James Harrison (December 11, 1937 – March 26, 2016) was an American poet, novelist, and essayist. He was a prolific and versatile writer publishing over three dozen books in several genres including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, children’s literature, and memoirs. He wrote screenplays, book reviews, literary criticism, and published essays on food, travel, and sport. Harrison indicated that, of all his writing, his poetry meant the most to him.
Harrison published 24 novellas during his lifetime and is considered “America’s foremost master” of that form. His first commercial success came with the 1979 publication of the trilogy of novellas Legends of the Fall, two of which were made into movies.
Books in order of publication:
Novels
Wolf: A False Memoir (1971)
A Good Day to Die (1973)
Farmer (1976)
Warlock (1981)
Sundog: The Story of an American Foreman, Robert Corvus Strang (1984)
Dalva (1988)
The Road Home (1998)
True North (2004)
Returning To Earth (2007)
The English Major (2008)
The Great Leader (2011)
The Big Seven (2015)
Novellas
Legends of the Fall (1979). Three novellas: “Revenge”, “The Man Who Gave Up His Name”, and “Legends of the Fall”.
The Woman Lit By Fireflies (1990). Three novellas: “Brown Dog”, “Sunset Limited”, and “The Woman Lit by Fireflies”.
Julip (1994). Three novellas: “Julip”, “The Seven-Ounce Man”, and “The Beige Dolorosa”.
The Beast God Forgot to Invent (2000). Three novellas: “The Beast God Forgot to Invent”, “Westward Ho”, and “I Forgot to Go to Spain”.
The Summer He Didn’t Die (2005). Three novellas: “The Summer He Didn’t Die”, “Republican Wives”, and “Tracking”.
The Farmer’s Daughter (2009). Three novellas: “The Farmer’s Daughter”, “Brown Dog Redux”, and “The Games of Night”.
The River Swimmer (2013). Two novellas: “The Land of Unlikeness” and “The River Swimmer”.
Brown Dog (2013). Five previously published ‘Brown Dog’ novellas[note 2] and a new one: “He Dog”.
The Ancient Minstrel (2016). Three novellas: “The Ancient Minstrel”, “Eggs”, and “The Case of the Howling Buddhas”.
Nonfiction
Just Before Dark: Collected Nonfiction (1991)
The Raw and the Cooked (1992) Dim Gray Bar Press ltd ed.
The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand’ (2001)
Off to the Side: A Memoir (2002)
A Really Big Lunch: Meditations on Food and Life from the Roving Gourmand (2017)
Search for the Genuine, The: Nonfiction, 1970-2015 (2022)
Children’s literature
The Boy Who Ran to the Woods (Illustrated by Tom Pohrt) (2000)
Poetry
Plain Song (W.W. Norton, 1965)
Walking (Pym-Randall Press, 1967)
Locations (W.W. Norton, 1968)
Outlyer and Ghazals (Simon and Schuster, 1971)
Letters to Yesenin (Sumac, 1973)
Returning to Earth (Court Street Chapbook Series) (Ithaca Street, 1977)
Selected and New Poems, 1961-1981 (Houghton Mifflin, 1981)
Natural World: A Bestiary (Open Book, 1982)
The Theory & Practice of Rivers (Winn, 1986). Republished 1989 by Clark City Press.
After Ikkyu and Other Poems (Shambhala, 1996)
The Shape of the Journey: New and Collected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 1998)
A Conversation (Aralia Press, 2002). Chapbook coauthored with Ted Kooser.
Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry (Copper Canyon Press, 2003). Coauthored with Ted Kooser.
Livingston Suite (Limberlost Press, 2005). Illustrated by Greg Keeler.
Saving Daylight (Copper Canyon Press, 2006)
In Search of Small Gods (Copper Canyon Press, 2009)
Songs of Unreason (Copper Canyon Press, 2011)
Dead Man’s Float (Copper Canyon Press, 2016)
Jim Harrison: The Essential Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2019). Edited by Joseph Bednarik.
Jim Harrison: Complete Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2021). Edited by Joseph Bednarik.
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