Robert Morgan

Robert Henery, a racehorse trainer, is forced by unfortunate circumstances in England to accept a position in Hungary, training the horses for a Count who has a beautiful and self-willed daughter. The chaotic events following the First World War and the Russian revolution soon envelope his life and that of the lovely Elizabet, and their destinies are entwined in the dramatic events that follow, ending eventually in a remarkable denouement in Britain. This is a love story, filled to the brim with adventure, tenderness and dramatic tension, and will hold the reader spellbound.

The unfading poetic brilliance of Robert Morgan shines through these ninety-three pieces spanning thirty-five years. Celebrated for his recent fiction, Morgan makes obvious in this volume he was first, and remains foremost, a wordsmith of poetic sensibilities- a craftsman of taut, forceful imagery, alert with wonder to the mystery of what lies in plain sight.Like Robert Frost, Morgan takes the natural world as a metaphorical base for human projection. Much of his work is a love song to the Appalachian Mountain terrain and a way of life all but gone: his father speaking in tongues; his mother canning peaches; carpentry, farming, the seasons in slow motion, family history, and wind-borne strains of music. He captures the aura around such common objects as resin, cellars, hog-wire fence, the whippoorwill, and crickets. Infusing his poetry with mountain idiom, even when pondering the cosmos beyond, Morgan creates lyrics with a rhythm like rain- ""to be rocked to sleep by mountains / equals the rest of heroes."" Fourteen new poems open the volume, and selections from nine previous collections follow. Robert Morgan's The Strange Attractor grants readers a generous overview of an important American poet's work.

Robert Morgan's newest collection of poetry is a treasury of snapshots in time, celebrating the past and present in Morgan's native region of western North Carolina and the Green River Valley. Topsoil Road features two parts: the first flowing smoothly from Cherokee history to the arrival of the poet's Welsh forebears; the second eloquently depicting the intricacies of nature and how they are subjected to the world of man. Whether describing the Cherokee chief Attakullakulla in London or the way a zebra spider glides across the sky, Morgan casts each poem with elegance and a rare sense of wonder, turning minute observations of the commonplace into portraits of delicate and significant beauty.

From the bestselling author of "Gap Creek, " comes a breathtaking collection of stories about the lives and history of the settlers of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Struggling to survive in an ancient mountain landscape that alternately thwarts their efforts and infuses them with joy and vitality, the strong-limbed and strong-willed people of the Blue Ridge Mountains undergo the transition from ploughshares to bulldozers -- from the Indian skirmishes of the post-Revoluationary War era to the trailer parks of the present day. In these eleven first-person narratives, Morgan visits the themes that matter to all people in all places: birth and death, love and loss, joy and sorrow, the necessity for remembrance and the inevitability of forgetting. This is a moving tribute to that which is universal and eternal -- the majestic immutability of the earth and the heroic human struggle to live, love, and create new life.

Relates the story of the passionate but unsteady marriage between a woman who inherits a farm in the mountains of North Carolina and a land-hungry man who views her Pentecostal faith with disgust

Anyone who tries to read through Paul's epistle to the Romans soon discovers it is a dense and difficult text. Some of the difficulties are concealed by modern translations, yet even those translations are likely to baffle the average reader with unfamiliar terms-or to mislead the well-informed reader with terms that are over-familiar through the Christian doctrinal tradition. Morgan provides a guide to Romans, to help modern readers understand what Paul intended his audience to understand. The religious language of the epistle, its use of scripture and tradition, and its impact are all clearly discussed, with the needs of students in mind.

The story of a family of pioneers and roadbuilders. Unfolding in the voices of three generations of Appalachian mountaineers, The Hinterlands vividly brings to life the earliest days of America when finding a way through its wilderness was the most daunting challenge of all.

Robert Morgan, a native of the North Carolina mountains and a widely published poet, has been writing essays about his craft for more than twenty years. This book brings together some of his most thought-provoking pieces, reflections upon poetry from the dual perspective of poet and critic.Morgan begins by examining in succinct and challenging essays the elements of poetry and poetry writing in general, emphasising the poet's responsibility to provide, as the title suggest, ""good measure."" Good measure, Morgan cautions, means neither facile spontaneity nor the sort of politicization that most often, he says, forces poets into poses of stylized enlightenment and response.Morgan goes on to discuss specific poets with a craftsman's calm authority. His reflections upon the American tradition in poetry include a tribute to William Cullen Bryant, an illuminating piece on Robinson Jeffers, and studies of the contemporary poets A.R. Ammons, Russell Edson, and Fred Chappell. His look at individual poets also includes dazzling close readings of piece by the French poet Jean Follain.In ""The Transfigured Body"" and ""Mica,"" Morgan presents excerpts form his own notebooks, meditations jotted down during the process of composing poems These notes made in passing provide intriguing insights into the work of poetry.Finally, there are interviews with Morgan by other poets: lively discussion of southern writing, the experience of being a poet in America today, and the influence of Morgan's Appalachian background on his own vocation and career as a poet.Good Measure sparkles with honesty, deep intelligence, and most of all Morgan's conviction that a passionate striving for a unattainable perfection is its own reward. The indifference of the public, the success of the third-rate, the scorn of critical theorists for whom literary quality is irrelevant, none of these is an excuse ""for not saying the truth with wit, and for not making poems that will shine long after we have ceased our worry and hope.""Poets, scholars, and casual readers alike will find Good Measure a rich source of inspiration and wisdom.

Modern critical study of the Bible in the West has made a deep impact on the fabric on Christian belief. This book explains what interpretation is and what special issues arise in biblical interpretation. It analyses the development of literary and historical criticism and more recent social-scientific and literary approaches, by focusing on the key figures from Reimarus to Gerd Theissen, and exposes the underlying theological issues. There emerges a pattern in the relationship between religious interests in these texts and the rational methods used to interpret them, providing guidance for a theologically sensitive use of the Bible today. An annotated index provides detailed information on some 250 biblical scholars and other interpreters.

Modern critical study of the Bible in the West has made a deep impact on the fabric on Christian belief. This book explains what interpretation is and what special issues arise in biblical interpretation. It analyses the development of literary and historical criticism and more recent social-scientific and literary approaches, by focusing on the key figures from Reimarus to Gerd Theissen, and exposes the underlying theological issues. There emerges a pattern in the relationship between religious interests in these texts and the rational methods used to interpret them, providing guidance for a theologically sensitive use of the Bible today. An annotated index provides detailed information on some 250 biblical scholars and other interpreters.