{"title":"Books by Robert Pinsky","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780393882049","title":"Jersey Breaks – Becoming an American Poet","description":"In late-1940s Long Branch, an historic but run-down Jersey Shore resort town, in a neighbourhood of Italian, Black and Jewish families, Robert Pinsky began his unlikely journey to becoming a poet. Descended from a bootlegger grandfather, an athletic father and a rebellious tomboy mother, Pinsky was an unruly but articulate high-school C-student whose obsession with the rhythms and melodies of speech inspired him to write.   Pinsky traces the roots of his poetry, with its wide and fearless range, back to the voices of his neighbourhood, to music and a distinctly American tradition of improvisation, with influences including Mark Twain and Ray Charles, Marianne Moore and Mel Brooks, Emily Dickinson and Sid Caesar, Dante Alighieri and the Orthodox Jewish liturgy. Jersey Breaks offers a candid self-portrait and, underlying Pinsky’s notable public presence and unprecedented three terms as poet laureate of the United States, a unique poetic understanding of American culture.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56289193329013,"sku":"9780393882049","price":20.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780393882049_43923405-3dca-4aa6-8308-1dc7a4caddc5.jpg?v=1786013817"},{"product_id":"9780691278254","title":"On Poetry, Culture, and Democracy","description":"“Robert Pinsky belongs to that rarest category of talents, a poet-critic.”—Robert LowellTwo important books of criticism by the Pulitzer Prize finalist and former U.S. poet laureate—now combined in a single volume with a new preface by the authorFor Robert Pinsky, poetry’s individual, human scale as a fundamentally vocal medium—with poems brought to life by one person at a time—gives poetry a unique importance in American and democratic culture and society. This book brings together two compelling works of criticism by the former poet laureate—The Situation of Poetry and Democracy, Culture and the Voice of Poetry, in which he makes a passionate and eloquent case for the vital role of poetry in a democracy.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56420505387381,"sku":"9780691278254","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780691278254_12fa0290-ce7c-4c27-a36a-809e6d664611.jpg?v=1786014673"},{"product_id":"9780691278230","title":"Robert Pinsky: The First Two Books of Poems","description":"The remarkable first two books of poetry by the Pulitzer Prize finalist and former U.S. poet laureate—now combined in a single volume with a new preface by the authorAward-winning poet Robert Pinsky’s first two collections—Sadness And Happiness and An Explanation of America—announced the arrival of a major new voice in American poetry. Now, these acclaimed books are presented together in a single volume featuring a new preface by the author, introducing a new generation of readers to the groundbreaking early work of a beloved poet. Sadness And Happiness explores everyday subjects such as the streets and oceanfront of Pinsky’s hometown of Long Branch, New Jersey, while the long title poem of An Explanation of America examines personal and national myths as it transports readers across the country.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56420506370421,"sku":"9780691278230","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780691278230_b3f50407-6cce-41bd-9f5c-012da356d6ef.jpg?v=1786014672"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-robert-pinsky.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}