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    In the Midst of Winter

    Selections from the Literature of Mourning

    Author Mary Jane Moffat
    Look inside
    Paperback
    $19.00 US
    Knopf | Vintage
    On sale Mar 03, 1992 | 304 Pages | 9780679738275
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    A breathtaking, indispensable collection featuring poetry, fiction, letters, and diaries of the world’s greatest writers on the nature of grief.

    Death silences not only those it takes, but those it leaves behind: All too typically we can neither express our grief nor express sympathy for the bereaved. In this sensitive collection, loss finds a voice—or several voices—in the poetry, fiction, letters, and diaries of the world's great writers. Here are James Agee, recording the shock of his father's death; William Shakespeare, making poetry of Cleopatra's grief; the Biblical wisdom of The Book of Lamentations; the psychological acuity of Marcel Proust. Here are mourners from classical Rome to eleventh-century China, from the Paiute Indians to present-day Ireland. Arranged in sections that correspond to the stages of mourning, In the Midst of Winter is a volume whose breadth and resonance make it invaluable and utterly unique.
    Mary Jane Moffatt was an American writer, editor, and educator. She coedited Revelations: Diaries of Women and edited In the Midst of Winter: Selections from the Literature of Mourning. She is the author of The Times of Our Lives about writing autobiographies and her own memoir, City of Roses. Moffatt was also a well-known teacher of creative writing and memoir writing in the Bay Area and taught at Stanford University, San Francisco State University, and the Foothill College Writers’ Conference. She died in 2004. View titles by Mary Jane Moffat
    "It is hard to have patience with people who say, There is no death or Death doesn't matter. There is death. And whatever is matters."—C.S. Lewis

    About

    A breathtaking, indispensable collection featuring poetry, fiction, letters, and diaries of the world’s greatest writers on the nature of grief.

    Death silences not only those it takes, but those it leaves behind: All too typically we can neither express our grief nor express sympathy for the bereaved. In this sensitive collection, loss finds a voice—or several voices—in the poetry, fiction, letters, and diaries of the world's great writers. Here are James Agee, recording the shock of his father's death; William Shakespeare, making poetry of Cleopatra's grief; the Biblical wisdom of The Book of Lamentations; the psychological acuity of Marcel Proust. Here are mourners from classical Rome to eleventh-century China, from the Paiute Indians to present-day Ireland. Arranged in sections that correspond to the stages of mourning, In the Midst of Winter is a volume whose breadth and resonance make it invaluable and utterly unique.

    Author

    Mary Jane Moffatt was an American writer, editor, and educator. She coedited Revelations: Diaries of Women and edited In the Midst of Winter: Selections from the Literature of Mourning. She is the author of The Times of Our Lives about writing autobiographies and her own memoir, City of Roses. Moffatt was also a well-known teacher of creative writing and memoir writing in the Bay Area and taught at Stanford University, San Francisco State University, and the Foothill College Writers’ Conference. She died in 2004. View titles by Mary Jane Moffat

    Praise

    "It is hard to have patience with people who say, There is no death or Death doesn't matter. There is death. And whatever is matters."—C.S. Lewis

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