Each planet in the solar system gets its own poem in Diane Ackerman's first book. First published in 1973, it returns in a new hardcover edition with a foreword by Maria Popova.
Readical Key Points
Reissue of Diane Ackerman's debut poetry collection, first published in 1973; this edition 2026
New foreword by Maria Popova, creator of The Marginalian
Poems on each planet, the moon, the comet Kohoutek and the asteroid belt, drawing on astronomy and cosmology, according to the publisher
Hardcover, 176 pages, Marginalian Editions, 2026
Ackerman moves from world to world across the solar system, setting scientific detail beside myth, satire and personal reflection. Along the way the poems also reach the stars, the ocean floor, the inside of the body and the workings of the mind. The collection treats astronomy as material for poetry rather than a subject kept apart from feeling.
Poetry readers curious about space, and science readers who seldom pick up poems, are the two audiences the book brings together; Ackerman has said that nature writing without science does not appeal to her. The astronomy is from 1973. The poems read it for wonder, not for data.
About the Author
Diane Ackerman is a poet, essayist and naturalist whose more than two dozen books include the New York Times bestsellers The Zookeeper's Wife, A Natural History of the Senses and The Human Age.
Condition: Brand New and Readical Ready.
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