Reviews 273 narrative complexity and sexual content; however, a university instructor as well could find useful information for choosing a course syllabus or could use the guide as supplementary course reading. The crucial element of such a guide is selection, and, acknowledging that not all readers will be satisfied, Barron chooses “those who have spent a major portion of their adult life in the state and/or who have used Minnesota as the locale for at least some of their work.” Allen Tate, Mark Harris, and Harrison Salisbury, whom I might have liked to see, are excluded specific attention (Salisbury and others are noted briefly in the afterword, and Tate is cited cri tically by several authors.) Every reader might favor another name or two. However, those chosen all deserve inclusion; in fact, Barron presents a compre hensive selection. The writers include Robert Bly, Gordon R. Dickson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Judith Guest, Garrison Keillor, Meridel LeSueur, Sinclair Lewis, Frederick Manfred, Tim O’Brien, Sigurd Olson, O. E. Rolvaag, Eric Sevareid, Clifford Simak, and Gerald Vizenor. The popular authors included serve explicit aims of reflecting “values and aspirations of the people of the state” and (for teachers’ aid particularly) of “making literature less abstract.” And these practical facts should be emphasized: the price is a bargain, educators can duplicate sections for classroom use, and there are addresses for publishers, educational organizations, and newsletters. This guide is a valuable contribution. THOMAS PRIBEK University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse Robert Duncan. By Mark Andrew Johnson. (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1988. 155 pages, $21.95.) Now that San Francisco poet Robert Duncan has published his Ground Work volumes—ending a decade in which he published little— scholars can begin a major assessment of this major American poet. Mark Andrew Johnson’s book will serve well as an introduction to Duncan’s complex and perplexing art. Particularly valuable are two chapters on Derivations—sources and influences—and Poetics. Following these chap ters Johnson devotes a chapter apiece to each of the major volumes of poetry through Ground Work: Before the War. Johnson’s close readings of the texts of the poems, while occasionally debatable, perhaps, disclose the dense artistry of Duncan in a way the book-review literature cannot. Also valuable is this book’s treatment of Whitman’s influence on Duncan and Duncan’s ideas on democracy. Johnson often sounds like an apologist for Duncan, though, as when he refutes charges of sentimentalism against the poet. The emphasis on sound effects also gives this book importance. Too often poets themselves are the only ones to talk about the artistry of sound in contempor ary poetry. 274 Western American Literature Of course there are inevitably shortcomings to a book such as this. For example, Johnson regularly throws around the adjective “Emersonian” merely to refer to any idea of a supreme order in the universe. A more serious short coming, however, is his treatment of Duncan pretty much in isolation from the New American Poetry movement. Only fellow New American Poets Charles Olson and Denise Levertov get much mention at all. Still, Mark Andrew Johnson’s Robert Duncan is essential reading for all who are seriously interested in contemporary American poetry. PAUL VARNER Oklahoma Christian College World Outside the Window: The Selected Essays of Kenneth Rexroth. Edited by Bradford Morrow. (New York: New Directions, 1987. 326 pages, $12.95.) The mind of Kenneth Rexroth had enormous range. Poet, translator, critic, student of religion, social commentator, lover of jazz and painting. The present selection of his essays represents his range very well: there are articles on jazz, on the art of Morris Graves, on the Beat Generation, on the writings of Simone Weil and Martin Buber. Bradford Morrow has tried to do justice to Rexroth’s catholicity. Naturally he has to omit much: the introduction ends with a list of essays regretfully omitted. I for one would have preferred the essay on Mina Loy in place of the more familiar one on D. H. Lawrence’s poetry. Fortunately, the important essays on “The Poet as Translator” and “The Influence of Classical Japanese Poetry on Modern American Poetry” have been included. While Rexroth is remarkably learned and very intelligent, the essays...