Canyon john

  Author(s): John Vernon  Title:       The Last Canyon  ISBN: 0 618 10940 4  Publisher/place: Houghton Mifflin, Boston  This Edition:  first  Year of Publication: 2001  Binding: hardcover Dustjacket: yes  Number of pages:  336  Weight: 650g  Condition:   Excellent   

2009 first edition hardcover with dust jacket in new condition. R50 postage in SA.  302 pages.                  In centuries past, undertaking a journey meant a voyage into the unknown, traveling for months or years into unexplored areas on the map where cartographers could only speculate "There be dragons." And those fortunate adventurers who made it home again always had fantastical tales to tell—even if sometimes they stretched the truth up to and beyond the breaking point. This eclectic history of exploration sweeps from antiquity to the 1800s, encompassing ages when new marvels might be waiting over the next hill or a new world just over the horizon. Among others, we meet Marco Polo, the 13th-century Venetian whose extravagant accounts of distant Cathay were mainly true; Sir John Mandeville, less intrepid explorer than shameless exaggerator; and John Wesley Powell, braving Colorado River rapids on the first trip through the Grand Canyon. We visit dozens of places around the globe captured in the words, images, and maps of their discoverers. Each page unfolds its wonders in gorgeous profusion that delights the eye and dazzles the imagination.

This item is sold brand new. It is ordered on demand from our supplier and is usually dispatched within 7 - 15 working days "Lars Gustafsson has an uncompromising vision of the utter complexity of modern life."-"The New York Times Book Review" From the moment it begins, Lars Gustafsson's "A Time in Xanadu" throws open questions of geography and narration. Where are we? How do we know? Throughout the book, the speaker's voice proves a powerful one as it muses on questions of travel, war, philosophy, and thought itself. The language of Gustafsson's poems is sparse, and his lines are compact and taut. But beneath the neat surfaces of these poems lie surreal and sometimes eerie landscapes: a castle in Cremona, Italy; "those white, strangely meaningless / days between Christmas and New Year;" a library which is "a kind of subway." There are strains of Ezra Pound in this work, and allusions to great continental thinkers-Goethe, Fichte, Nietzsche, Einstein-drift across it. Yet tracing those allusions to their source is neither desirable nor, ultimately, possible. For in the wake of Gustafsson's highly evocative poems, we can only wonder just how much time we have spent, or lost, in Xanadu, or where we went from there. "The Khan leaves Xanadu and milk from white goats only is hurled high into the air on his departure to nourish the spirits of the air. So says Marco Polo, our Venetian witness." Lars Gustafsson is a renowned Swedish poet, novelist, and philosopher who has written dozens of books. He taught philosophy for many years at the University of Texas, Austin. He now lives in Sweden. Features Summary Lars Gustafsson--poet, novelist, and philosopher--is one of Sweden's leading and most prolific writers. Author Lars Gustafsson (Author), John Irons (Translator) Publisher Copper Canyon Press Release date 20080517 Pages 89 ISBN 1-55659-275-2 ISBN 13 978-1-55659-275-1