“This is an exemplary work.” —Erica da Costa, The New York Times Book Review

“Fascinating . . . Henry Hart has done a first-rate job.” —George Garrett, Washington Times

“Exemplary . . . This is the biography the poet deserves.” —Steve Oney, LA Weekly

“This book is destined to become the standard Dickey biography.” —Library Journal (starred)

“Weaving Dickey's own writing into this biographical narrative, Hart provides glimpses of his incisiveness as a critic, his lyric grace as a poet and his dazzling inventiveness as a novelist.” —Henry L. Carrigan, Chicago Tribune

“Thorough and unflinching . . . One finishes this biography with a sense of the enormity of James Dickey's talent and with an equally strong sense of the great waste of his later years.” —Stephen Ennis, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“This new biography by Hart undertakes a meticulous unveiling of the man behind the many masks.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Hart quietly corrects as well as establishes the record. More tellingly, he links the sometimes ugly forces that inspired Dickey's antics--his public acting out, his aggressive competitiveness and his sometimes unbridled determination to dominate people around him--to the wellsprings of his art. As a result, we can now say of James Dickey . . . if we want to take the good by honoring his art we must be willing to accept the bad, and that no biographer could responsibly have told one part of Dickey's story without telling the other.” —David Minter, Washington Post Book World