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My BOOKS

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Random Miracles:
A Memoir

Edward Cifelli was praised in a memoir competition as a "compelling narrator. . . accomplished and skilled."  Random Miracles was called "a generous book with a wealth of interesting details. . . , a delight to read." 

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In an opening chapter called "Digging for Roots," Cifelli reports on all four of his grandparents, who were born in Italy and immigrated to the United States in the late 1890s, a lively tale of hardworking men and women, large families, and successful new Americans.  The story of his parents' meeting and marriage and family-raising follows before his own story begins in April 1942, only four months after Pearl Harbor.  What follows is a personal and family history, a city and state history, and a social, political, and religious history of the country.  The story of the racial divide in East Orange, NJ in the 1950s, the depths of prejudice that prevailed there, and Cifelli's own efforts to overcome pervasive hatred and bias, all this runs throughout the book.  Another theme is his struggle with a diminished God in a science-centered era that leaves little room for traditional, faith-based worship.

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In addition to these themes that unfold slowly, there are chapters that deal with Cifelli's childhood, his early education, his marriage to Roberta Brunson in 1966. his two daughters, his seventeen years in college and graduate school, his college-teaching career, and his movement as a writer from strict academic monologues to books and articles with a more far-ranging and popular style.

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Random Miracles is a book of lively prose, good stories, and sober reflections on a full life that Cifelli isn't finished living in his Dade City home where he writes books, magazine articles, and occasional stories and profiles for the Tampa Bay Times and the Tampa Free Press.

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John Ciardi: A Biography
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Outstanding Academic Book:  Choice magazine. 1998.

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New Jersey Council for the Humanities Honor Book for 1998:  “Edward Cifelli has crafted an                        intimate look into the life of an astounding man of letters. . . . John Ciardi:  A Biography is the product              of nearly a decade of scholarship, and it is evident.”

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Audio Book selection by the National Library Service for the Blind and the Canadian National                      Institute for the Blind in Toronto.  1999.

 

National Public Radio's Grace Cavalieri, "The Poet and the Poem" from the Library of Congress:  “I am            waiting to hear what, if anything, I can do for your magnificent biography, which I hope will win a                      Pulitzer.  What a consummate work you’ve done, a brilliant piece of American literary history in the                    20th century.  I don’t know when I devoured a book like this one.”  

 

Poetry magazine review by Tom Disch:  “Ciardi’s life, as chronicled both in his own poems and in the                biography by Edward Cifelli, has the muted poignancy of a novel of decheance in which the mills of                  the Gods grind an average man to atoms. . . .Reading many of Ciardi’s poems one feels that they might              well have been written by an average man who happens to be a gifted poet—which makes his poetry                  unusually rare and, so, precious.”  

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Choice magazine review by Carl Rollyson.  "Cifelli has produced a volume likely to be the standard                    Ciardi biography.  He enlisted the aid of Ciardi’s family, friends, and colleagues, apparently neglecting                no major source of the life of this important but underrecognized poet and critic. . . . This biography                  may restore Ciardi’s place among 20th-century poets, especially those who emerged in the 1940s.” 

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Kirkus review:  “As this diligently detailed biography shows, though Ciardi (who died in 1986) never got            his long-hoped-for Pulitzer or a mandatory place in the anthologies, he compensated with a career that                was lengthy, varied, and industrious—not to mention profitable. . . .Cifelli provides a lively record of                  the man and his times.” Unnamed reviewer.

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Boston Globe feature story by Bill Marx (Dec. 28, 1997):  “Overlooked Treasures”:  “John Ciardi, the                crusty and unfashionable poet/critic was well served by the University of Arkansas Press, which not                    only published The Collected Poems, edited by Edward M. Cifelli, but also John Ciardi, Cifelli’s                        excellent biography of the lyricist, translator, and blunt reviewer.”

  

Library Journal review by David Kirby:  “Cifelli, the preeminent expert of Ciardi’s work shows with                  persuasive authority how a poet’s fortune can ascend, plummet, and soar again.” 

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Middlebury Magazine review by David Bain:  “It is a fine, well-written, and extremely fair-minded                    work, offering poignant insights into the sources of Ciardi’s creativity as well as his ambition and gut-                punching competitiveness. . . .This is a definitive biography of a significant man of letters, and a                        supremely intriguing, even tragic midcentury figure—a noteworthy life.”  

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Year in Review, 1997 Encyclopedia Britannica: , Literature:  “Literary figures were the subjects of a                  large portion of the year’s best biographies—a category that included Michael Reynolds’s Hemingway,                Walker Percy by Patrick Samway, Robert Penn Warren by Joseph Blotner, and John Ciardi by Edward              M. Cifelli.” 

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Amazon reader review:  “Cifelli’s biography of Ciardi is a carefully wrought story of an illustrious life                in poetry that should interest anyone who reads or studies American literature.  Ciardi was an                              interesting man who had to buck the ethnic prejudices of his time.  The adventures of his life in poetry are    well worth reading.  Edward Cifelli is a skilled writer and has done an excellent job of weeding out                 the truth and balancing his portrayal so that we love Ciardi, even while we see his human foibles.  He                  creates empathy for his subject without going overboard, so that his words are thoroughly believable                  and offer a measured truth of the man and his fine accomplishments.  An excellent portrait of the                        poet’s times, too, and the issues that confront a poet in America.”  Signed, dot3 from Brooklyn

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Italian-American publications:  The Italian Tribune News, Voices in Italian Americana, National Italian            American Foundation News, Fra Noi, and Italian Americana—all ran reviews like this from Fra Noi:                “Using a combination of story, history, interviews, and Ciardi’s own words, Cifelli shows us just how                  personal Ciardi’s poetry actually was in a style that makes reading about the poet’s life as enjoyable as                reading his poetry.”

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Kenneth Silverman, winner of the 1984 Pulitzer in biography:   “It’s a very enjoyable read—nicely                      short-sectioned to keep the reader moving, and Ciardi, God bless him, left you with great anecdotes to                tell that you tell very well, like the Lindbergh mess.  Bless him for knowing so many writers too, for                    on top of the entertaining narrative, you give us virtually a social history of the American poet over                      half a century.  And of course bless him for being Ciardi, allowing you to bring this talented, prickly                    guy alive, as you really do.  His end, as you create it, is sad and moving. . . .He must be blessing you                  too, for gathering his remains so fully and energetically and keeping his reputation alive.  It’s a                            substantial and distinguished book.”

      

Felix Stefanile, poet:  “It is a great book about a powerful critic, a major poet, and a superb translator                  of Dante.”

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Dana Gioia, poet, essayist, critic, and chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (2003-2009):                  “Over the past ten years Edward Cifelli has written and edited a series of landmark books in the                          history of contemporary American poetry, which comprehensively represent and chronicle the career                  of John Ciardi.  These volumes, which include The Selected Letters of John Ciardi, The Collected                    Poems of John Ciardi, and John Ciardi:  A Biography, constitute a major undertaking in both                          scholarly and critical terms.  He has essentially salvaged a major American writer of the mid-century                  generation and provided the key texts for all ongoing critical discussion.”

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Miller Williams, poet and founding editor/publisher of the University of Arkansas Press:  “Your                          biography of John Ciardi is a model to be followed by anyone coming along behind you, wanting to                    tell the story of a poet’s life. . . . I hope the people you work with know how lucky they are to have                    you with them.  And I’d say that no matter what campus you were associated with.  You’re a major                    figure among those whose gift it is to stand back and look at the poetry of our time.  You’ve written a                  classic biography, and I’m proud to know you my friend.” 

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X. J. Kennedy, poet/anthologizer:  “Congratulations on the new Choice award for your colossal Ciardi                 biography!”

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Vince Clemente, poet, professor, and editor of John Ciardi:  Measure of the Man:  “Pleased for the                    chance to thank you for writing John  Ciardi:  A Biography:  well written; a deep pleasure to read;                    the man is here, with all his contradictions and irascible ways, his brilliance—and for me, at least—                    his nobility and sweet aristocratic spirit, all gathered in a book always even-handed, responsible,                          and clear-eyed.  Congratulations!”

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Elly Welt, novelist and professor:  “Read it in a gulp.  Couldn’t put it down.  Wept.  Laughed.                            Splendid. Beautifully done.  A tremendous labor of love.  Congratulations and thank you.  I could                      sign this, From a grateful reader.”

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Sam Hazo, Director of the International Poetry Forum, Pittsburgh:  “It was a pleasure to meet you                      last week and to compliment you face to face on your masterful biography of John Ciardi.

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Brian King, editor University of Arkansas Press, to Sam Hazo:  "I think that's the best book we ever published here."

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Robert Jacobs, antiquarian book dealer:  “Your book is really special, a wonderful service to the                          world of poetry.”

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Harrison Hayford, well known Melville scholar and college friend of Ciardi’s:  “You have done a                        fine straightforward job and all you say is on target.  You’ve done admirably with this.”

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John Stone, poet-physician:  “What a treasure the biography is!  I’m so grateful to you for all the                        hard work that went into it:  I should say incredibly hard work, because I know it was just that.                          But what a magnum opus. You’ve done yourself proud.”

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Bill Tonelli, Managing Editor of Rolling Stone and editor of The Italian American Reader:  “I hope                    Ciardi knows what a good friend he has in you.”

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Geremy Spampinato, Teacher of the Year Kearny High School:  “Done well, biography is a                                daunting task.  Anyone who has lived more than 15 minutes knows that the ‘simplest’ life is                                anything but.  The biographer must render the subject fully, fairly, and, if he or she is good,                                lovingly.  In the end, a voice must emerge, a human voice.  Having recently finished Ed Cifelli’s                          John Ciardi, I can report that the ‘humble art’ is in good hands.  A voice rumbles through the                            pages, and it is intelligent, sane, fair, loving, principled, and unflinchingly brave in the face of the                        human mystery.  And Ciardi’s voice isn’t bad either.”

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The Collected Poems of John Ciardi

  

  • Tom Disch in Poetry (April 1998):  “[Ciardi’s] lifelong effort was to make poetry look like a man’s job, just as Gene Kelly, in the same era, ballyhooed the manliness of dance. . . . Reading his Collected Poems one feels that they might well have been written by an average man who happens to be a gifted poet—which makes his poetry unusually rare and, so, precious.”

  • American Literature:  “These 450 poems display a breadth of technical mastery and a wide emotional range.”

  • Library Journal (March 1997):  “Ciardi, the winner of many awards and honors and a highly esteemed translator of Dante, was one of America’s premier modern poets of the latter half of this century.  Highly recommended for all libraries.”

  • Publishers Weekly (February 24, 1997):  “Here are the poetics:  an unerring sense of end rhyme, a bravery of language and a depth of scope large enough to contain both a religious tract, ‘The Lamb’ . . . and a Beat elegy for Dylan Thomas. . . . By 1947, we are indeed airborne in Ciardi’s best work, a series of beautifully wrought war poems centered on his days  aboard a bomber. . . .In his final decades, Ciardi is downstream from Updike amid a calm but slightly desperate morass of suburban neighbors, birds, bugs, and pets—a soldier-poet not entirely resigned to the best years of his life.”

  • Booklist (April 15, 1997):  “In his introduction, editor Edward Cifelli tells readers to “expect extraordinary range,” an understatement Ciardi himself would have appreciated.  Ciardi lived, breathed, and no doubt dreamed language.  He also possessed a taxonomic eye and the sort of fluid concentration required for transforming observation and experience into philosophy and art.  And Ciardi was in it for the long haul, writing about everything from war to birdsong, love, and death with grace, wit, irony, and unceasing tenderness.”

  • Magill’s Literary Annual, 1998:  “The Collected Poems of John Ciardi is likely to restore some of Ciardi’s lost popularity as a poet.”

  • In Biblioteca (Winter 1998):  “John Ciardi, one of the most accomplished men of letters this country has ever produced, was a poet and literary critic.  He is perhaps best remembered for his verse translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy.  [450 of his poems] are now available in one volume, a necessary feature of any well-stocked library.”

  • Journal of New Jersey Poets (Winter 1998):  “Ciardi is that now-extinct species of poet who is also an editorialist.  He is forever reporting back to us from the front, shaping the news in such a way as to convey the love and devotion to poetry that many claim and few truly possess.  His poetry deserves to be read as E. B. White’s prose deserves to be read:  Because it is sane, because it is babble-free, because it is still a palpable, living presence over a decade after his death.”  Joe Weil

  • Kaboombooks.com (Spring 2000):  “This collection finally demonstrates the scope and wealth of [Ciardi’s] contribution to [mid-century American poetry].  Further, it shows how, while always experimenting in form and meter and perfectly matching his structures to his subject matter, Ciardi resolutely held to an aesthetic that kept his poetry free of the wavering fashions that dominated American poetry in the latter half of the twentieth century.  In The Collected Poems of John Ciardi, editor Edward Cifelli has gathered for us a ‘total poem’ that is a powerful revelation of the career of a great American poet.”

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The Selected Letters of John Ciardi

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  • "Selected Letters fosters a sense that Ciardi was a kindly and useful soul who ran afoul of changing fashion. . . .The book is perhaps one sign that Ciardi is at least on the move again, if only as part of literary history."  The Toronto Whig-Standard (April 1992).

  • "Edward Cifelli has done an admirable job of selecting letters which reveal a telling portrait of John Ciardi, the individual."  Weber Studies (1992).

  • "Edward M. Cifelli's selection from Ciardi's voluminous correspondence fashions an informal autobiography revealing the convictions, humor, and generosity of an energetic and talented man.  The letters have been deftly segmented into three divisions, each accompanied by a chronology of major episodes."  Samuel Maio, Italian Americana (Winter 1995).

  • "Nothing reveals a man of letters quite so much as his letters themselves.  Especially if--as is the case with 20th-century American poet John Ciardi--that man is also an editor, lecturer, etymologist, television host, columnist, radio commentator and outspoken political pundit.  In compiling these 413 letters written by Ciardi from the age of 19 until his death at 69.  English professor Edward Cifelli has provided a rich record, revealing a multi-dimensional man."  The Book Reader (May-June (1991).  

  • "This man who cared so deeply about language that he alienated those who did not agree with him seems, like all good letter writers, to be completely himself on the page.  Indispensable to poetry collections. J. Overmyer, Choice.

  • "The items gathered here, dating from 1935 to 1986, provide both an informal biography of Ciardi and, because of his importance and influence, a thumbnail literary history as well.  The list of his correspondents at the end of the volume still reads like a 'Who's Who' of middle and late twentieth-century American poetry."  American Literature.

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Saipan/Ciardi Himself

  • Saipan.  :"This is the story of John Ciardi's days and nights as a gunner on a B-29 stationed on the island of Saipan, in the South Pacific written during four of the last terrible months of World War II.  But it is a larger and older story than that. . . . The diary was discovered among John Ciardi's papers a year after his death on Easter Sunday, 1986.  Following the dated entries are a number of Ciardi's poems--some never before published--written at random throughout the diary."

  • Ciardi Himself.  "Though we tend to think of John Ciardi more often as a poet and translator [than a teacher] he spent most of his adult life in classrooms of one sort or another talking about poetry.  And it was very fine talk indeed. . . .Looking back today at Ciardi's various teaching careers, we cannot but be impressed at his adaptability, his durability, and most of all, his courage."

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David Humphreys

  • "Thanks to Edward Cifelli's first-rate scholarship, David Humphreys once again occupies a deserved--albeit minor--position among the cosmopolitan thinkers of the eighteenth century."  John Stephen Patterson.  TETYC (1984)

  • ​David Humphreys has frequently been dismissed as merely one of the Connecticut Wits at the end of the 18th century.  This book should give him a slightly higher position in the eyes of the 20th century. . . . The present volume is the definitive study of Humphreys thus far."  Choice (1982)​

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Afterwords

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  • "At Ciardi's death in 1986, poet Richard Wilbur wrote in the Proceedings of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, 'It is the glory of his version [of the Divine Comedy] that it matches Dante's whole range of voices, being beautifully harsh where Dante is harsh and, what is most difficult of all, simple where Dante is simple.  I think there is no doubt that John Ciardi gave the English language its best Commedia.'"

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Introduction

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"Still another aspect of Paradise Lost new readers will enjoy is the sheer audacity of the thing--not only its size (twelve books and 10,565 lines in the 1674 edition) but also its scope.  Milton set out to write, as he put it, 'things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme,' which, it turns out, is nothing less than to justify the ways of God to men.'  In an age like the current one, when poetic ambition is generally satisfied with a one-page lyric, here is a monumental narrative poem complete with a full cast of characters and a sustained drama.  How can readers not bow in admiration of a mind that could imagine the architecture of Heaven and Hell--not to mention the geography of the intellectual and spiritual landscapes in between each?"

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Longfellow in Love

Longfellow in Love (2018):

 

After four years traveling through Europe and a yearlong romance with Giulia Persiani in Rome, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow came back home in 1829 and fell in love again, this time with Mary Storer Potter, whom he married in 1831.  They traveled together to England and Scandinavia in 1834, but their happiness was cut short when she died in 1835.

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In 1836, in Switzerland, Longfellow met the woman who would become the grand passion of his life, Fanny Appleton of Boston.  But she, a wealthy textile heiress, was not interested in settling down with a Harvard professor.  She rebuffed his advances for six years—then suddenly changed her mind and married him on July 13, 1843.  For the next eighteen years they were America’s couple, and Longfellow became America’s poet—and then tragedy struck once again.

 

Five-Star Reader Reviews on Amazon

 

Andrew Higgins, Chair, Longfellow Society, January 21, 2019; Prof. of English and Chair of English, SUNY New Paltz.

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Edward Cifelli’s engaging and very readable book on Longfellow’s love life significantly advances our understanding of the poet.  His discussion of Longfellow’s early romances in Spain and Italy and his possible dalliance with Clara Crowninshield are revealing.  The book is especially valuable for its portrait of the extraordinary Fanny Longfellow, the poet’s second wife.  But Cifelli’s real success is in peeling back Longfellow’s famous Victorian reserve.  It’s good fun seeing Longfellow acting as a love-besotted teenager.  Cifelli’s story, though is more than just good fun.  He gives scholars and readers interested in Longfellow much to think about.

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Sander Zulauf, Prof. Emeritus, County College of Morris.  May 4, 2020.

 

A triumph!  Longfellow in Love is a remarkable achievement in literary scholarship.  The end notes more than attest to the diligence and accuracy of Edward Cifelli’s research.  But this achievement transcends scholarship in its readability.  The biography becomes a ‘nonfiction novel’ of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. . . , a tortured human being who suffered failure, manic depression, and tragic loss.  His passionate pursuit of stunning, intelligent, wealthy, and flirtatious Fanny Appleton caused him six years of despair because of her rejection of his marriage proposal.  The book is triumphantly revealing and riveting.   Nothing will prepare you for the astonishing final chapter.

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Dr. Larry Lentchner, Psychologist, October 5, 2018.

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A memorable life and love story.  Longfellow in Love is well written and historically accurate.  Cifelli presents us with a memorable life and love story, and an animated picture of Longfellow, a man who was quite significant in crafting the popular American character.  It is illuminating to see the contrast between Longfellow’s mindset in the days preceding the Civil War and our contemporary character struggles.  Similarly, Cifelli offers us Longfellow’s perception of women eight generations before the me-too movement.  This book is a good historical read with much contemporary relevance.

 

Laura Stibich, former editor at New American Library, April 27, 2020.

 

An excellent narrative filled with vivid description and rich historical details, this book gives a fresh look at one of America’s most beloved poets.  In Cifelli’s capable hands Longfellow becomes a vibrant man, not only the poet responsible for ‘Paul Revere’s Ride’ and the ‘The Song of Hiawatha,’ but a romantic figure in love with love and beautiful young women around the globe.  Highly recommended.

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Dr. Frank Ancona, Psychologist and Professor of English, July 28, 2020.

           

I was looking forward to reading Edward M. Cifelli’s Longfellow in Love, as I thoroughly enjoyed his biography of John Ciardi.  Dr. Cifelli is an award-winning and often-cited scholar and brilliant writer.  But despite my expectations, in all honesty, I never imagined that I would be so moved by this incredible work.  Longfellow’s life was a turbulent tale at once about the happiness and success of a great scholar and poet, while simultaneously a tragic romance of a man who loved and lost and overcame his sorrow only in the end to love and lose again—his body, heart, and soul scorched and wrecked living his last years haunted by painful reality and blissful memories.

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Cifelli’s narrative style not only communicates a thoroughly researched accounting of Longfellow’s life, but it also animates the man and makes him powerfully real.  Longfellow in Love is more than a biography.  It is a journey back in time that allows us to become a part of Longfellow’s circle and experience with him his triumphs and tragedies.

 

Prof. Ben Wiley, St. Petersburg College, September 18, 2020.

 

Longfellow in Love reads like a novel, but is, in fact, terrific literary scholarship, a masterpiece of research, analysis and synthesis of history, poetry, and psychology.

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Long out of fashion in our post-modern times, Longfellow’s life and his poetry still have the power to move us today.  So who who’s going to make the movie of this a la Shakespeare in Love?  There’s the heartthrob golden-haired poet and his ongoing quest for love, finding it twice, each ending in tragedy, all the while he’s writing poetry that grabs international attention.  Cifelli incorporates plenty of context—geographical, historical, political—to tell his story of a tormented, tortured man, the women he loves, and his poetry.  It sent me back to the poetry anthologies to read again, after decades, such classics as Evangeline, The Courtship of Miles Standish, “The Village Blacksmith,” Hiawatha, works that today may seem quaint and old-fashioned, but that is their appeal. 

 

Longfellow is not Whitman or Dickinson, those two 19th-century giants, but schoolchildren never memorized those two poets though we did Longfellow.  My entire fifth grade class had to memorize “The Village Blacksmith” and declaim it in front of the class; not surprising as Longfellow’s poetic narrative, rhythms, and morality made him a national hero.  The Cifelli literary biography—focused on the narrowed slice of his love life—gives us the story of the poet behind the beloved poetry.  He lives and breathes and loves and writes during the turbulent years of mid-19th century.  Though this is an extensively researched, carefully documented book, what I take away most is not the history but the humanity of the man, flesh and blood, more than the gray-haired poet on a set of Author cards.  This is the story of a passionate romantic in love.

 

Patrick Biesty, Prof. Emeritus. County College of Morris. November 7, 2018. 

 

Puts the reader inside nineteenth-century America.  Longfellow was a curious fellow who seemed in love with love his whole life, adoring a series of comely 17 year old women of good family.  But Cifelli does not psychologize, leaving that to the reader.  Worth meeting the man who captured or formed Americans’ view of themselves rather in the way Norman Rockwell’s paintings did in the 20th century.

 

Lisa Hodgins.  Art teacher.  High Point Regional High School.  November 19, 2018.

 

I found this life of Longfellow to be highly engaging and full of interesting details about an amazing man and poet.  Longfellow’s travels, friends, loves, and many experiences have made for good reading!  Cifelli does a great job weaving these facts into a readable and fantastic journey for us.  Looking forward to seeing what happens next for Longfellow; another volume perhaps?  I’m crossing my fingers.     

 

Jane Mallison.  New York City.  November 9, 2018.

 

Wonderful biography!  What a wonderful read.  Without sacrificing the necessary historical context, Edward Cifelli immersed me in the emotional life of “Henry.”  I loved the book and recommend it highly.  Trying to think who should play him in a movie version!

 

Jim Kozelsky.  Wisconsin.  September 28, 2018.

 

Riveting tale.  A terrifically entertaining book.  Well researched and presented. Made me want to reread Hiawatha.

 

Bob Worth.  Dade City, Florida.  August 28, 2018. 

 

I read this book and found it to be fascinating. The poet’s life is wonderfully described, a terrific story taken from the pages of history.

 

Dr. Gordon Hammond.  Zephyrhills, Florida.  September 21, 2018.

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A great read, hard to put down, smooth writing, worth the price.

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You Don't Say

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In You Don’t Say Edward Cifelli collects 68 previously published essays and fugitive thoughts. It is a miscellany that records some of the things, large and small, that have claimed his attention between 2012 and 2017, between his 70th and 75th birthdays—and his attention ranges far and wide, from Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama to Joe Maddon and the Ronettes; from Henry David Thoreau and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to Keurig coffee makers and New York Times crossword puzzles; from the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the discovery of the God Particle to lottery statistics and lost golf balls. Part of the fun of the book is its crazy quilt of the important and unimportant and how they all look after Cifelli stops to think about them.

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From “Whining Poets”: They attend each other’s readings and pretend there is a place for them someplace else in the literate universe. That is delusional, but it’s a fiction they all hold on to just as they hold on to the idea that they are under-read and under-appreciated. Their usual posture is a sort of hang-dog look of disappointment and lofty superiority, a difficult combination that they manage with the same irritating panache observed in perpetually misunderstood teenagers.

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The Rays Drive for the Playoffs:

A Fan's Diary of the 2019 Tampa Bay Rays

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  • "First, let's be clear:  this book is not journalism.  It sounds here and there like journalism, but it isn't.  Rather, it's a diary of the Rays' 2019 season written by a fan who experiences all the ups and downs of every other fan during a six-month season.  You should expect emotional outbursts now and then, bitter frustration, speculation on who should be on the bench or sent to Triple A Durham, and lots of second guessing.  I slam management for their crazy split-season Montreal idea--and when the team sucked in June and July, I was ready to help them pack their bags.  So, yes, there is anger too.  I repeat:  this is not journalism."

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The Selected Letters of Edward M. Cifelli, 1970 - 2020​

"Did I write earlier with a change of address?  If not, note the new one below.  It's been a holy terror of a year so far.  Daughter no. 2 graduated from college and moved to Manhattan to begin an NYU M.A. in Publishing Studies.  Daughter no 1 got married early in July.  And so naturally with no one in the house but my wife and me, we moved to a bigger place.  It seems to me that's perverse enough to be truly human."  To Harrison Hayford, Evanston, Illinois.  October 27, 1991.

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Index of American Periodical Verse: 1976, 1977,1978

This bibliographical tool tells readers which poets wrote which poems in which magazines and journals in any given year.

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