2012 Fearless Poetry Exploration

I have decided to join Serena's challenge as I am in the midst of reading The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief & Healing, an anthology of poems edited by National Book Award finalist, Kevin Young.  I am also reading Lord Alfred Tennyson's epic poem In Memoriam A.H.H., written over a 17-year period in memory of his best friend and fellow poet, Arthur Henry Hallam. 


The rules are to complete one or a combination of the following: 1) read and review up to 2 books of poetry this year; 2) participate in at least 3 Virtual Poetry Circles or 3) sign up to feature poetry in April's National Poetry Month.

Poetry, a newly found genre, is becoming an important part of my grief journey, so I am desperately trying to self-educate.  I am excited to learn from others who are participating in this challenge.

I've been writing posts on Josh's blog and will post the links here.

Initial thoughts on TAOL and an original poem, "Silence is the Answer"
Initial thoughts on In Memoriam A.H.H
A.H.H. Canto IV - "deep vase of chilling tears"
Original poem: "Over and Over Again"
Epilogue by John Berryman and A.H.H. Canto V
Thoughts on "why poetry?" and original poem: "No Answer"
Prose poems - "The Dead" by Billy Collins and original poem: "Where He Lay"

"The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger: Read-A-Long

Published: 1951
Read: 2011
Genre: Fiction
Setting: NYC 1949
Rating: 5
List: 1,001
Review: Goodreads







Love it, love it, love it.  And I am only in the first couple chapters.  I hope this love affair will continue.  Because I am getting so much out of my reading, thinking and journaling through the chapters, I want to take my time.  So it will be my own "read-a-long" with no structure or deadline.  The links to the posts (on Josh's blog) are below.

Chapters 1-3   (posted 6/7/11)
Chapters 4 - 10  (posted 6/13/11)
Chapters 11 - end   (posted 6/30/11)

This book reminds me of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain as both protagonists are adolescent boys who are non-conformists at heart, challenging and rebelling against social expectations, not because they are bad but more because they do not see the point.  They look at adults with skepticism and distrust, having seen clear evidence of hypocrisy and in Holden's word, phoniness.

Twain and Salinger excel at capturing the thoughts, musings and speech of the boys, each in their respective time periods. Of the two master plots in fiction, "stranger comes to town" and "hero takes a journey", both are the latter.

I would re-read, but for different reasons.  Twain's story chronicles the adventures of Huck and Jim, a run-away slave, as they travel down the Mississippi River on a raft.  Although Huck is an uneducated, homeless boy, his honest, simple and genuine character shines through, making for a "feel good" story.

Salinger's story is much darker.  Holden is alone in his journey which leads him to an increasingly depressed state.  My interest this book stems from trying to glean whatever I can, via fiction or non-fiction sources, the fragile state of an adolescent boy's mind.  To help me better understand what could've been going on in my beloved boy's head.

Takeaways:  Read other books about adolescents

• To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

"The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler

Published: 1939
Read: 2011
Genre: Fiction  Hard-boiled detective
Setting: Los Angeles
Rating: 3
Lists: TIME's 100 Best Novels (2005), 1001 books
Review: Goodreads






I wanted to read this after reading The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett.  Both are hard-boiled detective stories featuring iconic protagonists, Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe.  Both authors wrote their novels after first submitting well-received short stories for the immensely popular pulp-fiction magazine, the Black Mask. 

The book I checked out from the library was interesting.  According to information on the last page, it was one of 425 copies printed in 1986 by Andrew Hoyem at Arion Press.  Forty photographs, re-created  to mimic the look of 1930's movie stills are peppered throughout the book.  There was no censorship as two of the photos are of a half-nude and fully nude woman.  I should probably put a note on the book upon return.

The introduction describes Philip Marlowe as a "crusading knight, fighting evil both individual and social".... with "hard-boiled decency" and "gallantry towards women and other downtrodden."  I would agree.  Different than Hammett's Sam Spade who is edgier,  rough with women, and motivated by personal profit rather than righting any wrongs.

Before continuing on, I have a question: where does the term "hard-boiled" come from?  According to Wikipedia, this is a "colloquial phrase of understatement.  For an egg, to be hard boiled is to be comparatively tough" which means the "protagonist confronts danger and engages in violence on a regular basis." Interesting explanation.

While Hammett uses a third person narrator to tell Sam Spade's story, Chandler uses the first person, Philip Marlowe.  This has got to be one of the best descriptions of a guy who knows he is super-cool.

I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them.  I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it.  I was everything a well-dressed private detective ought to be.  I was calling on four million dollars. 

Chandler's use of analogies was striking and is the main thing I will take away from this book (besides the twisty plot and sub-plots, interesting bad guy/gal characters and clear description of LA in the 30's which I do not plan to write about as it would spoil the book for anyone else).  Here are some of my favorites:

When Philip first meets Carmen Sternwood:

...she had little sharp predatory teeth, as white as fresh orange pith and as shiny as porcelain.

Description of General Sternwood's greenhouse - where did Chandler get such crazy analogies?

The plants filled the place, a forest of them, with nasty meaty leaves and stalks like the newly washed fingers of dead men.  They smelled as overpowering as boiling alcohol under a blanket.

Description of General Sternwood, an old, dying man who is not allowed to smoke, but would like to.

A few locks of dry white hair clung to his scalp, like wild flowers fighting for life on a bare rock.

The General spoke again, slowly, using his strength as carefully as an out-of-work show-girl uses her last good pair of stockings.

I lit the cigarette and blew a lungful at him and he sniffed at it like a terrier at a rat hole.

When Philip found an uninvited naked Carmen in his bed and after he took her home:

....her eyes large and dark and empty like rain barrels in a drought.

I was as empty of life as a scarecrow's pockets.

When he offered a cigarette to Harry Jones:

His small neat fingers speared one like a trout taking the fly.

Chandler's writing is what all writing should be: crisp, clear and concise.  My favorite examples and why:

The General's description of his own daughters.  In five short sentences, we know this family.

Vivian is spoiled, exacting, smart and quite ruthless.  Carmen is a child who likes to pull wings off flies.  Neither of them has any more moral sense than a cat.  Neither have I.  No Sternwood ever had.

How Philip felt after comprehending that someone like Carmen was in his space, his room, his bed.  This paragraph reveals character.

This was the room I had to live in.  It was all I had in the way of a home.  In it was everything that was mine, that had any association for me, any past, anything that took the place of a family.  Not much; a few books, pictures, radio, chessmen, old letters, stuff like that.  Nothing.  Such as they were they had all my memories.

When Philip goes to meet Harry Jones at his office.  Great descriptive writing. Many adjectives, only one adverb, miserably, which does its job to describe how this poor guy was sleeping.  Love it.  My notes in italics.

A nasty building.  A building in which the smell of stale cigar butts would be the cleanest odor (yuck!).  An old man dozed in the elevator, on a ramshackled stool, with a burst-out cushion under him.  His mouth was open, his veined temples glistened in the weak light.  He wore a blue uniform coat that fitted him the way a stall fits a horse (where does he come up with this stuff?)  Under the grey trousers with frayed cuffs, white cotton socks and black kid shoes, one of which was slit across a bunion (so much is inferred by this comment).  On the stool he slept miserably, waiting for a customer.

The next two quotes hit me as they are about death.  This one reminds me of the day I found Josh - horribly true.

Dead men are heavier than broken hearts.

At the end of the book, Philip's musing about death or the "big sleep".

What did it matter where you lay once you were dead?  In a dirty sump or in a marbled tower on top of a high hill?  You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that.  Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you.  You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell.

Takeaways:

• Read three other novels:  Farewell My Lovely (1940), The High Window (1942) and The Lady in the Lake (1943)
• Other "noir" detective book:  L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain

Published: 1884
Read: 2011
Genre: Fiction
Setting: Small towns along Mississippi River in mid 1800's
Rating: 5
Lists:  1,001 books
Review: Goodreads

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn picks up the story of Huck and Tom from where we find them at the end of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  Having read the two books back to back, the difference is marked.  Twain tells the stories of Tom and friends with a third person narrator, whereas Huckleberry Finn is told from Huck's point of view, putting the reader in the mind of an adolescent boy.  Additionally, in Huckleberry Finn, Twain uses several different dialects in the many scenes of dialogue.  While I typically find this tends to slow the story down, it was not the case in this book.

Between the two boys, I am more drawn to Huck.  I like him, despite his coarseness and aversion to becoming civilized and respectable.  He is honest, genuine and can see right through falsehood and hypocrisy.  He is a good judge of character, resourceful and quick on his feet. These traits come in handy while floating down the Mississippi on a raft with a run-away slave named Jim.  It is interesting to see the relationship develop between a slave with a bounty on his head and an uneducated boy.

Lest we forget, Huck is no angel for he does lie, cheat and steal but as a reader, I am sympathetic.  He only takes what he needs and tells lies to protect Jim.  The one time, however, he did lie to Jim as a joke, and saw how much it hurt him, we read:

It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterward, neither.  I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn't done that one if I'd 'a' knowed it would make him feel that way.

Through a series of event, Tom comes back into the picture and boy, did I not like him.  At all!  He said he would help Huck free Jim, but tried to heighten the "adventure" factor by recreating aspects from  every prison or jail break that he had read in books.  What should've been a simple and fairly straightforward task was exponentially complicated by Tom's involvement.  By the end, things work out but those were some very frustrating chapters to read!

Favorite quotes and why:

When the widow was teaching him the Bible:

After super she got out her book and learned me about Moses and the Bulrushers, and I was in a sweat to find out all about him; but by and by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then I didn't care no more about him, because I don't take no stock in dead people.

The matter-of-fact way that Huck described the abusive relationship with his father, Pap:

But by and by pap got too handy with his hick'ry, and I couldn't stand it.  I was all over welts. He got to going away so much, too, and locking me in.  Once he locked me in and was gone three days. It was dreadful lonesome.  I judged he had got drownded, and I wasn't ever going to get out any more.  I was scared.  I made up my mind I would fix up some way to leave there. 

How Huck described Emmeline Grangerford and her room:

Poor Emmeline made poetry about all the dead people when she was alive, and it didn't seem right that there warn't nobody to make some about her now she was gone; so I tried to sweat out a verse or two myself, but I couldn't seem to make it go somehow.  They kept Emmeline's room trim and nice, and all the things fixed in it just the way she liked to have them when she was alive, and nobody ever slept there.  The old lady took care of the room herself, though there was plenty of niggers, and she sewed there a good deal and read her Bible there mostly. 

My thought - Josh's new bed is being used by his sister, but everything else is in his room.  I have set up a desk, reading chair and bookcase.  This is my place to read and write - although I don't use it as often as I thought I would.  Not sure why. 

Huck's moral dilemma - to send a note to Miss Watson that said where Jim was being kept or to try and free him.  Based on everything Huck knew from society and church, he would be giving up his soul to help Jim escape again. 

It was a close place.  I took it up, and held it in my hand.  I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it.  I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: "All right, then, I'll go to hell" and tore it up.  It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said.  And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming.

Final thoughts:  Why does this story resonate with me?  Because it is about a teenage boy trying to figure his way through life, towards maturity?  Trying to navigate through the sometimes silly rules laid down by well-meaning adults in society, school and church?  Adults who have forgotten what it is like to be a kid; when imagination runs rampant and all issues/situations seem bigger than life, when reasoning is crude and immature, but honest.  Is it because I ache to get "into" the mind of a teenage boy and by doing so, may get more insight to what was going on in my beloved son's head that fateful night? 

"The Hours" by Michael Cunningham

Published: 1998
Read: 2011
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 5
Award: 1999 Pulitzer Prize
Review: Good Reads
Author web site

On writing The Hours







Good Reads reviews were interesting as readers were polarized - they either loved it or not. I loved it. But it was probably because of the subject matter - death, specifically by suicide. See post on Josh's blog for more.

It is the story of three women's lives: Virginia Woolf, writing Mrs. Dalloway in 1923 England; Clarissa Vaughan, preparing a party for her former lover, Richard, who calls her Mrs. Dalloway and is dying of AIDS in 1999 New York City and Laura Brown, unhappy housewife, pregnant with her second child, reading Mrs. Dalloway in 1949 Los Angeles.

My favorite quotes and why:

I love the simplicity and truth of this sentence:

"Don't we love children, in part, because they live outside the realm of cynicism and irony?"

The source of Laura's unhappiness:

"In another world, she might have spent her whole life reading. But this is a new world, the rescued world - there's not much room for idleness."

Laura wishes to live in another world - one in which she is free to read, read and read. Where she does not have responsibilities for other people like her husband or young son. Where she could stay in bed all day, if desired and read Mrs. Dalloway without interruption or guilt. In some ways, I can relate. I wish that the most productive hours of my day are not spent at work. I'd rather be reading or writing. But unlike Laura, I don't think this is an all-or-nothing proposition. I can get up earlier, before work, to read and write. And I can set aside larger blocks of time during the weekend to do so. There is time to fit in what I want to do - I just have to make it happen.

I love this description of the squalid entrance to Richard's apartment. Having lived in New York City, I can just picture it.

"Only the ancient marble wainscoting - a palomino-colored marble, veined in blue and gray with a deep yellow, smoky overlay, like a very fine old cheese, now hideously echoed by the yellowish walls - indicates that this was once a building of some consequence; that hopes were nurtured here..."

Clarissa's description of what makes Richard's friendship unique:

"...and if he insists on a version of you that is funnier, stranger, more eccentric, and profound than you suspect yourself to be - capable of doing more good and more harm in the world than you've ever imagined - it is all but impossible not to believe, at least in his presence and for a while after you've left him, that he alone sees through to your essence, weighs your true qualities, and appreciates you more fully than anyone else ever has."

In one long, perfect sentence, we know everything about the relationship between these two women:

"In another life, not very much unlike this one, they'd have been enemies, but in this life, with its surprises and perversities of timing, Laura is married to a celebrated boy, a war hero, from Kitty's graduating class and has joined the aristocracy in much the way a homely German princess, no longer young, might find herself seated on a throne beside an English king."

Virginia's thought while standing over a small dead bird. I agree.

"She thinks of how much more space a being occupies in life than it does in death; how much illusion of size is contained in gestures and movements, in breathing. Dead, we are revealed in our true dimensions, and they are surprisingly modest."

Clarissa's thoughts at the end of the novel are so poignant - on death, life and hope.

"Yes, Clarissa thinks, it's time for the day to be over. We throw our parties; we abandon our families to live alone in Canada; we struggle to write books that do not change the world, despite our gifts, and our unstinting efforts, our most extravagant hopes. We live our lives, do whatever we do, and then we sleep - it's as simple and ordinary as that. A few jump out of windows or drown themselves or take pills; more die by accident; and most of us, the vast majority, are slowly devoured by some disease or, if we're very fortunate, by time itself. There's just this for consolation; an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we've ever imagined, though everyone but children (and perhaps even they) knows these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish the city, the morning; we hope, more than anything, for more."

A highly recommended book.

"The Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion

Published: 2005

Read: 2011

Genre: Memoir

Rating: 4

Review: Goodreads







A quick read with lots of dog eared pages, underlined passages and notes in the margins.  This is a memoir told in snippets or snapshots of memories and flashbacks interspersed with the present - how she dealt with the sudden death of her husband.  I don't get the title.

I agree with the Chicago Sun-Times: "Unforgettable...both personal and universal.  She has given the reader an eloquent starting point in which to navigate through the wilderness of grief."  If I ever wrote a book about my grief journey, I would want this to be said.

A more extensive post with quotes and my thoughts of this highly recommended book is on Josh's blog. 

"A Grief Observed" by C. S Lewis

Published: 1961
Read: 2011
Genre: memoir
Rating: 4
Review: Goodreads







This has been on my list of books to read for quite a while, really since Josh died almost two year ago.  I received a comment on a previous post that it was a most helpful book.  So I finally got it at the library and read it in one night - while in a hotel, traveling for work.

When C.S. Lewis' beloved wife, "H" died, he poured out his feelings in a journal which is the content of this short but powerful book.  The pain, grief, sorrow, and despair radiates from the pages.  Although his experience is of spousal loss, the use of analogies to describe his deep feelings, apply to other losses such as mine.

Analogies of loss/grief:
Getting over the loss of a loved one is like getting over the loss of a limb - it will never happen.  See this post from Josh's blog for the quote and my thoughts.

Grief like a spiral:

"For in grief nothing 'stays put.' One keeps on emerging from a phase, but it always recurs.  Round and round. Everything repeats. Am I going in circles, or dare I hope I am on a spiral?  But if a spiral, am I going up or down it?" 

Grief like a long valley:

"Grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape.  As I've already noted, not every bend does.  Sometimes the surprise is the opposite one; you are presented with exactly the same sort of country you thought you had left behind miles ago. That is when you wonder whether the valley isn't a circular trench.  But it isn't.  There are partial recurrences, but the sequence doesn't repeat."

My thoughts:
I agree.  Along these lines, I've likened grief to being on a journey, unwelcome but necessary.  To delay or deny the journey, however difficult, will only bring harm (see this post for more thoughts).

I've also thought about grief being like an archery target with the center bulls-eye surrounded by concentric circles.  If THE LOSS is the center and the circles are various points in time, clearly even 3, 4 or 5 years after the death does not move the bereaved very far from the middle.  In other words, time does not distance someone from their loss as quickly as one might think.

As mentioned at the beginning of this post, it will soon be two years since our son died.  In some ways, it feels like forever; sometimes, like yesterday.  Either way, his absence is louder than his presence ever was.  And I don't see this diminishing any time soon.

"The Once and Future King" and "The Book of Merlyn" by T.H. White

Published: 1958 and 1971
Read: 2010
Genre: Fantasy
Setting: England; Boy Arthur to King to death
Rating: 5
List: 1,001 books
Review: Good Reads

Referenced in Writing Fiction for Dummies book.  I’ve always wanted to read stories about King Arthur, Merlin, Gwenever, Camelot, Lancelot, etc and bought the book.  Also one of the 1,001 books.  Absolutely loved it and want to read more.  Agree with the publisher on B&N site:

“The whole world knows and loves this book. It is the magical epic of King Arthur and his shining Camelot; of Merlin and Owl and Guinevere; of beasts who talk and men who fly, of wizardry and war. It is the book of all things lost and wonderful and sad. It is the fantasy masterpiece by which all others are judged.”

Five stories

Sword in the Stone - we see the boy Wart in Sir Ector’s castle who is tutored by Merlyn in unconventional ways (turning Wart into various animals to learn from them).  We see that Wart is a good, kind-hearted boy who thinks of others first, as opposed to Sir Ector’s natural son, Kay - a self-centered, arrogant, spoiled boy.  Wart pulls the sword out of the stone and becomes King Arthur of Britain.


Queen of Air and Darkness - we are introduced to Lot, his wife and A’s half sister (unbeknownst to him), Morgause, the mother of four boys who become knights (Gawaine, Agravaine, Gaheris and Gareth).  She also gives birth to Mordred, A’s bastard son.  Mess business.  In this book, we also witness A”s idea of the Knights of the Round Table, as a way to steer “Might into Right.”


The Ill-Made Knight - we are privy to Sir Lancelot story; the one who becomes one of the most  favored and successful knights and who falls in love with Queen Guenever.  The feeling is mutual and they become lovers.  Arthur is fond of both and deliberately turns a blind eye.  The knights are involved in quests of chivalry but due to the nature of man, become competitive with one another, fraying the whole concept of the Round Table.  Arthur then comes up with ultimate quest that is spiritual in nature - the Quest for the Holy Grail. This distracts the knights for a period of time, but the nature of man, once again shines through.  I

The Candle In the Wind - Mordred, Arthur’s bastard son bides his time and along the enemy of Lancelot,  Agravaine.  They plot against Guenever and Lancelot, using Arthur’s desire for law to settle problems:  if people are guilty of crimes, they must be punished (hanging, burning, etc).
At the end of this story, Arthur is away from England and has left Mordred as Protector.  He seizes power, intending to make himself King and marry Guenever.  When A hears of this, he is broken, tired, disillusioned, weak and feels like “what was the point?  Nothing has worked out as he thought.”

The Book of Meryn - the 5th story and a separate book, Merlyn shows up on the eve of battle and wisks Arthur away to palaver with his old friends, the animals.  They discuss the merits/demerits of man, the reason for war and how to avoid war.  And out of all the species of animals on earth, only man will make deliberate war on each other, a disgusting and abhorrent thought to other animals.

Memorable quotes

Josh’s dream job - 10/18/2010 blog post

“In Sir Ector’s kennel there was a special boy, call the Dog Boy, who lived with the hounds day and night.  He was a sort of head hound, and it was his business to take them out every day for walks, to pull thorns our of their feet, keep cankers out of their ears, bind the smaller bones that got dislocated, dose them for worms, isolate and nurse them in distemper, arbitrate in their quarrels and to sleep curled up among them at night” (43).

Story about a Elijah and the Rabbi.

 “In regard to the poor man who received us so hospitably, it was decreed that his wife was to die that night, but in regard for his goodness, God took the cow instead of his wife  I repaired the wall of the rich miser because a chest of gold was concealed near the place, and if the miser had repaired the wall himself he would have discovered the treasure.  Say not therefore to the Lord; What doest thou?  But say in they heart: Must nor the Lord of all the earth do right? (89).

God moves in mysterious ways - Merlyn’s story to Wart

“The best thing for being sad is to learn something.  That is the only thing that never fails....There is only thing for it then - to learn.  Learn why the world wags and what wags it.  That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.  Learning is the thing for you” (183).

King Arthur’s idea for the Knights of the Round Table:

“My idea is that if we can win this battle in front of us, and get a firm hold of the country, then I will institute a sort of order or chivalry.  We shall have to make it a great honour, you see, and make it fashionable and all that.  Everybody must want to be in.  And then I shall make the oath of the order that Might is only to be used for Right.  The nights in my order will ride all over the world, still dressed in steel and whacking away with their swords - that will give an outlet for wanting to whack you understand, an outlet for what Merlyn calls the foxhunting spirit - but they will be bound to strike only on behalf of what is good, and to restore what has been done wrong in the past and to help the oppressed and so forth.  It will be using the Might instead of fighting against it, and turning a bad thing into a good” (248).

 Lancelot’s deep insecurity - did Josh feel any of this? 10/18/2010 blog post

“The boy thought that there was something wrong with him.  All through his life - even when he was a great man with the world at his feet - he was to feel this gap: something at the bottom of his heart of which he was aware, and ashamed, but which he did not understand” (315). “Finally there was the impediment of his nature.  In the secret parts of his peculiar brain, those unhappy and inextricable tangles which he felt at the roots, the boy was disabled by something we cannot explain.  He could not have explained it either.  He loved Arthur and he loved Guenever and he hated himself.  the best knight in the world: everybody envied the esteem which surely musht be his.  But Lancelot never believed he was good nor nice.  Under the grotesque, magnificent shell with a face like Quasimodo’ s there was shame and self-loathing which had been planted there when he was tiny, by something which is now too late to trace. It is so fatally easy to make young children believe that they are horrible” (368).
Lancelot

“He felt in his heart cruelty and cowardice, the things which made him brave and kind” (361).

Candle in the wind - idea given to a 13 year old boy by and old King Arthur:

“Thomas, my idea of those knights was a sort of candle.  I have carried it for many years with a hand to shield it from the wind.  It has flickered often.  I am giving you the candle now - you won’t let it out? (637).

Takeways

Read other Arthurian legend books

• Merlyn Trilogy by Mary Stewart
• Taliesin Series by Stephen Lawhead
• The Mists of Avalon Series by Marion Bradley
• Lost Years Merlin Series by T.A. Barrow
• Le Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory