{"product_id":"abc-of-reading-9780811218931","title":"ABC of Reading","description":"This important work, first published in 1934, is a concise statement of Pound's aesthetic theory. It is a primer for the reader who wants to maintain an active, critical mind and become increasingly sensitive to the beauty and inspiration of the world's best literature. With characteristic vigor and iconoclasm, Pound illustrates his precepts with exhibits meticulously chosen from the classics, and the concluding \"Treatise on Meter\" provides an illuminating essay for anyone aspiring to read and write poetry. \u003cem\u003eABC of Reading\u003c\/em\u003e displays Pound's great ability to open new avenues in literature for our time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePound, Ezra:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - New Directions has been the primary publisher of \u003cstrong\u003eEzra Pound\u003c\/strong\u003e in the U.S. since the founding of the press when James Laughlin published New Directions in Prose and Poetry 1936. That year Pound was fifty-one. In Laughlin's first letter to Pound, he wrote: \"Expect, please, no fireworks. I am bourgeois-born (Pittsburgh); have never missed a meal. . . . But full of 'noble caring' for something as inconceivable as the future of decent letters in the US.\" Little did Pound know that into the twenty-first century the fireworks would keep exploding as readers continue to find his books relevant and meaningful.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDirda, Michael:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eMichael Dirda\u003c\/strong\u003e, who won a Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism at the \u003cem\u003eWashington Post Book World\u003c\/em\u003e, is the author of \u003cem\u003eAn Open Book, Bound to Please\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eReadings: Essays and Literary Entertainments\u003c\/em\u003e. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50544083599634,"sku":"9780811218931","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_77bfb476-3e1d-4fe4-9837-3e3af88b2c93.jpg?v=1731520237","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/abc-of-reading-9780811218931","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}