make the most of whatever gifts are on offer from the universe, but lighthearted enough to avoid attaching one’s self-esteem to the reception of one’s work. Overall, Gilbert’s performance feels like an intimate tête-à-tête with a wise friend. A Riverhead hardcover.

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