Emily Dickinson - Selected Poems

 Review in the American Library Association's BOOKLIST January 1, 1997:

 "This superb reading of 102 poems, recorded in numerical order following the internationally recognized Thomas Johnson numbering system, features Connie Clark, an actress and playwright who has been lecturing and teaching about Emily Dickinson and giving readings of her works for more than 15 years. No sound effects detract from the power of the poems, delivered with a notable clarity of phrasing and at an eminently listenable pace. In this vocal portrait, Dickinson comes alive as a Yankee original, determined to speak her own mind precisely as her heart and soul informed her. A dynamic, accessible production for literature collections and poetry lovers."

 Review in the Emily Dickinson International Society's BULLETIN November/December 1996:

 "Clark reads 102 poems with robust, often majestic intelligence. Her selection encompasses an impressive array of experience and emotion, and her gifts range easily over tones of tenderness, worry, exhilaration, earnest solemnity, indignation, colloquial friendliness, and sternest grief. Great respect for poetic pauses and enjambments enhances her readings.

 "Clark's sequenced readings become a vivid portrait of Emily Dickinson. ...what emerges here is a coherent personality -- Clark's Dickinson, say, and quite distinct from [Julie] Harris's Dickinson. Without a trace of the breathless, neurasthenic, coy, or etherial, it is a compelling portrait. Here is a strong mind wielding a formidable vocabulary, a woman of such intense conviction that self-assurance penetrates even her expressions of wonder."

 Says Maggie Mountford of Wells, Somerset, England:

 "I am totally bowled over by your readings on the cassette. It succeeds brilliantly in bringing Emily Dickinson's poetry more alive than I could ever have imagined before hearing it. In fact, I feel I haven't truly 'known' her poems at all until I heard your voice reading them. Having the text only (for the poems you haven't read) could seem a bit of a handicap in comparison!

 "I listened with my husband, Peter, and you should have heard the silence, seen our faces . . . It was one of those memorable evening times, like listening to beautiful music -- we felt we'd been privileged to share a rare experience. So this is to say Thank You, Connie -- it was a poetry 'celebration' here last night, and I felt that Emily was present in some special way."

 Says Alexander Medlicott, Jr., Former President and Chair of Curriculum, Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth:

 "I'm simply overwhelmed by what I hear! What a great recording. Your selection is superb. Your idea to read the poems in chronological order (the Johnson order) is perfect. And most significantly, you do what great readers do: help to interpret the poetry. Reading Emily Dickinson is one thing; hearing Emily Dickinson is another, especially if the reader is sensitive to the poet and understands her verse. Time after time in your recording I was moved to 'see' alternative meanings. Moreover, a few that you chose I'd not read for years and had rather put them out of my mind. No. 1549, for example, is a poem I suddenly realized is one I've misinterpreted for years. Your reading brought it all back -- in spades."

TO ORDER:

 Send $11.95 per cassette postpaid for U.S. addresses and $13.95 per cassette for outside the U.S. to: Connie Clark, P.O. Box 238, Lynn, NC 28750 USA. For multiple cassettes to one address, e-mail for quote on postage and packaging to connie@venexia.com.

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 © 1997,1998,2002 Connie Clark & David M Walker