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THE LETTERS OF SEAMUS HEANEY

An anthology full of insight and delight.

The great Irish poet’s letters create a buoyant and complex portrait of a life in art.

Selected by Reid from Heaney’s voluminous correspondence, these letters span his professional and personal relationships. Addressed to editors, close friends, fellow poets (Robert Lowell, Ted Hughes, and Elizabeth Bishop), and others, the work is by turns funny, serious, and considerate; readers will marvel at the consistent compassion and care Heaney showed his varied recipients. In a letter to Hughes about Hughes’ new book, Heaney writes, “I feel the shape of the story was a plough that got deep into the ground of your gift and opened it marvellously. The abundance of the thing from line to line is a blessing.” On another occasion, he writes playfully to a friend, “Suddenly my patter halts. I have fathomed the pit of patter. I grow less fit and fatter. Am I fit to be a father? The farther this fares, the more futile it feels.” Via these lively and kind musings, readers gain a satisfying sense of Heaney’s life, including early financial stress (“at my back I always hear the Bank of Ireland hurrying near,” he wrote in 1977), his literary confidence, and the status of his many works in progress, passages that provide a deeper understanding of his poetry. There’s surprises, as well—e.g., a letter in verse to the editors of “the new Penguin of British verse,” in which he drives home his Irish identity: “But don’t be surprised / if I demure, for, be advised / “My passport’s green. / No glass of ours was ever raised / To toast The Queen.” In these warm, compassionate, and humorous entries, admirers of Heaney will find much to learn and enjoy—even if general readers may get lost in the literary thickets.

An anthology full of insight and delight.

Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024

ISBN: 9780374185299

Page Count: 848

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: April 30, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024

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TANQUERAY

A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.

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  • New York Times Bestseller

A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.

Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.

A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.

Pub Date: July 12, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2

Page Count: 192

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022

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LAST RITES

A charming and often poignant valediction from rock ’n’ roll’s Prince of Darkness.

The late heavy metal legend considers his mortality in this posthumous memoir.

“I ain’t ready to go anywhere,” writes Osbourne in the opening pages of his new memoir. “It’s good being alive. I like it. I want to be here with my family.” Given the context—Osbourne died on July 22, 2025, two weeks after the publisher announced the news of this book—it’s undeniably sad. But the rest of the text sees the Black Sabbath singer confronting the health struggles of his last years with dark humor and something approaching grace. The memoir begins in 2018; he wrote an earlier one, I Am Ozzy, in 2010. He tells of a staph infection he suffered that proved to be the start of a long, painful battle with various illnesses—soon after, he contracted a flu, which morphed into pneumonia. A spinal injury caused by a fall followed, causing him to undergo a series of surgeries and leaving him struggling with intense pain. And then there was his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, the treatment of which was complicated by his longtime struggle with alcohol and drug addiction. Osbourne peppers the chronicle of his final years with anecdotes from his past, growing up in Birmingham, England, and playing with—and then being fired from—Black Sabbath, and some of his most well-known antics (yes, he does address biting the heads off of a dove and a bat). He writes candidly and regretfully about the time he viciously attacked his wife, Sharon—the book is in many ways a love letter to her and his children. The memoir showcases Osbourne’s wit and charm; it’s rambling and disorganized, but so was he. It functions as both a farewell and a confession, and fans will likely find much to admire in this account. “Death’s been knocking at my door for the last six years, louder and louder,” he writes. “And at some point, I’m gonna have to let him in.”

A charming and often poignant valediction from rock ’n’ roll’s Prince of Darkness.

Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025

ISBN: 9781538775417

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025

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