Seamus Heaney’s Regions

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments I am grateful to the many people who have answered questions, offered suggestions, and given emotional, mental, and spiritual support during the writing of this book. A portion of it originated in my dissertation on Northern Irish literature and identity, which was directed by the beloved Weldon Thornton at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to whom I will always be thankful for his belief in me and my work, and for his own sterling example of teaching and scholarship on Irish literature. Most of this project, however, is based upon new research on Heaney that I have conducted in the last several years. A sabbatical from Baylor University ’s College of Arts and Sciences in the fall semester of 2010 enabled much thinking, researching, and writing. I am very grateful to the university ’s committee on research leaves and to Dean Lee Nordt of the College of Arts and Sciences for that sabbatical and to my chair in the Baylor English Department, Dianna Vitanza, for her sustained support of my work. Many thanks also go to my former provost, David Lyle Jeffrey, and former chair, Maurice Hunt, for reducing my teaching load several years ago so that I might have more time for scholarship. The gifted Northern Irish artist Colin Davidson graciously allowed me to use one of his evocative pencil sketches of Seamus Heaney’s face for the cover of this book. I am very thankful to Henry Hart and Bernard O’Donoghue. Professor Hart’s deep knowledge of Heaney, Robert Frost, and Ted Hughes and his numerous suggestions for the manuscript helped me to make a much more informed and sustained argument. Professor O’Donoghue’s extensive thinking and research on Heaney, along with his insightful comments about the manuscript, have inspired me and enabled my greater understanding of Heaney’s work. I offer gratitude to Sir Christopher Ricks, who suggested to me at the 2009 meeting of the Association for Literary Scholars and Critics that I xi expand my paper on Heaney’s The Cure at Troy into an essay and offered me several very helpful suggestions for doing so. Earlier versions of portions of this book appeared as articles in several journals, whose editors and outside readers helped improve the clarity of my prose and overall argument. In particular, I would like to thank Nicola Presley, assistant editor of Irish Studies Review; Keith M. Dallas, managing editor of Twentieth-Century Literature; and Seamus Perry, coeditor of Essays in Criticism. A portion of chapter 2 first appeared in “Imagining a New Province : Seamus Heaney’s Creative Work for BBC Northern Ireland Radio, 1968–1971,”Irish Studies Review 15, no. 2 (Spring 2007): 137–62, and appears with permission. Part of chapter 3 was first published in “Seamus Heaney’s Artful Regionalism ,” Twentieth-Century Literature 54, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 47–74, and appears with permission. An early version of chapter 9 came out in“Owen andYeats in Heaney’s The Cure at Troy,” Essays in Criticism 61, no. 2 (April 2011): 173–89, and appears with permission. I am very grateful to Seamus Heaney for permission to quote from his archival material at Emory University’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library.After this book went into production,Heaney passed away in Dublin on August 30, 2013. The shock and sadness from his passing continue to reverberate throughout the poetry community and the world. I remain thankful not only for his creative work but also for his generosity, kindness, and thoughtfulness. He has enlarged our imaginative lives so considerably that it is hard to imagine “keeping going” without him. Yet his example nevertheless continues to inspire us with hope and joy. Thanks to Evelyn Ellison at the BBC Northern Ireland Radio Archives in Cultra, Northern Ireland, for permission to reproduce a quotation from “Seamus Heaney—Poetry International.” Thanks to Professor Kevin Young for very helpful information about the holdings on Heaney and also to the members of staff at Emory’s MARBL for their assistance during my time there in May 2012. Thanks to the staff of the Henry C. Pearson Collection of Seamus Heaney at the University of North Carolina,Chapel Hill,for their help during my visit in May 2012. xii Acknowledgments Many thanks to the Centennial Professor Committee at Baylor for awarding me the 2012 Baylor Centennial Professor Award, which enabled me to conduct research at Emory and Chapel Hill and helped me purchase much Heaney material...