Carcanet Press - Fivefathers

Description
Editor
Awards
Reviews

`This book,' writes Les Murray, `presents to British and European readers selections from the work of five leading Australian poets of the generation before
mine.' They are, with Judith Wright, A. D. Hope and Gwen Harwood-who are happily available in British editions-key figures in
`a Golden Age of Australian poetry which paradoxically coincided with its greatest
marginalisation'.

Murray's characteristically vivid and emphatic introductory essays to the poets, of whom he is in a real sense himself made, as heir and successor, and his `essential' selections from their work, and he suggests why their accomplishments have been eclipsed in the wider bourse of English-language literary reputations. The Academy has much to answer for, yet the freedom the poets enjoyed was partly a result of their very neglect by institutions.

Murray strikes effectively against `that imperial trap of exclusion', making the available map of our century's poetry larger and much richer.

Les Murray (1938-2019) grew up on a dairy farm at Bunyah on the north coast of New South Wales. He studied at Sydney University and later worked as a translator at the Australian National University and as an officer in the Prime Minister's Department. His real vocation was poetry, however, and ... read more

Awards won by Les Murray Short-listed, 2015 T. S. Eliot Prize (Waiting for the Past ) Long-listed, 1994 for the Oxford Chair of Poetry. Winner, 1996 T.S. Eliot Prize for the best collection. (Subhuman Redneck Poems) Winner, 1999 Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.

Praise for Les Murray 'Les Murray's final gift to us, published exactly three years after his death, is certainly worth the wait.'

André Naffis-Sahely, The Times Literary Supplement

'The earth's physical landscape...is rendered with extraordinary, often strange, beauty.'

New Yorker

'His poetry was never less than a rough-edged hymn of praise to the ceaseless and unstoppable wonders of Creation'

Michael Glover, The Tablet

'The poems in this posthumous collection are, as so often in his work, intelligent, high-spirited, coolly or crudely argued, full of small delights, often with a strong dose of wrongheadedness... Murray was that rare thing, a poet who whatever his debts seemed an original.'

William Logan, The New York Times

'Very occasionally you come across something on the page which makes you think ''you can't do any better than this.'' Perfection achieved.'
BBC Radio 4's Saturday Review 'Waiting for the Past is a brilliant collection by a brilliant poet.'
Anthony Domestico, Commonweal Magazine 'Les Murray's Taller When Prone shows a poetic master nimbly and lyrically at work. Now seventy-two, Murray writes with the bigness of soul of a person twice his age. This collection adds another chuckie to the cairn of a remarkable personal achievement. A Nobel Prize for that man, please.'
Robert Crawford, TLS Books Of The Year 2010

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Fivefathers Edited by Les Murray 10% off Categories: 20th Century, Anthologies, Australian Imprint: Fyfield Books Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (96 pages) (Pub. Apr 1994) 9781857540871 £12.95 £11.65 Description Editor Awards Reviews `This book,' writes Les Murray, `presents to British and European readers selections from the work of five leading Australian poets of the generation before mine.' They are, with Judith Wright, A. D. Hope and Gwen Harwood-who are happily available in British editions-key figures in `a Golden Age of Australian poetry which paradoxically coincided with its greatest marginalisation'. Murray's characteristically vivid and emphatic introductory essays to the poets, of whom he is in a real sense himself made, as heir and successor, and his `essential' selections from their work, and he suggests why their accomplishments have been eclipsed in the wider bourse of English-language literary reputations. The Academy has much to answer for, yet the freedom the poets enjoyed was partly a result of their very neglect by institutions. Murray strikes effectively against `that imperial trap of exclusion', making the available map of our century's poetry larger and much richer. Les Murray (1938-2019) grew up on a dairy farm at Bunyah on the north coast of New South Wales. He studied at Sydney University and later worked as a translator at the Australian National University and as an officer in the Prime Minister's Department. His real vocation was poetry, however, and ... read more Awards won by Les Murray Short-listed, 2015 T. S. Eliot Prize (Waiting for the Past ) Long-listed, 1994 for the Oxford Chair of Poetry. Winner, 1996 T.S. Eliot Prize for the best collection. (Subhuman Redneck Poems) Winner, 1999 Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. Praise for Les Murray 'Les Murray's final gift to us, published exactly three years after his death, is certainly worth the wait.' André Naffis-Sahely, The Times Literary Supplement 'The earth's physical landscape...is rendered with extraordinary, often strange, beauty.' *New Yorker* 'His poetry was never less than a rough-edged hymn of praise to the ceaseless and unstoppable wonders of Creation' Michael Glover, The Tablet 'The poems in this posthumous collection are, as so often in his work, intelligent, high-spirited, coolly or crudely argued, full of small delights, often with a strong dose of wrongheadedness... Murray was that rare thing, a poet who whatever his debts seemed an original.' William Logan, The New York Times 'Very occasionally you come across something on the page which makes you think ''you can't do any better than this.'' Perfection achieved.' BBC Radio 4's Saturday Review 'Waiting for the Past is a brilliant collection by a brilliant poet.' Anthony Domestico, Commonweal Magazine 'Les Murray's Taller When Prone shows a poetic master nimbly and lyrically at work. Now seventy-two, Murray writes with the bigness of soul of a person twice his age. This collection adds another chuckie to the cairn of a remarkable personal achievement. A Nobel Prize for that man, please.' Robert Crawford, TLS Books Of The Year 2010	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Poetry Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Lives and Letters PN Review Video Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! The Carcanet Blog One Little Room: Peter McDonald read more Collected Poems: Mimi Khalvati read more Invisible Dog: Fabio Morbito, translated by Richard Gwyn read more Dante's Purgatorio: Philip Terry read more Billy 'Nibs' Buckshot: John Gallas read more Emotional Support Horse: Claudine Toutoungi read more
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Fivefathers

Edited by Les Murray