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Reviews 331 While much of the poetry is concerned with the values of the Indian and white cultures there are also those which are considerations of the contempor­ ary situation in general. There are poems on Vietnam, love, nature and dreams. Some are surrealistic visions loaded with startling metaphors and bizarre scenes. Others seem to be stretchings of the language in an attempt to see what new effects might be achieved. Young Bear prepares the reader for all this from the very beginning. On the opening page of the book he states, “There are no elucidations or foresights/merely/experiments with words.” Winter of the Salamander is certainly not an easy night’s reading of lyrical reflections on the romantic ways of native America. It is both an unsettling commentary on the problems of modern America and a vivid demonstration of Ray Young Bear’s poetic talent. PAUL N. PAVICH, Fort Lewis College Gleanings in Europe: Switzerland. By James Fenimore Cooper. Historical Introduction and Explanatory Notes by Robert E. Spiller and James F. Beard. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1980. xlii + 347 pages, illustrations, index, $24.95.) The Pioneers. By James Fenimore Cooper. Historical Introduction and Ex­ planatory Notes by James Franklin Beard. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1980. lvii + 565 pages, $24.95.) Gleanings in Europe: Italy. ByJames Fenimore Cooper. Historical Introduc­ tion and Explanatory Notes by John Conron and Constance Ayers Denne. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981. xlvi + 361 pages, illustrations, index, $24.95.) The Pathfinder. By James Fenimore Cooper. Edited with an Historical Intro­ duction by Richard Dilworth Rust. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981. xxvi + 569 pages, $24.95.) The State University of New York Press, and those scholars and editors associated with these handsome new editions of the works of one of America’s most important (and still neglected) writers, are due praise and honor. Evidently, all of Cooper’s works are to be re-issued and re-edited by New York. The books have the “Approved Text” emblem from the Modern Language Association of America. The printing and paper in these volumes are of exceeding high quality; the books deserve a place on the shelves of every university library in the United States. These volumes are heavily and meticulously edited by Cooper scholars of the historical bent; in short, they 332 Western American Literature are technical masterpieces, with Textual Commentaries and Word-Division lists to please the most meticulous of scholars. In Switzerland, for example, we learn not only the measurements of Cooper’s notebook (16.7 cm x 21 cm) but also that one traveler’s guide Cooper used (Henry Keller, Carte Itinéraire de la Suisse) came to Cooper boxed, corrected, and linen-backed. In my opinion, Cooper’s major interpreters have given up on interpreta­ tion altogether, and have turned (perhaps from perplexity) to stodgy antiquarianism instead. Although, as stated, the books deserve — demand — a place on library shelves, it is this kind of drawing-room criticism which has given and continues to give Cooper a bad name. (Even Twain was, after all, merely functioning as inaccurate technician when he devastated Cooper in his hilarious essays.) Scholars have too long avoided the difficult task of attempting to under­ stand the immensity of the impact of Cooper’s writings not only in America, but in the world. Why, for example, did the French realists (of all people) take their perception of “The Real Indians” from Cooper? D. H. Lawrence remains, in my opinion, still the only major Cooper scholar to even half-way approach the significance of Cooper as cultural phenomenon; when he ascribed to Cooper a “myth-meaning” he pointed a way of understanding Cooper that later scholars have ignored. I am not attempting to re-write these introductions, and I say again praise be that Cooper is coming back into print — but I am reminded of a movie I once saw about a crack baseball player (a true-to-life movie). Near the end of the picture, the star won a national award for his brilliant play. At that point, I think, one of his team-mates suggested he buy a...

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