Böcker av Eugene Stelzig

The title-Remarkable It Is-refers to the poet's calling to notice things that most of us take for granted (such as our breathing and our hearts beating) but that actually constitute the miracle of our being alive. These poems range from the playfully wistful, to the probingly thoughtful (about old age and the specter of mortality as well as our place in the universe), and the satirical (especially about contemporary politics and world events). The poems in this new collection reflect a "late life" outlook, but they also speak to perennial topics and experiences that readers of all ages should be able to relate to.

Stephen Behrendt, in his review of my poetry collection wrote:"These poems are a meditation but also a celebration--of the peace and fullness that maturity brings . . . Each season has its own mood, its own mode. but it is all part of a single larger design; this fact of nature sets all in perspective."

Henry Crabb Robinson (1775-1867) spent five years in Germany (1800-1805) and became deeply informed about its Romantic literature and philosophy, then at its height in that country. In the course of his enthusiastic embrace of the German language and culture, Robinson built up an intellectual and literary capital that he would draw on for the rest of his long life. The main thrust of this critical and biographical study is to demonstrate that Robinson is an important nineteenth-century life writer, and that his autobiographical writings, a large portion of which are still in manuscript, deserve to be taken seriously by students and scholars of autobiography, and to be published in a new edition. Since to date no one has focused on Robinson the life writer, this study of Robinson's German years draws on his published letters, diaries, and reminiscences as well as some manuscript material.