Book Description
Even though he was an important founder of modernism, companion to Picasso, Modigliani, Apollinaire, and the early Surrealists, Max Jacob has remained a somewhat neglected and little-known figure. Now this delightful and utterly original poet has been given a detailed and careful presentation in English, through William Kulik's imaginative translations. In a selection that covers the whole of Jacob's career and that does particular justice to his accomplishments as a prose poet, Kulik offers us a full and sympathetic portrait, framing it with an Introduction that sketches the biography and fills out the historical context. A divided man--sexually, culturally, artistically--Jacob moves us deeply with his steady commitment to his art and its possibilities. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good stuff from the surrealist trenches
From all accounts an extremely weird man, even by surrealist standards, Max Jacob left behind a fair amount of sprightly, entertainingly strange verse, much of which can be found in the present volume.The majority of the entries here are brief, fanciful prose-poems in the spirit of Charles Simic's "The World Doesn't End"; if you like one, you'll probably like the other.Poems like "'Max is a Lunatic' (Everyone)" goof on his own eccentric personality; others are surprisingly direct--and, among the French surrealists, pretty uncommon--expressions of religious belief ("Ballad of the Perpetual Miracle").A fast, pleasant read. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
Jacob's GiftJacob is a young boy who learns a powerful lesson from his carpentry teacher: "When you give a gift to one of God's children, you give a gift to Him" In this live action holiday treat. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

A Very Special Christmas Present
JACOB'S GIFT is another wonderful retelling of the Christmas story by Christian author Max Lucado. Jacob is a young carpenter apprentice who has a creative imagination. He often finds himself ridiculed by the other children who do recognize his talents, but the master carpenter, Rabbi Simoen, recognizes and encourages the talent of Jacob.

The class gets excited about a carpentry project that will be judged by Simeon's nephew, a carpenter who will be visiting Bethlehem very soon. Jacob decides to build hay troth on wheels. He is busy at work when he hears a cry from a stable. A child has been born, but it has no crib. Jacob wonders if he should ignore the cry, or give the young couple the unfinished hay troth to use as a crib even though it will mean he will not have a project for the contest. Jacob decides to give away the troth. When he begins to tell Rabbi Simeon why he has no project, the nephew arrives. He is none other than Joseph who proudly tells the story of his son as well as the generosity of the Jacob whose gift saved the day.

Lucado is again able to tell the familiar story of the birth of Christ in an interesting and engaging manner. The artwork by illustrator Robert Hunt will capture the imaginations of younger children. The book is also suited for older children as well since Jacob is probably a preteen and has to make an important moral choice

Gift
I have loved Max Lucado's books.HE writes with such passion and sincerity for children and for adults.I was, however, disappointed with this book.The story was simplistic and terribly predictable.I am usually able to turn to the illustrations to support the story, but this led me to another disappointment.Hunt's drawings simply were very busy.Good illustrations are able to tell the story by themselves, with no text.Even with the text, one would have trouble deciphering exactly what these drawings were depicted.The overall redeeming quality of this book is how it does present a Christian story and reminds all of us of the lowly life our Lord was born into.

Why 3 stars?:
While Max Lucado's books for children are normally wonderful, this one falls well short of the bar.The illustrations actually hurt the story, not support it.This is, however, a book about the glory that is Jesus Christ, and does therefore deserve to be read and shared with children.

Extremely Pleasant reading
I found the relationship between Jacob and Rabbi Simeon very, very touching.

I din't like this book at all!!!!
At first this book seemed like it was going to be soemthing special. It had everything I like people making stuff out of wood, people from strange religions, and a good message about trying hard. But then Jacob had a hallusination and then the book got really preachy and boring. I din't like the end either.

Could be better
This was a book I read because it was my younger brother's book for his class, so I guess I might be hard on it because I usually don't like school books, but this book wasn't as good as his teacher seemed to think it was. It's also pretty religious, which might not be good if you're not into books like that. I'm not, so I might be too hard on it, though most of his class didn't enjoy it either. Though I agree with the review that said that a person could learn a about Jewish culture from this book. Mostly though, it wasn't that good. There are cooler books if you're looking for something that's supposed to be inspirational, or for elementary school kids, and probably something that's not religious. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A good "first hand" account of a tragic war.
This is a good reference book for anyone studying the Sioux Uprising (Dakota War) of 1862.

Mr Nix was one of the settlers from a small town in Minnesota called New Ulm.Mr. Nix and other New Ulmers succesfully defended their city against two separate Indian attacks during the height of this war (he was shot twice, but survived.)

The English portion of this book was translated from the original German document written in the late 1800's, so the verbage is a little dated.The author still had strong prejudices against the Native Americans when he wrote this testimonial, and frequently refers to them as "Red Devils" and "Red Scoundrels."This book is hardly objective.

This is a good glimpse at one man's viewpoint of the war, but should be examined as just that, one man's viewpoint. ... Read more

Book Description

Baudelaire laid the foundations for prose poetry as a genre in the 19th century, but it wasn't until the avant garde movement in the first half of the 20th century that the prose poem began a widespread emergence on the international scene. The three poets in this volume were major factors in this emergence. Max Jacob (1876–1944), a writer of surrealist cubist fables; Francis Ponge (1899–1988), a master of the language of things; and Jean Follain (1903–1971), who merged the everyday with the historical to create a world rich in anniversaries, lead us to the strong and growing interest in the genre that we find so prevalent at the beginning of the 21st century.

Customer Reviews (1)

Modern Masters of the French Prose Poem
The prose poem is something of a French specialty. Edgar Allan Poe may have coined the term, but it was Poe's French translator Charles Baudelaire who first "dreamed of the miracle of a poetic prose, musical without rhyme, supple and muscular," and became the first of many fine French poets to excel in this oxymoronic genre. "Dreaming the Miracle" brings together a sampling of the work of three masterful French prose poets of the 20th Century: the surrealist Max "the Nut" Jacob (1876-1944), the first great poet to apply dream logic to poetic composition; Francis Ponge (1899-1988), the "would-be encyclopedist" of the poetry of the ordinary object; and (one of the great finds of the last century) Jean Follain (1903-1971), an obscure judge who wrote exquisite vignettes that collectively comprise an intimate albeit anonymous autobiography of the last century.

The Jacob and Ponge translations seem a little uneven at times, but the poetry shines through nonetheless. The translations of Follain's prose poems, beautifully rendered by Mary Feeney and the late, great poet William Mathews, are an unadulterated delight. Since the publisher neglected to put any sample pages up on the Amazon website, let me rectify the omission by quoting a representative prose poem from each poet:


Max Jacob: The Beggar Woman of Naples

When I lived in Naples, there was a beggar woman at my palace gate I'd toss a coin to before getting into my carriage. One day, surprised that she never thanked me, I looked at her. As I did, I saw that what I'd mistaken for a beggar woman was a green wooden crate containing some red earth and a few half-rotten bananas.


Francis Ponge: The Pleasures of the Door

Kings do not touch doors.
They know nothing of this pleasure: pushing before one gently or brusquely one of those large familiar panels, then turning back to replace it--holding a door in one's arms.
The pleasure of grabbing the midriff of one of these tall obstacles to a room by its porcelain node; that short clinch during which movement stops, the eye widens, and the whole body adjusts to its new surrounding.
With a friendly hand one still holds on to it, before closing it decisively and shutting oneself in--which the click of the tight but well-oiled spring pleasantly confirms.


Jean Follain: Untitled

Store windows start to light up: displays that banish thoughts of war or hunger, huge dolls with lifelike lashes, eyelids that close. A storefront with shining jewels catches your eye. A white wall takes on a greengage tint. A gutter along the sidewalk seems to be running with a red liqueur instead of dirty water. Absinthe green smoke floats up from muted roofs. There's a passerby who's never written a word except his signature, using a beat-up wooden holder. He senses this bursting beauty. And the man with a terrible temper, seeing his hand turned orange by the sunset, falls silent before his household who fear him, maybe even forgive him his fits. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of (Cyprien-)Max Jacob, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 3016 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author