“Bracingly candid, gracefully elegiac, tough, and passionate, Harrison travels the deep river of the spirit.” —
Booklist
“[Jim Harrison] is still close to the source. . . .
Dead Man’s Float
is, as its title would suggest, a flinty and psalmist look at mortality and wonder.” —
Los Angeles Times
Two months after the hardback publication of
, Jim Harrison was found dead in his home office. Harrison always thought he would die young, and when he didn’t he became increasingly preoccupied with time. As old age proved to be a harrowing trial, Harrison titled his book after a survival technique used by swimmers during an exhausting journey. This paperback edition includes the poem Harrison was writing at the time of his death, published here for the first time.
From “Bridge”:
. . . Sometimes the sea roars and howls like the animal it is, a continent wide and alive.
What beauty in this the darkest music over which you can hear the lightest music of human behavior, the tender connection between men and galaxies . . .
Jim Harrison
was the author of over thirty books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. His books have been translated into two dozen languages, and in 2007 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.