Presenter of
the National Book Awards
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Presenter of
the National Book Awards
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Louis Simpson was a National Book Award Finalist in 1964 for At The End of the Open Road, in 1966 for Selected Poems, and in 1973 for Adventures of the Letter I. More about this author >
The struggle with day-to-day American life, set against the backdrop of larger and weightier social issues, takes center-stage in this collection. The earlier poems, which concern themselves primarily with the experience of the World War II soldier, balance morbid subject matter with rhyme and sing-song rhythm, while the later work is characterized by even-lined, unrhymed verse. Read chronologically, the collection is a tale of increasing self-knowledge and personal discovery.
