“She is a master of poetic style and of her material. No poet in English writes with more authority.” —Yvor Winters
“Pinkerton’s work is . . . remarkable for its intelligence. Her poems are not only enjoyable to read, but rewarding to think about. Philosophically, she seems to be a dualist, in the sense that she regards life as a continual negotiation between mutually essential, but seemingly opposed, elements. Her poems strive to balance and connect the transient and the timeless, matter and spirit, reason and faith, our particular lives and Being itself.” —Timothy Steele
"Her poetry, in form and in content, is both traditional and original. In the best sense of the word, it is poetic." —John Baxter, in Sequoia
In 1959 Helen Pinkerton published her first book of poems, Error Pursued. In the fifty seven years since that date, Pinkerton's publication of poetry has remained as rare as her poems are well-wrought. Slim chapbooks such as Bright Fictions: Poems on Works of Art, and "The Harvesters" and Other Poems on Works of Art, followed, both published by R.L. Barth. In 2002, Swallow Press-Ohio University Press published the body of her work to that date in Taken in Faith: Poems. This latest collection, A Journey of the Mind: Collected Poems of Helen Pinkerton:1945-2016, contains the life work of an authoritative master of poetic style. By turns lyrical and devotional, historical and metaphysical, the poems herein lead us from the beginning to the end of a life lived in submission to the Muse.
About the Author
 Helen Pinkerton is a poet, essayist, and scholar of American and English literature. Her poems as have appeared in such journals as The Paris Review, The Sewanee Review, and The Southern Review. The 1999 winner of the Allen Tate Poetry Prize, she has taught poetry, fiction, and the writing of poetry at Stanford, Michigan State, and other universities. She lives in Grass Valley, California.

A Journey of the Mind: Collected Poems of Helen Pinkerton, 1945-2016

Literature & Fiction

Pinkerton, Helen

Poetry

Wiseblood Books

Taken In Faith: Poems

In 1967, Yvor Winters wrote of Helen Pinkerton, “she is a master of poetic style and of her material. No poet in English writes with more authority.” Unfortunately, in 1967 mastery of poetic style was not, by and large, considered a virtue, and Pinkerton's finely crafted poems were neglected in favor of more improvisational and flashier talents. Though her work won the attention and praise of serious readers, who tracked her poems as they appeared in such journals as The Paris Review, The Sewanee Review, and The Southern Review, her verse has never been available in a trade book. Taken in Faith remedies that situation, bringing Pinkerton's remarkable poems to a general audience for the first time. Even her very earliest works embody a rare depth and seriousness. Primarily lyrical and devotional, they always touch on larger issues of human struggle and conduct. More recent poems, concerned in part with history, exhibit a stylistic as well as a thematic shift, moving away from the rhymed forms of her devotional works into a blank verse marked by a quiet flexibility and contemplative grace. Like Virginia Adair, another poet who waited long for proper recognition, Pinkerton speaks as a woman who has lived fully and observed acutely and who has set the life and observations down in memorable verse. Taken in Faith represents a half-century of her poetic efforts.

SWALLOW PRESS+

In 1967, Yvor Winters wrote of Helen Pinkerton, “she is a master of poetic style and of her material. No poet in English writes with more authority.” Unfortunately, in 1967 mastery of poetic style was not, by and large, considered a virtue, and Pinkerton's finely crafted poems were neglected in favor of more improvisational and flashier talents. Though her work won the attention and praise of serious readers, who tracked her poems as they appeared in such journals as The Paris Review, The Sewanee Review, and The Southern Review, her verse has never been available in a trade book. Taken in Faith remedies that situation, bringing Pinkerton's remarkable poems to a general audience for the first time. Even her very earliest works embody a rare depth and seriousness. Primarily lyrical and devotional, they always touch on larger issues of human struggle and conduct. More recent poems, concerned in part with history, exhibit a stylistic as well as a thematic shift, moving away from the rhymed forms of her devotional works into a blank verse marked by a quiet flexibility and contemplative grace. Like Virginia Adair, another poet who waited long for proper recognition, Pinkerton speaks as a woman who has lived fully and observed acutely and who has set the life and observations down in memorable verse. Taken in Faith represents a half-century of her poetic efforts.

The harvesters, and other poems on works of art

R.L. Barth

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pinkerton, Helen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Pinkerton, Helen

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pinkerton, Helen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Journey of the Mind: Collected Poems of Helen Pinkerton, 1945-2016

Taken In Faith: Poems

Taken In Faith: Poems

The harvesters, and other poems on works of art