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Also by Nicholson Baker:

House Of Holes, August 2011
Hardcover
The Anthologist, September 2009
Hardcover
Human Smoke, March 2008
Hardcover
Checkpoint, April 2005
Paperback
A Box of Matches, January 2004
Paperback
The Fermata, February 1995
Paperback
Vox, February 1993
Paperback
Room Temperature, April 1991
Paperback
The Mezzanine, January 1990
Paperback

THE ANTHOLOGIST
By: Nicholson Baker

Simon & Schuster
September 2009
On Sale: September 8, 2009
256 pages
ISBN: 1416572449
EAN: 9781416572442
Hardcover
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Fiction

The Anthologist is narrated by Paul Chowder -- a once-in-a-while-published kind of poet who is writing the introduction to a new anthology of poetry. He's having a hard time getting started because his career is floundering, his girlfriend Roz has recently left him, and he is thinking about the great poets throughout history who have suffered far worse and deserve to feel sorry for themselves. He has also promised to reveal many wonderful secrets and tips and tricks about poetry, and it looks like the introduction will be a little longer than he'd thought.

What unfolds is a wholly entertaining and beguiling love story about poetry: from Tennyson, Swinburne, and Yeats to the moderns (Roethke, Bogan, Merwin) to the staff of The New Yorker, what Paul reveals is astonishing and makes one realize how incredibly important poetry is to our lives. At the same time, Paul barely manages to realize all of this himself, and the result is a tenderly romantic, hilarious, and inspired novel.

Media Buzz

Studio 360 - July 30, 2011