Early Morning: Remembering My Father, William Stafford

With incredible insight and love, Kim Stafford offers a view into the remarkable life of his father, the poet William Stafford

The unspoken deep affection he lived by was like the idea in his poem about the Eskimos--their disdain for People who talk about God. In his world, a fact so pervasive as love never need be named.

William Stafford wrote a poem nearly every day of his life, most often before dawn, as he lay on a much-used couch that bore the imprint of his body after years of use. He was a prolific, highly acclaimed poet, famous pacifist, and extraordinary friend to nearly everyone he met. But Kim was given perhaps his father's greatest gift--and greatest challenge--to be his literary executor.

Carefully sifting through his father's papers--thousands of poems written on napkins, grocery receipts, letters--Kim follows a copious trail of words matched only by his father's silences. Kim is able to visit his father's life in a deeply personal way and, as a result, beautifully illuminates William Stafford as someone who was unafraid to stare into emptiness and to live a life so fully in the moment that he was able to touch countless lives with a single poem.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Published: 10/01/2002
ISBN: 9781555973728
Pages: 304
Weight: 1.42lbs
Size: 9.02h x 6.36w x 1.11d
Award: Oregon Book Awards - Finalist
Award: Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award - Winner

Review Citations: Booklist 10/15/2002 pg. 380
Booksense '76 Jan/Feb 2003 01/01/2003 pg. 1
Library Journal 12/01/2002 pg. 128
New York Times 02/16/2003 pg. 20