HEARING EYE Publications
A.C. Jacobs
A.C. Jacobs was born in Glasgow in 1937 into a traditional Jewish family. In 1951 his family moved to London where he attended the Hasmonean Grammar School. He lived variously in Israel, Scotland, Italy, London and Spain, where he died in 1994, aged 56.
Jacobs published four books of poetry, two volumes of his own work and two volumes translated from Hebrew. But remarkably for a poet with such a distinctive voice, who brought together a unique combination of Anglo/Scottish/Jewish backgrounds, the bulk of his poetry remained unpublished until this present collection.
Jacobs described his real language as Scots-Yiddish and yet his poetry remains 'universally accessible'. He describes as his place 'a bit east of the Gorbals/In around the heart'. It is this universality which allows his poetry to speak to all.
Miriam Halahmy, Jewish Quarterly
Read a review of this book by Sebastian Barker, from Chapman
A.C. Jacobs' Collected Poems & Selected Translations, edited by John Rety and Anthony Rudolf with a foreword by Jon Silkin and essays by Philip Hobsbaum, Frederick Grubb, John Rety and Anthony Rudolf, was published by the Menard Press and Hearing Eye at £13.99.
ISBN 1 874320 10 1The audio CD A Celebration of A.C. Jacobs is now available from Hearing Eye at £6. This live recording was made at the Torriano Meeting House, featuring readings from Frederick Grubb, Dinah Livingstone, Paul Birtill, John Horder, Geoffery Hazard, Beata Duncan, Brian Docherty, Stephen Watts, Tom Rubens, Peter Phillips, Miroslav Jancic, John Rety and Susan Johns.
"...unfashionable poems of great lyric purity which deserve to be read and remembered"
Alan Brownjohn, Sunday Times"...his verse is utterly lucid and eloquent...He is often moving and sometimes very funny"
John Wood, Camden New Journal"...Jacobs writes plain song...with his own peculiar haunting music"
Dinah Livingstone, The Ethical Record"...an astonishing book edited with devotion and discernment"
Dannie Abse, The Jewish Chronicle"...It is hard to believe that his translations of David Vogel are translations...He has made Vogel's tone, the delicate nuances, his very own"
Robert FriendTo order the book or CD by post, please send your name address and postcode, including payment, to:
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