"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 Dead Man's Float, 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.
