The Post Loves The Pure Lover
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The Washington Post‘s Michael Dirda just gave a fantastic review to the new book by our very own David Plante, whose Essential Stories series we just wrapped up on Saturday. The book, published by the same folks at Beacon Press who unleashed our own Believer, Beware, is a tribute to David’s longtime, late partner, the poet and editor Nikos Stangos. In it, David stirs up some of the same longings that come to the surface in the Essential Stories. Here, David speaking to Nikos:
If you ever thought of me as an idealist and you as a realist, you were right, even though you did sustain ideals—insisting that they be aspired to temporarily, in politics, in culture, in love, in your poetry and even in religion. And I, the true idealist, believed ideals were realized only in eternity. I could pledge you love forever, whereas you could pledge me love at 4:15 p.m. next Tuesday—a true sign, according to W.H. Auden, of love.
