James Liddy

This first volume of James Liddy’s sparkling essays, selected introduced by Eamonn Wall, provides unique insights into the work of American writers and Irish writers overseas and includes first-hand accounts of meeting many of the canonical figures of American poetry.

This second volume of James Liddy’s essays, selected and introduced by Eamonn Wall, is framed by an intense and enduring attachment to Dublin and love of Irish literature. Meeting Patrick Kavanagh was the singular event that changed James Liddy’s life and opened up a new world of writers, social life and cultural exchanges.

Concludes the autobiographical explorations Liddy began in his earlier memoirs. In addition to recollections of Anne Yeats and Padraic Colum, reflections on George Moore and the Emperor Karl of Austria, there are several meditations on his awareness of his own death, and on Feast of the Transfiguration: a vision of life informed by the energies of the spirit.

"Liddy's work is guided by a fierce and independent intelligence and by an unwavering faith in the importance of poetry." The Irish Times

FROM THE publication of his Collected Poems in 1994 to his recent death at the age of 74, James Liddy maintained a busy publishing schedule that included three collections of poetry and a volume of autobiography, as well as essays, reviews and translations published in the United States and Ireland. These new volumes start from divergent points: Askeaton Sequence setting out as an exploration of Wisconsin and Wexford and Arcady beginning as a re-visitation of Liddy's native Wexford. However, both books are underlined by various migrations across nations, time, and space and are, therefore, truly complementary. A visit to a Wisconsin Askeaton will evoke memories of the poet's family connection to Limerick's Askeaton.

James Liddy, Irish, catholic and gay, is one of Ireland's greatest poets. He stands critically among the best, as he flies in the margins. This new collection weaves Liddy's images of life, love, religion and sexuality, and he applauds—but is also not afraid to look "askance" at— his friends and other poets. As critic Mike Begnal says in his Afterword, Liddy, the outsider, "remains dangerous and potent. An on-the-run priest at the Mass Rock. He has his readers; he will have more. He does not crave critical acceptance, only the regard of his friends." This collection is a highlight in a career which continues to soar.