Billiken Bookmark: Devin Johnston, Ph.D.
05/31/2019
Looking for that next great read? In this mini-series, some of Saint Louis University’s published authors share their recommendations for memorable summer reading with their fellow staff, faculty and students.
Launched in summer 2017, SLU authors have recommended an eclectic mix of novels, biographies, food for thought and histories. From the fields of Dunkirk to fantastical realms, past Bookmarks have spanned disciplines and have offered something for readers young and old.
This summer's Bookmarks are no exceptions.
To start off summer 2019, Devin Johnston, Ph.D., assistant professor of English, recommends a books filled with sunlight and songs.
BILLIKEN BOOKMARK
The Mays of Ventadorn (Copper Canyon, 2019) by W. S. Merwin
This book is full of the songs and sunlight of Occitanie, in the South of France. It comes with a map, which many of my favorite books do, and it quickens the instinct to travel. It makes a life of poetry sound like an adventure.
The Mays of Ventadorn is part travelog, part memoir, and part history. It concerns the twelfth-century Troubadours, their songs, the world in which they lived, and the rugged landscape of Languedoc. An American poet and translator, Merwin lived in France for extended periods, and this book describes his engagement with Bernart de Ventadorn (among others) in the villages and volcanic foothills of the region, as well as other literary byways.
I first learned of this book after trying a few loose translations of my own from Occitan poets. I sometimes teach excerpts from it, in classes concerned with the history of lyric poetry.
'Billiken Bookmarks' is a mini-feature series that will appear with new reading recommendations from Saint Louis University authors throughout the summer and occasionally throughout the academic year.
To contribute your own Bookmark, contact Newslink.