Books

There Was a Peacock

There Was a Peacock

by Harvey Mudd | The Porcupine Press | 2019

Juan Ezekiel Fontana (1930-2018) was a Mexican journalist who covered some of the twentieth century’s most tragic events. This eccentric collection of provocative, irreligious, and often dark drawings includes commentary on Fontana’s sketches by American memoirist and poet, Harvey Mudd.

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Leaving Myself Behind

Leaving My Self Behind

by Harvey Mudd | The Porcupine Press | 2018

The scion of a distinguished Los Angeles family, Mudd started life with every advantage. Behind the façade of wealth, however, there was a psychologically abusive mother whose unconscious agendas might have done lasting harm had he not resisted. Leaving My Self Behind is a memoir that describes that childhood and the Los Angeles of his youth.

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Spinoza's Dog

Spinoza’s Dog: New and Selected Poems

by Harvey Mudd | The Porcupine Press | 2017

Spinoza’s Dog contains what Mudd considers the work that most successfully represents the poetic sensibility and the content of his previous books of poetry. The Selected Poems make up about a third of this collection, the remainder written in the last ten years that he has lived in France.

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A European Education by Harvey Mudd

A European Education

by Harvey Mudd | Black Sparrow Press | 1986

A European Education is another book-length poem, this based on diaries Mudd kept during six-month exploration of the places of the Holocaust in the winter of 1979-80. The poem records Mudd’s emotional and intellectual responses to what he learned and saw.

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Soulscot by Harvey Mudd

Soulscot

by Harvey Mudd | Second Porcupine Press | 1976

“Soulscot,” a tithe to be paid for burial in the churchyard. Mudd’s early poems explore the childhood memories of World War II, a time of uncertainty, anxiety, and absences.

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Plain of Smokes by Harvey Mudd

Plain of Smokes

by Harvey Mudd | Black Sparrow Press | 1982

The Plain of Smokes is book-length poem About the city of Los Angeles similar to Hart Crane’s portrayal of America in The Bridge. Drawings by California artist and ceramist, Ken Price capture the modern city’s red funk jazz of movement and light.

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Stations by Harvey Mudd

Stations

by Harvey Mudd | Second Porcupine Press | 1980

More formal poems than those collected in Soulscot, including translations from the Spanish of Antonio Machado. Illustrated with line drawings based on a bas-relief in Rimini, Italy.

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