Listening for the heartbeat of being : the arts of Robert Bringhurst

Poet, philosopher, translator, typographer, and cultural historian Robert Bringhurst is a modern-day Renaissance man. He has forged a career from diverse but interwoven vocations, finding ways to make accessible to contemporary readers the wisdom of poets and thinkers from ancient Greece, the Middle East, Asia, and North American First Nations. This collection shows the ways in which his industry-standard textbook The Elements of Typographic Style, his remarkable translations of Haida oral epics, and his experimental and traditional poetry and prose form a single coherent project. Listening for the Heartbeat of Being brings together a range of literary scholars, poets, journalists, and publishers to comment on Bringhurst’s far reaching body of work. The essays include a comprehensive biography of Bringhurst, first-hand accounts of his book design and production efforts, an analysis of his ground-breaking polyphonic performance poems, and re-considerations of the Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers translation trilogy. Experienced Bringhurst scholars join well-known writers such as Dennis Lee and Margaret Atwood to create a multi-dimensional view of Bringhurst’s career. Guided by the simple faith that "everything is connected to everything else," Bringhurst’s ability to listen closely to the great minds of many cultures and represent their voices pragmatically is, as this diverse and insightful book shows, of greater interest than ever in a world facing unprecedented ecological crisis and intensive cultural evolution. Contributors include Margaret Atwood, Nicholas Bradley (University of Victoria), Crispin Elsted (Barbarian Press), Clare Goulet (Mount St. Vincent University), Iain Higgins (University of Victoria), Ishmael Hope, Peter Koch (Peter Koch Printers), Dennis Lee, Scott McIntyre, Katherine McLeod (Concordia University), Kevin McNeilly (University of British Columbia), Káawan Sangáa, and Erica Wagner. Robert Bringhurst: An Artistic And Intellectual Biography / Mark Dickinson -- Renaissance Men And Presocractic Philosophers: The Path To The Fragments Of Parmenides / Peter Koch -- Ecologies Of Estrangement: Bringhurst's Antigone / Kevin Mcneilly -- Salvage Selvage Joinery: Bringhurst's Early Drafts / Iain Macleod Higgins -- Grace In Two-and-a-half Dimensions: Robert Bringhurst, Typographer / Crispin Elsted -- Anatomy Of A Voice: Bringhurst's Rhythms / Brent Wood -- Conversations With A Toad: A Prologue To Polyphony / Clare Goulet -- Braided Skeins Of Sound: Bringhurst's Oral Polyphony / Dennis Lee -- Water Music: Close Listening To The Blue Roofs Of Japan / Katherine Mcleod -- Bringhurst In West Coast Book Design And Publishing / Scott Mcintyre -- Story And Silence / Erica Wagner -- Uncovered: An American Iliad / Margaret Atwood -- At Land's End: Masterworks Of The Classical Haida Mythtellers / Nicholas Bradley -- Sgalangáay Díinaa Lijang: This Is My Song / Káawan Sangáa (w.f. Morrison) -- The Reincarnation Of Stories / Ishmael Hope -- Ursa Major: Polyphony, Myth, Ecology / Brent Wood And Mark Dickinson. Edited By Brent Wood And Mark Dickinson. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Issued Also In Electronic Formats. Content: Introduction / Brent Wood and Mark Dickinson -- 1 Robert Bringhurst: An Artistic and Intellectual Biography / Mark Dickinson -- 2 Renaissance Men and Presocratic Philosophers: The Path to The Fragments of Parmenides / Peter Koch -- 3 Ecologies of Estrangement: Bringhurst's Antigone / Kevin McNeilly -- 4 Salvage Selvage Joinery: Bringhurst's Early Drafts / Iain Macleod Higgins -- 5 Grace in Two-and-a-Half Dimensions: Robert Bringhurst, Typographer / Crispin Elsted -- 6 Anatomy of a Voice: Bringhurst's Rhythms / Brent Wood -- 7 “Conversations with a Toad”: A Prologue to Polyphony / Clare Goulet -- 8 Braided Skeins of Sound: Bringhurst's Oral Polyphony / Dennis Lee -- 9 Water Music: Close Listening to The Blue Roofs of Japan / Katherine McLeod -- 10 Bringhurst in West Coast Book Design and Publishing / Scott McIntyre -- 11 Story and Silence / Erica Wagner -- 12 Uncovered: An American Iliad / Margaret Atwood -- 13 At Land's End: Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers / Nicholas Bradley -- 14 Sgalangaay Diinaa lijang: “This Is My Song” / Kaawan Sangaa (W.F. Morrison) -- 15 The Reincarnation of Stories / Ishmael Hope -- 16 Ursa Major: Polyphony, Myth, Ecology / Brent Wood and Mark Dickinson. Cover -- Listening for the Heartbeat of Being -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Figures -- Editors' Note and Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Robert Bringhurst: An Artistic and Intellectual Biography -- 2 Renaissance Men and Presocratic Philosophers: The Path to The Fragments of Parmenides -- 3 Ecologies of Estrangement: Bringhurst's Antigone -- 4 Salvage Selvage Joinery: Bringhurst's Early Drafts -- 5 Grace in Two-and-a-Half Dimensions: Robert Bringhurst, Typographer -- 6 Anatomy of a Voice: Bringhurst's Rhythms -- 7 "Conversations with a Toad": A Prologue to Polyphony How a multi-talented artist and scholar turned voices of pre-industrial poet-thinkers into texts relevant for today’s world, and tomorrow’s.