Lady Faustus

by Diane Ackerman

Poems portray the author's experiences and explore a variety of themes, including dreams, flight, music and sports

94 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Diane Ackerman has been the finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction in addition to many other awards and recognitions for her work, which include the bestsellers The Zookeeper’s Wife and A Natural History of the Senses.

The Zookeeper’s Wife, a little known true story of WWII, became a New York Times bestseller, and received the Orion Book Award, which honored it as, "a groundbreaking work of nonfiction." A movie of The Zookeeper’s Wife, starring Jessica Chastain and Daniel Brühl, releases in theaters March 31st, 2017 from Focus Features.

She lives with her husband Paul West in Ithaca, New York.

Reviews

[Dustin Pickering · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite poems ever is in this collection. It is called "Patrick Ewing Takes A Foul Shot". Ackerman is not afraid of life and her poems reflect her depth of knowledge concerning biology, zoology, and history, as well as how to compose an amazing poem. "Patrick Ewing" is a poem beyond its scale. It must be read carefully to see what is being said, not what is being shown, about our collective origin. "Lady Faustus" is metaphor and possibly refers to Ackerman herself as a scholar and adventure seeking lady of the world. Like Faustus in Goethe's play, she wants to devour all of the world's knowledge, experience every excess passionately, and share it in her verse. My kind of poet!