A member of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community, Alan Powers is Author, Astrophysicist, Professor and World Traveller.
His book that most intrigued me was “Giordano Bruno” – the Man Galileo Plagiarized. Just the sub-title was enough to get me to read the book.
Alan’s wife Susan, usually is the illustrator of his covers and inside art. Together they produce very sensitive books which usually have a bit of a bite.
If you put his name in the search box you will find a video presentation of Alan giving a lecture on Giordano Bruno. Bruno’sname is not as well known as Galileo, but being the one Galileo plagiarized, we think it is worth reading about and listening to.
Alan Power’s Biography “The only thing Alan W Powers shares with Dr. Seuss is their place of birth, Springfield MA. Powers has worked as a harmless drudge, a college teacher of composition and Shakespeare, in Minnesota and Massachusetts. He has written a guest Safire “Head over Googles,” and appeared in two poetry films, Keats and his Nightingale and A Loaded Gun. He has been interviewed on Italian TV and radio, and American radio. As a jazz trombonist on the bench, he wrote jazz tunes based on British and American birdsong, the subject of his first popular book. With the ears of a spy, he has written verse monologs based on scandalous overheard conversations. Despite several articles on Shakespeare (and law), his lifework turns out to be translations and a biography of Giordano Bruno, who was sent to the Inquisition by one bad student evaluation. A sceptic on education reform, he says, “Good teachers get fired; great teachers, killed–Socrates, Christ, Giordano Bruno.” “
Alan’s latest book is “Parodies Lost”.
In an email, Alan sent us a bit of information about this new book which we share with you:
“Susan Mohl Powers (google her art on wikipedia) has provided arresting covers and interior art for my new book, Parodies Lost, filled with parodies of famous poets like Ashbery, Angelou, Dickinson, R Wilbur, Dylan Thomas (and the other Dylan-Zimmerman), Robert Herrick and more. The story follows my brilliant Amherst College friend Tom Weiskel, Harold Bloom’s favorite student at Yale, and a Yale Asst Prof at 25, d. at 29. Back-cover blurbs from Ron Wallace (Poetry Editor at U WI), Margie Ferguson (UC-Davis, former head of MLA), and William Pritchard (Amherst College). Brief excerpts:
“He knew–from a picture of Rod McKuen–
of all his race, the poet makes
the saddest face. And next to a hound,
the saddest sound.”
Wordsworth, a reflective poet pup:
“Of many words I have no need
Like all those human lies—
Say, where they’ve been. With one stiff sniff
I know, the noser knows.”
After Dylan Thomas:
“Love burst firth, froth on the sea
Foams on the rolling, beating surf.
Life burst first from the edge of the sea,
Leapt spume over land,
Arched sparkling, fell seed into soil…”
Country Western:
“I’m only a Laborer
In the Factory of Love;
I been workin’ ev’ry night
And now the job is done.
My wife she made a baby,
But I have been the one
Workin’ in the Factoree of Luv.”
“Better a beetle in a pile of dung
Than anything in a Rapper’s song.”
https://www.amazon.com/Parodies-Lost-Alan-Powers/dp/1786975122/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
After presenting at Harvard Astrophysics in October, 2013, I spoke at U Notre Dame, London, and my second book on Giordano Bruno, his hilarious play Candelaio, was performed at the Bridewell Theatre, London (4 April 14). That book is now in a dozen world libraries, including the Royal Danish Library. My Worlds of Giordano Bruno is in three dozen, in eight countries.
My Ph.D. thesis, This Critical Age (on 17C English criticism in verse form), written under Bellow’s friend Leonard Unger, is now in two German libraries, recently added at Freien Universitadt Berlin, 35 years after its publication. Also, I currently edit the Shakespeare Series for Peter Lang Press.
To buy this book what follows is the information you will need –
Paperback: 106 pages
Publisher: FeedARead.com (November 12, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1786975122
ISBN-13: 978-1786975126
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