The Search for the Genuine

Préface
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Auteur

JIM HARRISON (1937-2016) was the author of thirty-nine other works of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction, including Legends of the Fall, The Road Home, Returning to Earth, and The English Major. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship, he had work published in twenty-seven languages.

Texte du rabat

The first general nonfiction title in thirty years from a giant of American letters, The Search for the Genuine is a sparkling, definitive collection of Jim Harrison's essays and journalism—some never before published 

 New York Times–*bestselling author Jim Harrison (1937–2016) was a writer with a poet’s economy of style and a trencherman’s appetites. Praised as a “national treasure” (*Chicago Tribune) and published in twenty-seven languages, he was one of this country’s most beloved and critically acclaimed authors. Best known for his poetry and fiction such as Legends of the Fall, Dalva, and Returning to Earth, Harrison was also a prolific nonfiction writer, with columns running in Sports Illustrated and Esquire, and work in Outside, Field & Stream, and others. The first collection of Harrison’s general nonfiction in thirty years, The Search for the Genuine is a sparkling, definitive volume of essays and journalism—from the near-classic to the never-published. 

 With his trademark ribald humor, compassion, and full-throated zest for life, The Search for the Genuine pays tribute to writers from Bukowski to Neruda to Peter Matthiessen, and examines the distance between literary reputation and the work itself; he attains something like satori in the field hunting grouse; he reports on Yellowstone for the park’s hundredth anniversary, when he was merely a tourist to the part of Montana he would eventually call home; he takes to the open sea in pursuit of roosterfish, marlin, tarpon, and, once, to observe a scientific mission tagging sharks; he delivers a heartbreaking essay on life—and, for those attempting to cross in the ever-more dangerous gaps, death—on the US-Mexico border. Always he comes back to the spirit and to connection with the natural world and the people who sustained him; throughout the book his feeling for the American landscape rings out. 

 Lovingly introduced by acclaimed novelist, poet, and essayist Luis Alberto Urrea, The Search for the Genuine is a feast that captures a lifetime of reading, writing, and living to the fullest, from a true “American original” (San Francisco Chronicle).

Résumé


 The first general nonfiction title in thirty years from a giant of American letters, The Search for the Genuine is a sparkling, definitive collection of Jim Harrison's essays and journalism—some never before published

New York Times–*bestselling author Jim Harrison (1937–2016) was a writer
with a poet’s economy of style and a trencherman’s appetites. Praised as a
“national treasure” (*Chicago Tribune) and published in twenty-seven languages, he was one of
this country’s most beloved and critically acclaimed authors. Best known for
his poetry and fiction such as Legends of the
Fall, Dalva, and Returning
to Earth, Harrison was also a prolific
nonfiction writer, with columns running in Sports
Illustrated and Esquire,
and work in Outside, Field & Stream, and others. The first collection of Harrison’s general
nonfiction in thirty years, *The
Search for the Genuine *is a
sparkling, definitive volume of essays and journalism—from the near-classic to
the never-published.

With his trademark ribald humor,
compassion, and full-throated zest for life, *The
Search for the Genuine *pays
tribute to writers from Bukowski to Neruda to Peter Matthiessen, and examines
the distance between literary reputation and the work itself; he attains
something like satori in the field hunting grouse; he reports on Yellowstone
for the park’s hundredth anniversary, when he was merely a tourist to the part
of Montana he would eventually call home; he takes to the open sea in pursuit
of roosterfish, marlin, tarpon, and, once, to observe a scientific mission
tagging sharks; he delivers a heartbreaking essay on life—and, for those
attempting to cross in the ever-more dangerous gaps, death—on the US-Mexico
border. Always he comes back to the spirit and to connection with the natural
world and the people who sustained him; throughout the book his feeling for the
American landscape rings out.

Lovingly introduced by acclaimed
novelist, poet, and essayist Luis Alberto Urrea, The Search for the Genuine *is a feast that captures a lifetime of reading, writing,
and living to the fullest, from a true “American original” (*San Francisco Chronicle). 



Contenu

Introduction 
 The Man Who Ate Books (Télérama) 
 Playful “memoir” of voraciousness for books, beginning with a (probably fictional) scene where as a baby the unnamed third-person narrator chewed on a family Bible 



 Dogs in the Manger: On Love, Spirit, and Literature 
 Why I Write (written for France, unpublished in English, possibly not published at all) 
 Short early piece, likely unpublished, dated to 1970s 
 Sitting Around (Tricycle) 
 On Zen and meditation 
 Dogs in the Manger (unpublished) 
 Literary reputation, very funny section on the anxieties of “regional” writers. Originally written for the NYTBR, never published

My Leader (In Search of Small Gods) 
 A memorable meeting with a goat in a Mexican cemetery, originally published in In Search of Small Gods (as a prose poem)

Nesting in Air (Northern Lights, anthology) 
 First Person Female (New York Times Magazine) 
 Essay for the New York Times Magazine on writing in the voice/head of female characters 
 Great Poems Make Good Prayers (Esquire) 
 Peter Matthiessen and a Writer’s Sport (unpublished) 
 Unpublished interview/fanboy love letter to Peter Matthiessen 
 The Pleasures of the Damned (New York Times Book Review) 
 Charles Bukowski review, for the NYTBR 
 Steinbeck (Steinbeck society anthology) 
 Short essay on reading Steinbeck, Jim’s dad, and his own youthful hitchhiker travels in California 
 Lauren Hutton’s ABCs (Playboy) 
 Love letter to Lauren Hutton 
 Introduction to Residence on Earth by Pablo Neruda (New Directions edition of Residence on Earth) 
 Why I Write, Or Not (Why I Write: Thoughts on the Craft of Fiction ed Will Blythe) 
 Essay for Will Blythe anthology on writing, motivation, craft 
 Thoreau (written for Yves Jolviet in France, never published in English) 
 Dream as a Metaphor of Survival (Psychoanalytic Review) 
 An examination of dreams and compendium of some memorable ones, for the Psychoanalytic Review 
 Blue Panties (unpublished) 
 A whimsical meditation on the mysteries of sex and attraction, written after finding a pair of panties on a walk

Wisdom (written for France, unpublished as far as we know) 



 Dog Years: On Hunting 
 Dog Years (Field & Stream) …