| Vol. I,
No. 1 |
Oct.
20th, 2000 |
Links to Books & Lit On-Line
The amount of info on the web is enormous, as
anyone who's ever tried to run a search can attest to. And, to put it all
in context, best estimates say that only a fraction, maybe 20 - 40 % of what's
out there is actually making its way to the search engines.
Well ...
Here at DownStreet, we'd like to try to help. So
each issue, we post a few links in Books & Lit to sites that might interest
you. Sometimes the links will be related to one another ...
sometimes we'll just offer up a somewhat random sampling. In either case,
we think we might be able to help you find the kind of site you've been looking
for.
Of course, while we can't vouch for the fact that every link
we provide will be of interest to everyone, we do our best to filter out the
noise and the bustle. ...
We hope you enjoy the following sites as much as we do.
The Beat Does Go On ... and Other Links to
Poetry On-Line:
-
City
Lights Booksellers and Publishers
Back in 1953, a fellow by the name of Lawrence Ferlinghetti
and a friend, Peter D. Martin founded a bookstore in San Francisco.
The bookstore: City Lights. It quickly became the meetingplace
for booklovers in and around the city. In fact, for years, folks have
been making nothing short of pilgrimages to it. Why? ...
Well ... Maybe it's because City Lights was the
publisher of Alan Ginsburg's Howl. Or maybe because it was home
and publishing house to just about every Beat writer at one time or
another. In any case, if you visit City Lights on-line, you'll not
only find books by writers like Alan Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, Wm. S.
Burroughs, Neal Cassady, Gary Snyder, Diane DiPrima, Gregory Corso, and
Michael McClure ... not to mention books about the Beat movement ... you'll
also find a short history of City Lights itself, and copies of
Ferlinghetti's columns from The San Francisco Chronicle Book Review,
which appear under the title "Poetry as News." ...
The poet Ezra Pound once referred to poetry as "news that stays
news." That's prob'ly the allusion Ferlinghetti has in mind with
his column. But the real news here might just be that, in an age of
mega-bookstores, City Lights continues. You should know, however, that
if you're looking to place an order, there's no on-line ordering system,
although you can call or e-mail. ***** [5 stars]
-
The
Academy of American Poets
Another winner is the poetry.org site of the American
Academy of Poets. At present, the Academy has about 600 poems on line,
which you can search by keyword, or browse by title or first line.
There are also more than 200 different poets listed, who you can also ferret
out by either name or keyword, or browse alphabetically.
The real gem here, though, may well be the Listening Booth
... a place where you can go to hear the poets reading their own work.
On our last visit, the Booth displayed four poems, including works by Anna
Akhmatova and John Ashberry. But you can also browse this section by
either the author's last name or poem title. Not all works are
available in audio. But a quick click on 'P' popped up two poems, one
by Sylvia Plath and one by the above-mentioned Ezra Pound.
In addition to the features above, the Academy has also provided a
'Notebook' feature. As you browse the site, you can create shortcuts
to things of interest and stash them in your notebook, along with
notes. You can keep more than one notebook, too. Of course,
you've got to love poetry to love this site. But we do ... and
did. ***** [5 stars]
-
Knopf
Publishing Group -- Poetry Center
The list of notable poets among Knopf's line-up is
formidable ... W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Raymond Carver, Amy Clampitt,
Rita Dove, William Gass, Daniel Halpern, Anthony Hecht, Langston Hughes,
Donald Justice, Kenneth Koch, Philip Levine, James Merrill, W. S. Merwin,
Sharon Olds, Michael Ondaatje, Marge Piercy, Sylvia Plath, Wallace Stevens,
Mark Strand, Mona Van Duyn, Richard Wright ...
For each of these poets, and more, Knopf's site offers excerpts from a
single work, and, for some of the poets, excerpts from interviews or audio
files of the poets reading. The emphasis here, of course, is on Knopf
as publisher. So each poet's write-up includes a featured title, with
reviewer's comments, as well as a complete list of additional titles, with
format, ISBN, date of publication, and price. While not as extensive
as The American Academy of Poets site, we still think the Knopf site is well
worth a visit. ***1/2 [3 1/2 stars]
*******
*******
If you know of any links that you think are
worthwhile, why not send them along to ...
links@downstreetmagazine.com
...
If we agree, we'll be happy to include them
in an upcoming issue to pass the word along. ...
Thanks.
*******
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