In this perceptive debut collection, originally published in 1965 and long out of print, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Lisel Mueller reveals the immense talent that would later bring her the highest literary honors. Now available for the first time in paperback, Dependencies affirms Mueller as a poet of control, precision, and feeling. Driven by the sense of life as process, these poems linger on the natural landmarks of human experience—those excursions into awareness that single out and illumine certain facets of growth, connection, creation, and decline. Mueller has commented that she does not “want to just put [her] poetry in a drawer.” The reissue of this affecting first book brings her earliest work out of the bureau and into the bookstores for all to enjoy.
Lisel Mueller, a native of Germany and long a U.S. citizen, was the author of seven books of poetry, including Alive Together: New and Selected Poems, winner of the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She also received the National Book Award, the Lamont Poetry Prize, and the Carl Sandburg Prize.