The Lunatic Muse

A rare, personal look at the creative process of writing by one of its most successful and respected practitioners.

In this book – part memoir, part analysis, and part manifesto – Governor General’s Award winner Joe Rosenblatt deftly links poetry to the personalities of Milton Acorn, Gwendolyn MacEwen, John Newlove, John Clare, Christopher Smart, Sylvia Plath, and other troubled poets who scholars have termed Poets of the Asylum. To Rosenblatt, the Lunatic Muse often calls on the poet to cultivate the darker, manic side of the imagination, while the act of creation is essentially confessional, cathartic and exhilarating. At the heart of the book, he makes his case in a passionate tribute to his mentor, Acorn, focusing on Acorn’s tragic, driven life, and his signature poem “The Natural History of Elephants.”