Pines and Plains Libraries

In 1855, Walt Whitman published — at his own expense — the first edition of Leaves of Grass, a visionary volume of twelve poems. Showing the influence of a uniquely American form of mysticism known as Transcendentalism, which eschewed the general society and culture of the time, the writing is distinguished by an explosively innovative free verse style and previously unmentionable subject matter. Exalting nature, celebrating the human body, and...

Introduces young readers to poetry with over thirty well-known poems written by one of America's most renowned poets.

A memoir by an award-winning poet describes her retreats to a wilderness cabin to write in solitude and find answers to life's big questions, describing how a catastrophic fire forced her to reconcile her conflicting needs for isolation and community.

A biography of the American poet whose compassion led him to nurse soldiers during the Civil War, to give voice to the nation's grief at Lincoln's assassination, and to capture the true American spirit in verse.

A biography of the twentieth-century American writer whose poetry combined artistic composition with word play and traditional rhyme and meter. Includes examples of his work.

"At age nineteen, Natasha Trethewey had her world turned upside down when her former stepfather shot and killed her mother. Grieving and still new to adulthood, she confronted the twin pulls of life and death in the aftermath of unimaginable trauma and now explores the way this experience lastingly shaped the artist she became. With penetrating insight and a searing voice that moves from the wrenching to the elegiac, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha...

"A meditation on the value of daydreaming and ease, and the primacy of the imagination, by one of our finest prose stylists Modern life only seems to become increasingly hectic and stressful, as we try to cram more and more into each day. In her new book, acclaimed author Patricia Hampl argues for the necessity of daydreaming and leisure in our over-amped lives. Written out of a lifelong fascination with contemplation, solitude, and silence, The Art...

In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself in lyrical vignettes that shine, hard and clear as jewels. The book begins with one woman’s personal, particular heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes. With the spirit...

In this memoir, singer-songwriter Patti Smith shares tales of New York City: the denizens of Max's Kansas City, the Hotel Chelsea, Scribner's, Brentano's and Strand bookstores and her new life in Brooklyn with a young man named Robert Mapplethorpe--the man who changed her life with his love, friendship, and genius.