This long-awaited volume, a new selection of his later poems, spans ten
major collections by one of America's most visionary and influential
poets. Chosen by the author himself, the poems in Notes from the Air
represent John Ashbery's best work from the past two decades, from the
critically acclaimed April Galleons and Flow Chart to the 2005
National Book Award finalist Where Shall I Wander.
While Ashbery has long been considered a powerful force in
twentieth-century culture, Notes from the Air demonstrates clearly how
important and relevant his writing continues to be, well into the
twenty-first century. Many of the selections found here are regularly
taught in university classrooms across the country, and critics and
scholars vigorously debate his newest works as well as his classics. He
has already published four major books since the turn of the new
millennium, and, although 2007 marked his eightieth birthday, this
legendary literary figure continues to write fresh, new, and vibrant
poetry that remains as stimulating, provocative, and controversial as
ever.
Notes from the Air reveals, for the first time in one volume, the
remarkable evolution of Ashbery's poetry from the mid-1980s into the new
century, and offers an irresistible sampling of some of the finest work
by a poet the New York Times has called a "national treasure."
