James Dickey

University of North Carolina at Asheville D. Hiden Ramsey Library Special Collections James Dickey (1923-1997) Southern Appalachian Writers Collection M2005.05.01-08

Title	James Dickey
Creator	Southern Highlands Research Center
Alt. Creator	D. H. Ramsey Library
Identifier	http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/mss/southern_appalachian_writers/dickey_james/dickey_james.htm
Subject Keyword	James Dickey ; Southern Appalachian Writers ;
Subject LCSH	Dickey, James, 1923 - 1997
Description	Collection contains letters of correspondence, ephemera, photographs, book covers, and anecdotal information on the writer. In some instances, tapes of the author reading from their work is included. The collection was gathered as part of an exhibition of Southern Appalachian Writers held at UNCA in the early 1980's and sponsored by D. H. Ramsey Library and the Southern Highlands Research Center.
Publisher	D. H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804
Contributor	Annette Hatley
Date	2005-08-23
Type	Collection ; text ; photographs ; audio
Format	1 folder ; audio ; text ; image
Source	M2005.05.1-8
Language	English
Relation	Southern Appalachian Writers in "A Sense of Place, "The Heritage of Western North Carolina, D. H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville
Coverage	1900's - present ;
Rights	Any display, publication, or public use must credit the D. H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law. Some materials in collections are electronic rights only. Please ask for assistance from Special Collections staff.
Donor	240
Acquisition	2004-03-
Citation	James Dickey in Southern Appalachian Writers Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804
Processed by	Special Collections staff, 2005
Last update	2008-08-27
Statement on Writing	"All poetry, I suspect, is nothing more or less than an attempt to discover or invent conditions under which one can live with oneself, ... What I have always striven for is to find some way to incarnate my best moments -- those which in memory are most persistent and obsessive . . . What you have to realize if you write poetry, or love poetry, is that poetry is just naturally the greatest god damn thing that ever was in the whole universe .... I also believe that after all the ages and all the centuries and all the languages, that we've just arrived at the beginning of what poetry is capable of. All of the great poets: the Greek poets, the Latins, the Chinese, the French, German, Spanish, English --- they have only hinted at what could exist as far as poems and poetry are concerned. I don't know how to get this new kind of sound, or this new kind of use in language, but I am convinced that it can be done by somebody, maybe not by me, but by somebody. I feel about myself as a writer like John the Baptist did, when he said 'I prepare the way for one who is greater than I.' Yeah, but look who it was."
Biography	James Dickey, born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1923, was an eminent writer of poetry (having won the National Book Award for his collection Buckdancer’s Choice) and fiction (winning the French Prix Medicis for his novel Deliverance). He was educated at Clemson College and finished both his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Vanderbilt College. After stints in both World War II and Korea, Dickey spent much of his professional life in the classroom, first as a poet-in-residence at various institutions throughout the country and then as a professor of English at the University of South Carolina until his death in 1997.
Bibliography	*BOOKS BY:*
1964	Helmets: Poems. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1964.
1965	Buckdancer's Choice: Poems. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1965.
1967	Drowning With Others: Poems. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1967. Poems, 1957-1967. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1967.
1968	The Achievement of James Dickey: A Comprehensive Selection of his Poems with a Critical Introduction. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1968. Babel to Byzantium: Poets & Poetry Now. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968.
1970	Deliverance. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970. The Eye-Beaters, Blood, Victory, Madness, Buckhead, and Mercy. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970. Self-Interviews. Barbara and James Reiss, eds. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970.
1971	Sorties. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971.
1976	The Zodiac. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976.
1977	God's Images: The Bible, A New Vision. Birmingham, AL: Oxmoore House, 1977.
1978	Tucky the Hunter. New York: Crown Publishers, 1978.
1981	Falling, May Day Sermon and other Poems. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1981.
1982	Puella. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1982.
1983	The Central Motion: Poems, 1968-1979. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1983.
1987	Alnilam. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1987.
1988	Wayfarer: A Voice from the Southern Mountains. Birmingham, AL: Oxmoor House, 1988.
1989	The Voiced Connections of James Dickey: Interviews and Conversations. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1989.
1992	The Whole Motion: Collected Poems, 1945-1992. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1992.
1993	To the White Sea. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.

1999	Crux: The Letters of James Dickey. Matthew J. Bruccoli and Judith S. Baughman, eds. New York: Alfred A. Knopf: 1999. The James Dickey Reader. Henry Hart, ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.
2003	The One Voice of James Dickey: His Letters and Life, 1942-1969. Gordon Van Ness, ed. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2003.
2004	Classes on Modern Poets and the Art of Poetry. Donald Greiner, ed. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2004.

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