About this item
From listening to his grandmother recite epic poems from memory to curling up in bed while his father read funny verses, award-winning actor John Lithgow grew up with poetry. Ever since, John has been an enthusiastic seeker of poetic experience, whether reading, reciting, or listening to great poems. The wide variety of carefully selected poems in this book provides the perfect introduction to appeal to readers new to poetry, and for poetry lovers to experience beloved verses in a fresh, vivid way. William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Dylan Thomas are just a few names among Lithgows comprehensive list of poetry masters. His essential criterion is that "each poems light shines more brightly when read aloud." This unique package provides a multimedia poetry experience with a bonus MP3 CD of revelatory poetry readings by John and the familiar voices of such notable performers as Eileen Atkins, Kathy Bates, Glenn Close, Billy Connolly, Jodie Foster, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Lynn Redgrave, Susan Sarandon, Gary Sinise, and Sam Waterston. Every reader will enjoy reciting or listening to these poems with the entire family, appreciating how each one comes to life through the spoken word in this superlative poetry collection.
About the Author
John Lithgow careens wildly from one thing to another. True, he has won Tonys, Emmys, and Golden Globes as an actor onstage and on big and small screens. But what other award-winning actor can claim to have written best-selling children's books, have performed with a dozen American Symphony orchestras, have sung at Carnegie Hall in the company of Met Opera stars and danced with the New York City Ballet? As an author, he has written a memoir proudly displaying blurbs from John Irving and Gay Talese, and as a poet his book of doggerel political satire arrives in October, 2019. He is an actor at heart, and in all these other fields of endeavor there is a fair measure of playacting involved. But he nonetheless deserves his inclusion on Amazon's Author Central and is proud to be there.
