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 | | Our World by Mary Oliver ISBN-10: 9780807068809 ISBN-10: 0-8070-6880-2 ISBN-13: 9780807068809 ISBN-13: 978-0-8070-6880-9 Hardcover 2007-10-03 Beacon Press Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description Intertwined in art and life: the prose of Mary Oliver and the photographs of Molly Malone Cook Mary Oliver, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, is one of the most celebrated and best-selling poets in America. Molly Malone Cook, who died in 2005, was Oliver's partner for many years, a pioneer gallery owner and photographer. This book joins Cook's photographs with Oliver's prose—a uniquely intimate intertwining of their lives and art. There are famous faces here, among them Lorraine Hansberry, Walker Evans, Norman Mailer, and even, through a restaurant window in Venice, Jean Cocteau. Other artists and dozens of wonderful characters and scenes are also immortalized by Cook's unfailing eye for telling detail and perfect composition—two strangers playing chess, laundry billowing in a cityscape, a Pueblo Indian with his 1958 Cadillac. Mary Oliver writes of Cook's work, the people they knew, and the places they visited or lived. The poet's beautiful text captures not only the unique qualities of her partner's work, but the very texture of their shared world. Within the art world, Molly Malone Cook made her reputation as an early advocate of photography as an art form; she was a champion of the work of now-famous photographers, including Edward Steichen, Eugene Atget, Berenice Abbott, Minor White, Ansel Adams, Harry Callahan, and W. Eugene Smith. Perhaps as important, in Mary Oliver's moving words, Cook taught the beginner poet "to see, with searching attention, and compassion." "Her most affecting work [is] not in verse but in prose…remembrances of her relationship with photographer Molly Malone Cook, who died two years ago. Oliver's half-dozen passages recalling her partner from Our World [are] heartfelt, intimate, loving." —John Marshall, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2/5/08 "The photographs Oliver has chosen reflect Cook's intuitive relationship with her subjects (even inanimate objects). The little girl on the stoop in New York City looks directly at the photographer, as does a kindly Robert Motherwell and a fierce, almost intimidating Walker Evans. Even though most of the photographs are dominated by a central person or object, there is a lot to look at in the margins, all part of the story. The stance of her subjects—reading a book, looking through a telescope—is always distinctive, creating the mood of the entire composition. The two photos of Oliver could have been taken only by someone who knew the subject well." —Susan Salter Reynolds, L. A. Times, 1/6/08 "Cook was evidently an accomplished printer as well as a photographer and the images have been beautifully reproduced…In a photo which Cook took of Jean Cocteau dining in Venice in May 1954—one of her several fine portraits of celebrities—we glimpse the photographer silhouetted in an oval mirror on the wall behind the French poet. Her own face is hidden by her upheld camera but we sense that she controls the composition. In this selection of Cook's work, so admirable in intention, she herself remains something of a shadow in a mirror. But perhaps, given her honesty of eye, we come to know her best by seeing the world as it once appeared through the discretion of her lens." —Eric Ormsby, The New York Sun, 12/5/2007 | ||
Reviews | ||
Our World 'Our World' is a pleasingly presented book. Intended to depict the life shared by Molly and Mary (Oliver). It relies on journal notes by Mary and photographs by Molly... recalling conversational moments between them, times with friends,and shared ventures into galleries, publishing, etc. It succeeds in its intention .. and is a pleasant glimpse into their life... poignant in view of Molly's death in recent years. I find it to be a little too distant and a good degree removed from their real relationship and life .... rather it relies on anecdotal episodes ... glimpses .. and momentary flashes. Pleasant - Yes. Deeply told, or fundamentally informing of their real life - No. | ||
Great read This is a great read. I had just heard of Mary's work and ordered quite few of her books. They are all wonderful. She has such a wonderful way to look at nature and the world in general. | ||
OUR WORLD OUR WORLD BY MARY OLIVER IS A MEMOIR AND A TRIBUTE TO MS. OLIVER'S LONG TIME PARTNER AND FRIEND WHO WAS A PHOTOGRAPHER OF NOTE. MANY OF MS. OLIVER'S PARTNER'S PHOTOS ARE INCLUDED IN THIS BOOK. FOR THOSE WHO APPRECIATE MS. OLIVER'S POETRY, THERE ARE NOT MANY POEMS IN THIS MEMOIR. IT IS A THOROUGHLY ENJOYABLE BOOK, HOWEVER, AND ONE THAT GIVES THE READER A GLIMPSE INTO HER PRIVATE WORLD. ANNA M. SEIDLER | ||
Window onto a World. I just loved this book. Somehow it opened an intimate window into the life of Molly Malone Cook, without ever disrespecting the sacred nature of her life. Mary Oliver does this with grace. They clearly shared their lives together, yet still kept their individuality intact. Mary Oliver remarks, towards the end of the book, on her own recognised gift for attention. She goes on to pay tribute to Molly for teaching her this: "attention without feeling, I began to learn, is only a report. An openess - an empathy - was necessary is the attention was to matter." This tribute inspires me to continue the journey towards greater presence in my life. | ||
Breathtakingly beautiful Simply the name Mary Oliver causes a shift in my countenance and my being. My steps are different when I am present to who she is as a writer and human being, so it shouldn't surprise me, what happened this morning. I was minding my own business walking across my local bookstore when I heard the sound of wind rushing from my mouth. It was like the jolt happened so quickly my brain couldn't quite orient around the words, "Our World" and the names Mary Oliver and Molly Malone Cook. I had no choice. I had to stop all my other book plans and sit with this one, just be with it, soak it in, allow it to do its work on my soul as I knew intuitively it would. Last winter I became the self-appointed one woman marketing machine for Mary Oliver's "Thirst" - a collection of poetry written as she grieved the loss of her life partner, Molly Malone Cook, someone who I never knew yet felt I knew through reading Oliver's work. I stood at a bookstore crying as I read that book, sobbing, openly - aching and simultaneously being stunned by the beauty of the poetry. Now, in this volume, not only do I have words - I have Molly Malone Cook's photography. It is like being invited into the most intimate chambers of a lifetime soul-love affair. It is deeply personal, extremely intense memoir of love. That energy is on each page as Oliver builds a model of appreciation for Molly Malone Cook for us all to follow. Now, the "other" juicy stuff - photos by Molly Malone Cook that show a deep love and appreciation of books, of learning, of activism, of art and of the "faces of the world" - one of her early childhood ambitions, so it tells us in the text "was to see every face in America." Well, in these photographs "every" face is, indeed, communicated. We see photographers, playwrights, restaurateurs, activists and places the writers and artists among us dream about seeing. There are too many numerous memorable quotes to share here - and I don't want to take away your own discovery of words that speak directly to you. I know I will be forever grateful for the work of Mary Oliver and this volume amplifies that gratitude by bringing Molly Malone Cook to life for me in a more vivid way than in the past. I can only hope there will be many more opportunities for my heart and breath to be swept away, simply by seeing this author's name on a book jacket. | ||