Hints and Allegations: The World (In Poetry and Prose) According to - Hardcover

Kunstler, William M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1888363169 ISBN 13: 9781888363166

Publisher: Seven Stories Press, 1996

Synopsis

Like most things William Kunstler does, the poems in this collection rattle the foundations of venerable American institutions, in this case our poetry canon and our entrenched notion that institutionalized racism is a thing of the past. His blending of high seriousness of purpose with lightheartedness of tone appears effortless and masterful. This is not ivory tower stuff. It is experience lived as fully as possible and only then recast in lyric form. Kunstler knew most of the people he writes about. A good number of those who live on in these pages had him as their only defender, some ke kept out of prison, others from the electric chair.
In many ways, this book is Kunstler's true autobiography. Reading the sonnet and accompanying prose paragraph on Dr. Martin Luther Kings, Jr., for example, we learn all we need to know about the bond between Kunstler and the younger clergyman, and the seven years they worked together. And from the sonnet and commentary on Morton Stavis we grasp how deeply Kunstler feels the calling of his profession, by his anguish at the loss of his attorney friend who had for many years defended him in the courts.

About this title

About the Author:

Attorney WILLIAM M. KUNSTLER (1919–1995) was the cofounder of the Center for Constitutional Rights and the author of more than a dozen books. He was the special trial counsel to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from 1962 to 1968, as well as the defense attorney for the Chicago Seven and other celebrated cases.

From Booklist:

Of these 100-odd topical sonnets (each accompanied by a context-setting note), Allen Ginsberg says, "I'd bear false witness if I praised [them] as elegant poesy." So he doesn't; nor do we. The reason for reading them is their author, the most controversial publicity-seeking attorney since Clarence Darrow, the defender of left-wing radicals and "hopeless" cases, one of the danged "liberals" the right most loves to hate--none other than Bill Kunstler! The frizzy haired conservatives' nemesis' themes are usually his causes and cases, although any one sonnet's subject is the person or event at the heart of a particular legal-political storm--Abbie Hoffman, the Kent State "massacre," Arizona's resistance to the Martin Luther King holiday, etc. For those who do not share Kunstler's stridently maintained leftist biases, he pushes more than enough buttons. They'll enjoy spluttering at his outrages, while admirers will experience frisson after frisson of self-righteous agreement. A good time may be had by all, except lovers of elegant verse. Ray Olson

About this edition

• Publisher: Seven Stories Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 1888363169
• ISBN 13: 9781888363166
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208