Review
"[Ashbery] has chosen [the six poets] for the inconsistency in the quality of their work, often due to turbulent lives, and often the cause of their obscurity. But he unearths their shining moments, examples of their best, most lasting poems. He untangles their lives from their work, their obscurity from their talent and their importance to us from their obscurity." -Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Book Review; "Other Traditions is an entertaining and shrewd little book. To begin with, the life stories of the six poets he discusses are all amazing. Ashbery is an accomplished raconteur... The lectures also provide abundant hints about Ashbery's own method. As he readily admits, poets when writing about other poets frequently write about themselves." -Charles Simic, New York Review of Books
Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"[Ashbery] untangles their lives from their work, their obscurity from their talent and their importance to us from their obscurity."