Widely regarded as the finest poet of his generation, Seamus Heaney
is the subject of numerous critical studies, but no book-length
portrait has appeared before now. Through his own lively and
eloquent reminiscences, "Stepping Stones "retraces the poet's steps
from his first exploratory testing of the ground as an infant to
what he called his "moon-walk" to the podium to receive the 1995
Nobel Prize in Literature. It also fascinatingly charts his
post-Nobel life and is supplemented with a number of photographs,
many from the Heaney family album and published here for the first
time. In response to firm but subtle questioning from Dennis
O'Driscoll, Heaney sheds a personal light on his work (poems,
essays, translations, plays) and on the artistic and ethical
challenges he faced during the dark years of the Ulster Troubles.
Combining the spontaneity of animated conversation with the
considered qualities of the best autobiographical writing,
"Stepping Stones "provides an original, diverting, and absorbing
store of reflections and recollections. Scholars and general
readers alike are brought closer to the work, life, and creative
development of a charismatic and lavishly gifted poet whose latest
collection, "District and Circle," was awarded the T. S. Eliot
Prize in 2007.
""Stepping Stones"--a conversation-style response to questions
submitted over the years by Dennis O'Driscoll--is an outspoken oral
work of art."--Karl Miller, "The Times Literary Supplement"
""Stepping Stones: Interviews With Seamus Heaney," poet Dennis
O'Driscoll's extraordinary book, takes its title from the place in
Heaney's Nobel lecture where he observes that both his writing and
his life can be seen as 'a journey where each point of arrival . .
. turned out to be a stepping-stone rather than a destination, '
and the emphasis on continuing process informs it from beginning to
end. The book's form is that of extended interviews, conducted
(largely in writing) over a period of years, in which the
interviewer, O'Driscoll, defines his role as that of prompter
rather than interrogator. Its purpose--in the continuing absence of
any substantial biography--is to present interviews, freed from
space limitations, that might come to comprise 'a comprehensive
portrait of the man and his times'--and, of course, of the work
itself. (Heaney's only stipulation was that he would not speak in
analytic detail of any of the poems, though he does cite particular
aspects of many, and to dazzling effect.) O'Driscoll calls the book
'a survey of [Heaney's] life, often using the poems as reference
points, ' thus providing 'a biographical context for the poems and
a poetry-based account of the life.' For this reason he is right to
find the result 'very much a book for readers of [Heaney's]
oeuvre.' But it is much, much more. Many-leveled, it is a book that
rearranges itself according to the angle of the reader's
questioning, and while it will surely send many readers to the
poems themselves, whether for the first or the dozenth time, it
has, as great autobiography must have, stand-alone value as well.
Some of this value is documentary, whether detailing the nuances of
Irish cultural politics during the Troubles of the late '60s, or
trenchantly evoking the writers and writings that assumed a place
in Heaney's development. Richly deployed, this is the stuff of
cultural history, and it is inevitably central to Heaney's probing
account of his formation as man and poet. What I want to stress
here, however, is that the book is more than simply an account of
experience; it is itself "an agency of" experience. You come away
from it--at least you can: I did--moved, enlarged and deepened.
"Stepping Stones" consists of three sections, the first evoking in
magical detail the poet's childhood on the family farm (Mossbawn)
in County Derry--'a small, ordinary, nose-to-the-grindstoney
place'--and his subsequent schooling in Belfast. The long central
section organizes the intertwinings of life and work through the
successive collections of the poems; and the third--the
briefest--brings the account up to date, describing the poet's
stroke in 2006, his recovery, and his view of the world on the eve
of his 70th birthday . . . This is not only a radically original
book; in its own quiet way it is also a great one."--Donald Fanger,
"Truthdig"" "
"Popular contemporary Irish poet O'Driscoll began work on this book
of interviews with Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney in
September 2001. Interestingly, aside from some transcriptions in
Chapters 13 and 15, these interviews were conducted in writing and
through the mail. This format allowed Heaney to pick which
questions to answer and to rearrange their order as he chose, and
O'Driscoll sees his role as 'prompter rather than interrogator, '
giving Heaney a good deal of influence on the final book. The
result is not a comprehensive biography (nor is it meant to be) but
rather 'a survey of his life, using the poems as reference points.'
Though Heaney has been interviewed by many others, this
collection's unique method of creation makes it a worthy addition
to literature collections."--Felicity D. Walsh, "Library
Journal
""There is no shortage of writing by or about Nobel Prize-winning
Irish poet Heaney. Yet this big book is a unique and useful
addition to the Heaney canon: beginning in 2001, the Dublin-based
poet, essayist and anthologist O'Driscoll entered into an extended
correspondence with Heaney for the purpose of collaboratively
constructing a kind of autobiography-in-interviews. The result is a
collection of 16 discreet interviews, the first two of which
discuss Heaney's childhood and poetic growth. Then there is one
interview-chapter for each of Heaney's celebrated books (except the
last two, which are grouped together), followed by a summing up. In
conversation, Heaney comes across as extremely friendly,
expansively intelligent and in possession of the groundedness in
the details of his environment that readers of his poems will be
familiar with. Here are boyhood recollections ('Our travelling
grocery van . . . was run first by a man called McCarney, but 'the
egg man' was our name for him'), memories of the famous Belfast
Group and accounts of coming-of-age, and then coming to
international prominence, against the backdrop of Ireland's
troubled 20th-century politics. And, of course, Heaney traces the
events--both political and personal--that led to many of his poems.
For fans of Heaney, of 20th-century Irish literature or anyone
eager to get deep into the mind of a major artist, this is an
essential book."--"Publishers Weekly"
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