Books by David Herd

Enthusiast! is a polemical history of American literature told from the point of view of six of its major enthusiasts. The book establishes enthusiasm as a defining feature of American literature. It shows how enthusiasm is fundamental to the circulation of culture. It -- .

John Ashbery is America's greatest living poet. He is also greatly misunderstood. Presenting the poet in all his forms -avant-garde, nostalgic, sublime and camp - this book argues that the perpetual inventiveness of Ashbery's work has always been underpinned by the poets desire to write the poem fit to cope with its occasion.