The Idea in the Mirror Essays

Starting with the first essay, this collection makes the case for liberal arts learning and demonstrates the wisdom of Samuel Johnson's claim that "we have art in order to better enjoy our lives or better to endure them.” Robert Pack is emeritus professor from Middlebury College and the University of Montana Davidson honors college. He was the Director of the Bread Loaf Writers Conference for many years. These essays are the augmentation of Pack’ s teaching specialties. Pack’ s approach is the close reading of beloved texts, savoring the inflections and innuendos of images and metaphors, and the design of expressive form, the musicality of cadenced composition. Pack is interested in the revelation of characters, the unconscious mind, and the making of responsible choices. The human creature is seen sympathetically with all its frailties from an evolutionary perspective. Pack’ a poetry is well known for his descriptions of nature which Mark Strand praised as "stuffed with a sense of loss, sweetly and sometimes ruefully acknowledged." Harold Bloom has written that Pack is the successor to Robert Frost. The Idea in the Mirror gathers the brilliant critic's essays in one place.

Robert Pack (born May 19, 1929, in New York City) is an American poet and critic, and Distinguished Senior Professor in the Davidson Honors College at the University of Montana - Missoula. For thirty-four years he taught at Middlebury College and from 1973 to 1995 served as director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. He is the author of twenty-two books of poetry and criticism.