Ted Hughes

"Ted Hughes was a great man and a great poet because of his wholeness and his simplicity and his unfaltering truth to his own sense of the world." --Seamus Heaney Originally, the medieval bestiary, or book of animals, set out to establish safe distinctions--between them and us--but Ted Hughes's poetry works always in a contrary direction: showing what man and beast have in common, the reservoir from which we all draw. In A Ted Hughes Bestiary, Alice Oswald's selection is arranged chronologically, with an eye to different books and styles, but equally to those poems that embody animals rather than just describe them. Some poems are here because, although not strictly speaking animal, they become so in the process of writing; and in keeping with the bestiary tradition there are plenty of imaginary animals--all concentratedly going about their business. In Poetry in the Making, Hughes said that he thought of his poems as animals, meaning that he wanted them to have "a vivid life of their own." Distilled and self-defining, A Ted Hughes Bestiary is subtly responsive to a central aspect of Hughes's achievement, while offering room to overlooked poems, and "to those that have the wildest tunes."

Originally the medieval bestiary or book of animals set out to establish safe distinctions - between them and us - but Hughes's poetry works always in a contrary direction: showing what man and beast have in common, the reservoir from which we all draw. Alice Oswald's selection is arranged chronologically, with an eye to different books and styles, but equally to those poems that embody animals, rather than just describe them. Some poems are here because, although not strictly speaking animal, they become so in the process of writing; and in keeping with the bestiary tradition there are plenty of imaginary animals - all concentratedly coming about their business.The resulting selection is subtly responsive to a central aspect of Hughes's achievement, while offering room to some wonderful overlooked poems, and to 'those that have the wildest tunes.'

For the first time, the vast canon of Ted Hughes's poetry together in one beautiful and collectable paperback edition.The Collected Poems spans fifty years of work, from Hawk in the Rain to the best-selling Birthday Letters. It also includes the complete texts of such seminal publications as Crow and Tales from Ovid as well as those children's poems that Hughes felt crossed over into adult poetry. Most significantly it also includes small press publications and editions that, until now, remain uncollected and have never before been available to a general readership. Ted Hughes - former Poet Laureate and the winner of the Whitbread and Forward Prizes - here demonstrates his presiding importance in English and twentieth-century poetry.'A guardian spirit of the land and language.' Seamus Heaney

In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical reactions they express in their prefaces, the editors offer insights into their own work as well as providing an accessible and passionate introduction to some of the greatest poets in our literature.Ted Hughes (1930-98) was born in Yorkshire. His first book, The Hawk in the Rain, was published in 1957. His last collection, Birthday Letters, was published in 1998 and won the Whitbread Book of the Year, the Forward Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1984 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1998.

In the last year of his life, Ted Hughes completed translations of three major dramatic works: Racine's Phedre, Euripedes' Alcestis, and the trilogy of plays known as at The Oresteia, a family story of astonishing power and the background or inspiration for much subsequent drama, fiction, and poetry. The Oresteia--Agamemnon, Choephori, and the Eumenides--tell the story of the house of Atreus: After King Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, their son, Orestes, is commanded by Apollo to avenge the crime by killing his mother, and he returns from exile to do so, bringing on himself the wrath of the Furies and the judgment of the court of Athens. Hughes's "acting version" of the trilogy is faithful to its nature as a dramatic work, and his translation is itself a great performance; while artfully inflected with the contemporary, it has a classical beauty and authority. Hughes's Oresteia is quickly becoming the standard edition for English-language readers and for the stage, too.

First published in 1983, River celebrates fluvial landscapes, their creatures and their regenerative powers.Inspired by Hughes's love of fishing and by his environmental activism, the poems are a deftly and passionatelyattentive chronicle of change over the course of the seasons. West Country rivers predominate ('The West Dart'and 'Torridge'), but other poems imagine or recall Japanese rivers or Celtic rivers, and 'The Gulkana' exploresan ancient Alaskan watercourse. At its core the sequence rehearses, in various settings, from winter to winter,the life-cycle of the salmon.All this, too, is stitched into the torn richness,The epic poiseThat holds him so steady in his wounds, so loyal to his doom,so patientIn the machinery of heaven.from 'October Salmon'

At the outset of his career Ted Hughes described letter-writing as 'excellent training for conversation with the world', and he was to become a prolific master of this art which combines writing and talking. This selection begins when Hughes was seventeen, and documents the course of a life at once resolutely private but intensely attuned to other lives (including a readership comprising both adults and children); a life pared down to essentials and yet eventful, peripatetic, at times publicly controversial.

This is Hughes's version of "Alcestis" - the story of a king, Admetus, who is able to escape death because his wife, Alcestis, has volunteered to die in his place. It is a tragedy about being beckoned to die, and also a story of death defeated.

Forty years after it was first published, Ted Hughes's Flowers and Insects, Some Birds and a Pair of Spiders is presented in a beautifully redesigned edition with a new introduction by the nature writer Tim Dee. The sixteen poems gathered here brim and bristle with the life Hughes generates from the absolute attention he commits to whatever it is he is looking at. His knack for finding a language to animate its subject, without a trace of sentiment or nostalgia, singles out Hughes as one of the truly great poet-interpreters of the natural world. This edition gives full justice to the subtlety of the original watercolour illustrations, produced by Hughes's long-term collaborator and friend, the American artist, Leonard Baskin.

This gorgeous abridged edition brings The Iron Man to a picture book audience for the very first time! A landmark publication. The Iron Man isn't scary - he's just very, very hungry . . .It's not until he starts chomping on fence posts and tractors that he comes to the attention of the angry farmers - who trap him in a hole with the help of a little boy called Hogarth.Then Hogarth comes up with a new plan - it turns out that the scrap yard, with its metal bedsteads, broken down cars and old cookers is the perfect home for a hungry Iron Man.

Lupercal was Ted Hughes's second collection, containing some of his most brilliant animal poetry. It confirmed his reputation as a major talent in British poetry. 'Hughes has found his own voice, created his own artistic world and has emerged as a poet of the first importance . . . What Ted Hughes has done is to take a limited, personal theme and, by an act of immensely assured poetic skill, has broadened it until it seems to touch upon nearly everything that concerns us.' Al Alvarez, Observer, 27 March, 1960In language that is by now utterly distinctive, the poems both describe and deliver a kind of psychic shock. Hughes's singularity of vision provides a ready symbiosis between theme and subject - the brute survival instinct of 'Hawk Roosting' or 'Pike', for instance; the rapturous attention bestowed upon 'An Otter' or 'The Bull Moses'; the pervasive legacy of human history that can be seen to saturate a Hughesian landscape.Lupercal is as vital and urgent today as it was when it was first published, its edict, implicit in every poem: to wake up, to pay attention.

Intim & mästerlig poetisk skildring av äktenskapet med Sylvia Plath»En fantastisk bok. Ted Hughes ämne är Plath själv - hur hon såg ut, rörde sig och pratade, hennes nöjen, ilska och drömmar, vad som var bra dem mellan och vad det var som gick fel.« The New YorkerFå historier i efterkrigslitteraturen har fått samma legendariska status som den brittiske poeten Ted Hughes äktenskap med den amerikanska poeten och författaren Sylvia Plath. Dikterna i Brev på födelsedagen är (med bara två undantag) adresserade till Sylvia Plath och skrivna under en period på över tjugofem år - de tidigaste under åren efter Plaths självmord 1963. En del är kärleksbrev, andra är minnen och reflektioner. Hughes skildrar deras tid tillsammans genom sitt eget mytologiska bildspråk, såväl som med drag från Plaths poesi. En intim, biografisk skildring av en litterär relation och en stor diktsamling. I svensk översättning av Ole Hessler och med ett nyskrivet förord av litteraturkritikern Björn Kohlström.EDWARD JAMES »TED« HUGHES [1930-1998] var en brittisk poet, gift med den amerikanska poeten och författaren Sylvia Plath 1956-1963, fram till hennes död. 1983 utsågs han till brittisk hovskald av drottning Elizabeth II. Till Ted Hughes mest kända verk hör The Hawk in the Rain [1957], Lupercal [1960], Cave Birds [1978] och River [1983]. 2003 kom filmen Sylvia som handlar om Hughes liv tillsammans med Sylvia Plath, med Daniel Craig i rollen som Ted Hughes.»En känslosam, direkt, ångerfylld och trollbunden ton genomsyrar de starkaste dikterna, som är lågmälda, tankfulla och har karaktären av samtal.« New York Times Book Review »Detta är en bok skriven av en besatt, drabbad och djupt älskande människa. Den saknar motstycke i litteraturen.« The London Times

This enthralling tour de force of literary criticism, unprecedented in Shakespeare studies for its scope and daring, is nothing less than an attempt to show the Complete Works - dramatic and poetic - as a single, tightly integrated, evolving organism. Hughes supports his thesis with erudition and a painstakingly close analysis of language, plots and characters. A multitude of dazzling insights, such as only one great poet can offer into the work of another, is generated in the process, and our entire understanding of Shakespeare, his art and imagination, is radically transformed. '[This] huge study of Shakespeare, more than ten years in the making, is an unprecedented act of critical witness.' London Review of Books

Stunning illustrations by Chris Mould make this one of the most exciting editions of The Iron Man to be published.The Iron Man came to the top of the cliff.Where had he come from? Nobody knows.How was he made? Nobody knows.Mankind must put a stop to the dreadful destruction by the Iron Man and set a trap for him, but he cannot be kept down. Then, when a terrible monster from outer space threatens to lay waste to the planet, it is the Iron Man who finds a way to save the world.'Stunning.' WRD Magazine'Whether you're already a fan of this classic children's story or a new reader, this wonderful new version is a real treat.' BookTrust'Gripping . . a classic.' Phillip Pullman'A visionary tale.' Michael Morpurgo'One of the greatest of modern fairy tales.' Observer

This anniversary edition celebrates fifty years since the original publication of Crow (1970) - the vital, shape-shifting collectionby Ted Hughes. Its context, including the integral role of the American artist Leonard Baskin and the significance of Hughes' own lived tragedies, is illuminated in a new foreword by Marina Warner, as is the influence of ancient forms, legends and beliefs. The result underscores the work's rough music and organic energy, as we encounter the enigmatic, unforgettable, 'hulking, metamorphic beast-bird' itself.'These scraps, spoken by a crow, took poetry to a new beginning. They are the bones of poems - made of mere lines: rude, surreal, gleeful, desolate poems - which for all their bleakness transmit a flash of hope. I would exchange much of English literature for their dark courage.' Alice Oswald

This multi-award winning collection, the first from Ted Hughes, has at its heart the mixture of beauty and violence in the natural world. The Hawk in the Rain is a stunning collection of poems on the themes of competition and the struggle for survival. Hughes would go on to become Britain's Poet Laureate in 1984 until his death in 1998. Including many of Hughes' best-known poems, such as 'The Jaguar', 'The Thought-Fox' and 'Wind' - now staples of British poetry anthologies - The Hawk in the Rain is the foundation of Hughes' reputation as one of the twentieth-century's greatest poets.This beautifully designed edition forms part of a series of ten titles celebrating Faber's publishing over the decades.

Stunning illustrations by Chris Mould make this one of the most exciting editions of The Iron Man to be published.The Iron Man came to the top of the cliff.Where had he come from? Nobody knows.How was he made? Nobody knows.Mankind must put a stop to the dreadful destruction by the Iron Man and set a trap for him, but he cannot be kept down. Then, when a terrible monster from outer space threatens to lay waste to the planet, it is the Iron Man who finds a way to save the world.'Stunning.' WRD Magazine'Whether you're already a fan of this classic children's story or a new reader, this wonderful new version is a real treat.' BookTrust'Gripping . . a classic.' Phillip Pullman'A visionary tale.' Michael Morpurgo'One of the greatest of modern fairy tales.' Observer

The Iron Wolf, the Iron WolfStands on the world with jagged fur.The rusty Moon rolls through the sky.The iron river cannot stir.The iron wind leaks out a cryAnimals of air, land and sea are brilliantly imagined in this perfect introduction for young readers to the work of Ted Hughes. Part of Hughes's Collected Animal Poems, The Iron Wolf is for the youngest readers, both to listen to and explore themselves. Chris Riddell's delightful line illustrations add to the journey of discovery.