Reading, Learning, Teaching James Dickey

«Thesing’s unique book – part-critical study, part-teaching manual, part-memoir – delivers overlapping aspects of Dickey’s life and work in a manner all its own yet wholly appropriate for one of the twentieth century’s most conflicted and gifted writers. A seasoned reader, veteran teacher, and former colleague of Dickey, Thesing gives us the man he knew even as he draws forth new meanings from his work and – perhaps most importantly – teaches us how to share the best of what he wrote with others.» (Casey Clabough, author of ‘Elements: The Novels of James Dickey’)
«In Thesing’s introductory comments he extends the aim of his book beyond recitation of poems and novels, indicating an approach that embraces a synthesis of ideas as well as an active interpretation well within their historical, geographical, and cultural context. His success dictates that professors, teachers, and students writing about James Dickey and his work will profit by going immediately to this text. Even after years of Dickey scholarship, I find much new and exciting in Professor Thesing’s approach. The fact that this is a textbook, a teacher’s guide to poems and novels, does not preclude a second, or even a third, reading by anyone interested in the poems and novels of James Dickey.» (Joyce M. Pair, Ph.D. English Professor Emerita, DeKalb College, Founding editor: ‘James Dickey Newsletter & James Dickey Society’)