"And I observe, and I am like them
only for a day"
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Last night, against the white wall, by the bed-post no doubt he had come to die
The Surface of Time © 2000 Louis Dudek
Poet, teacher, publisher, essayist, translator and editor Louis Dudek was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1918. He taught at McGill University from 1951 to 1984; his publishing career includes the founding of such significant ‘little magazines’ as First Statement, Delta, CIV/n,as well as Contact Press, Delta Canada and DC Books. He is the author of over twenty-five books of poetry, essays, epigrams and notebooks; and the editor of numerous anthologies.
"Dudek is Canada’s most important—that is to say consequential—modern voice." —Robin Blaser
"Dudek is now properly regarded as one of the central figures of twentieth-century Canadian poetry." Whether tackling the long poem or the epigram, Dudek will always be the consummate thinker, a relentless seeker of clarity, logic—and the prodigious ideas that spring from therein. —Canadian Literature
"Dudek is…the first ‘man of letters’ in Canada, the first to follow Arnold and Pound in combining poetry, criticism, polemic editing, and cultural criticism into one multi-faceted cultural vision." —Open Letter
Eternal
Conversations
“The Canadian Socrates deserves to be better known, not for his sake, but for our own.” Endre
Farkas,The
Montreal Gazette,
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DUDEK'S TRANSLATIONS OF LEGENDARY QUEBEC POET
A
DECEMBER 2000 RELEASE Louis
Dudek's Read two poems from
Louis Dudek, literary legend, continues to provoke and delight readers of all ages and all perceptions. Within this stunning collection of his most recent poems, Dudek confronts mortality with solemnity and a bitter-sweet humour. Yet the poet remains ever-effusive in his passion for the life cycle, with all its mysteries and wonders, breathing new light into that eternal question, “why do we exist?” Readers will be moved by Dudek’s most personal and revealing poems to date, whose themes encompass the ripeness of Bach, the tenderness of a loved one caring for the home, God’s apparent indifference, the afflictions of old age and most importantly, the long-awaited completion of “Continuation III,” his most ambitious long poem. Like Wordsworth, who described himself as "a Teacher or nothing," Dudek sees poetry as a medium for saying something and the didactic impulse here is as strong as ever. His poetry has always been a sly amalgam of verse and epigram ... Moreover, in his more recent verse, he has inserted an increased lyricism that gives his poems of old age a haunting, timeless quality. These poems are by turn relaxed, humorous, philosophical, sometimes even numinous; easy to read the first time, they are full of the sagesse that rewards re-readings. An admirable late flowering at the close of an impressive, even awesome career. —W.J. Keith,
ISBN 0-921852-31-2
A
1998 RELEASE REALITY
GAMES Literature. Religion.
Quebec politics. No topic escapes Louis Dudek’s
expedition into the vortex of reason. Some of the ideas
presented in this, his eighth collection of essays, were
considered to be so controversial, they were actually
turned down by an unprecedented number of magazines.
"In the Footsteps of Leopold Bloom" will be of special
interest to scholars: seventy-five years after the publication
of James Joyce’s masterpiece, Dudek offers
what he claims to be the first correct interpretation
of Ulysses’ famous ending. How, readers might
wonder, could critics have missed it
—and other evocative insights regarding the nature of
reality in fiction and in daily life? True to form,
Dudek then makes an about-face via three epigrammatic
sequences, interspersed strategically
as landmines, triggered to assault What the Critics Say: "Dudek is one of the few Canadian writers who could get away with a potpourri of this kind. Through the years he has earned the right to comment—boldly, and even sometimes caustically and outrage-ously—on all aspects of modern art and thought. This is not a book for those who are looking for a sustained argument or a consistent theme. But for those who want an anthology of intellectual wisdom and stimulation, it is a joy." —W.J. Keith, "Always the mind roams, restless, testing, curious. The sum total becomes a study of our age; the experience is that of a man who always took the side of decision, saying what he knows, loud and clear." —Michael Gnarowski ISBN 0-921852-22-3
120pp. 6"x9"
A 1997 RELEASE The Caged Tiger Read a poem from Louis Dudek, O.C., M.A., Ph.D., is one of the pre-eminent figures in twentieth century Canadian literature. Much like the
chess match that takes place in Dudek’s tribute to that grand
old game, these poems evolve on an impeccably laid-out,
lyrical battlefield. Bereft of ostentation, each "move" is
swift and precise—each chain of thought inviting the
reader to take part in the joust. "These poems show Dudek at his best—and free verse at its best; they may well be the harvest of his earlier work in both prose and verse. They are enough the guarantee Dudek’s continuing eminence as poet-sage." —W.J. Keith ISBN
0-921852-19-3
A
1996 RELEASE "Whenever I have written anything, it was a release for temporary nervous emotion. The motive was always unhealthy." —Louis Dudek,
Friday, 9:30 p.m., July 25, 1941 "I have wanted to preserve what I was like then, just coming out of the chrysalis, with wings still shining and fragile, and folded, but already recognizable as the kind of writer I was soon to become." —Louis Dudek,
Once believed
lost or destroyed, this rare time capsule offers intriguing insights
into the creative process of Canada’s great poet, philosopher,
publisher, professor and translator. Aileen Collins’ preface enriches
this beautiful volume from a biographical/historical perspective.
This slender, concisely-packed volume offers a wellspring
of prisms from the younger mind of one of Canada’s
pre-eminent literary figures. ISBN
0-921852-11-8
76pp.
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