Table of Contents for
From Room to Room: The Poetry of Eli Mandel, selected with an introduction by Peter Webb

Foreword | Neil Besner

Biographical Note

Introduction | Peter Webb

Minotaur Poems

Estevan Saskatchewan

The Fire Place

In the Caves of My City

City Park Merry-Go-Round

Doll on the Mantelpiece

Epilogue

Mary Midnight's Prologue

Charles Isaac Mandel

David

Hippolytus

The Meaning of the I CHING

Girl on a High Wire

Houdini

The Madness of Our Polity

The Speaking Earth

From the North Saskatchewan

Two Dream Songs for John Berryman

On the 25th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz

Room XV

On the Renewal of Bombing in VietNam December, 1972

Envoi

from Out of Place

the return

signs

doors of perception

near Hirsch a Jewish cemetery

STRIKE sept 1931

estevan, 1934

petroglyphs at st victor

the doppelganger

Pictures in an Institution

On the Murder of Salvador Allende

The Madwomen of the Plaza de Mayo

In My 57th Year

Zenith: Saving to Disk

Afterword | Andrew Stubbs

Acknowledgements

The career of Eli Mandel (1922-1992) was one of the most prolific and distinguished in all of Canadian literature, yet in recent years his work has gone unsung compared with that of such peers as Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, Robert Kroetsch, Irving Layton, and P.K. Page. Though he was a critic, anthologist, and editor of national prominence, Mandel's legacy resides most securely in his poetry, which earned many accolades.

From Room to Room: The Poetry of Eli Mandel presents thirty-five of Mandel's best poems written over four decades, from the 1950s to the 1980s. The selection covers the most prominent themes in Mandel's work, including his Russian-Jewish heritage, his Saskatchewan upbringing, his interest in classical and biblical archetypes, and his concern for the political and social issues of his time. The book also highlights the way in which Mandel's work bridged the formal attributes of modernist poetry with contemporary, sometimes experimental, poetics.

Complete with a scholarly introduction by Peter Webb and a literary afterword by Andrew Stubbs, From Room to Room makes a worthy addition to the Laurier Poetry Series, which presents affordable editions of contemporary Canadian poetry for use in the classroom and the enjoyment of anyone wishing to read some of the finest poetry Canada has to offer.

Eli Mandel was a renowned Canadian poet, critic, editor, and anthologist for over three decades beginning in the 1950s. Born in Estevan, Saskatchewan, he taught for many years at York University. His many books included ten poetry monographs or collections, including An Idiot Joy, which won the Governor General's Award for poetry in 1967.