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Mark Eisner

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

Website

https://www.markeisner.net/

Twitter

eizmarcos

Genre

Biography, Poetry, Literature & Fiction

Member Since

June 2007

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https://www.goodreads.com/eizmarcos

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So thrilled and honored to to announce that Yale University Press will be publishing my current project:

ART AS A WEAPON: Tina Modotti and the Mexican Cultural Renaissance

Coming to bookstores in 2027!

For more please visit my web site.
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After having read a large helping of Neruda's poetry over the past few years, I just finished your biography and loved it. (Will write a full review soon.) I have a question: What is the source of the quote, "Podrán cortar todas las flores, pero no podrán detener la primavera"? I see it quoted a lot, and as you say it's been revived for some recent political movements, but I haven't found the source. Thank you.

Mark Eisner Robert, thank you so much for your words and your very thoughtful question/concern. You have reason to wonder its source. You weren't the only one. Lo…moreRobert, thank you so much for your words and your very thoughtful question/concern. You have reason to wonder its source. You weren't the only one. Long story short (happy to explain the long story!), now in the paperback edition (retitled: Neruda: The Biography of a Poet)-- you'll find a footnote next to that quote:

"Surprisingly, perhaps disappointingly so, this quote is actually apocryphal. Despite its popular use and consistent attribution to Neruda, there's no record of Neruda ever saying or writing it. It has actually been attributed to Ernesto "Che" Guevara."...(less)

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Your wonderful and deeply immersive Neruda biography kept me up until 3 in the morning last night, and I am looking forward to this leisurely weekend to finish it and add it to my Neruda shelf. I was introduced to Neruda and his work by my mentor, the poet Martín Espada, when I studied with him at UMass in the mid 1990's. What was your first exposure to Neruda's poetry?

Mark Eisner Wow, Mike! Thank you. Reactions like yours show why this was all worth it, truly. And you'll see our friend Martin in the acknowledgements!

As I allud…moreWow, Mike! Thank you. Reactions like yours show why this was all worth it, truly. And you'll see our friend Martin in the acknowledgements!

As I allude to it some in the intro, I believe, I had some general exposure to him when I was in college, not really sure, but definitely when I studied abroad in Central America my junior year-- I took down a bilingual copy of Selected Poems, and just everywhere I went, his words made my experience a bit more real, his impression growing in me:

I found myself doing fieldwork in the highlands of El Salvador, observing as the National Association of Agricultural Workers helped set up coffee cooperatives among the campesinos. This was following the first rounds of land reform, two years after peace accords had ended the country’s horrific civil war. Reading Neruda’s poetry at night made the history—the human experience of it—palpably real to me. The depth and simplicity of Neruda’s portrayal of humanity in the poems hit my soul.

When I returned, I did just kind of have him and that book just up there with other favorite books for a few years after I graduated from college (Michigan) until I started backpacking around Latin America:

I headed south again, with the same weathered book in my tattered green pack. Eventually I reached Chile, that slender country sliding off toward towards Antarctica. Somehow I found myself working on a ranch in its Central Valleycentral valley, nestled between the Andes and the sea. This was certainly part of Neruda’s territory, his terroir: here grew the grapes that made his velvet red wine and the red poppies that flower in his verse.

and well, one Nerudian experience after another, and I ended up starting to do my own translations on that ranch, which eventually ended up leading to The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems, and then a small film project, and then someone asking me to write the biography!

Thank you again, Mike, for taking the time to share your thoughts. They make my heart and soul come alive. Please let me know how you find the rest of the book (and please tell others about it!)

Truly,
Mark(less)

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Mark Eisner’s books

Average rating: 4.41 · 7,123 ratings · 474 reviews · 9 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems by Pablo Neruda, Lawrence Ferlinghetti (Foreword), Robert Hass (Translator) 4.42 avg rating — 6,675 ratings — published 1979 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Resistencia: Poems of Protest and Revolution by Mark Eisner (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Tina Escaja (Editor), Julia Alvarez (Goodreads Author) (Introduction) 4.31 avg rating — 216 ratings — published 2020 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Neruda: The Biography of a Poet 4.32 avg rating — 176 ratings — published 2018 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	venture of the infinite man by Pablo Neruda, Jessica Powell (Translation), Mark Eisner (Goodreads Author) (Introduction) 3.93 avg rating — 131 ratings — published 1926 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Caida libre/Free Fall by Tina Escaja, Mark Eisner (Goodreads Author) (Translator) 3.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2007 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	El Neruda Esencial: Poemas Seleccionados, Library Edition by Pablo Neruda, Mark Eisner (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Gerardo Prat (Narrator) liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	RESISTENCIA: POEMAS DE PROTESTA Y REVOLUCIÓN by Mark Eisner (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Tina Escaja (Editor), Julia Alvarez (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Celebrating the launch of RESISTENCIA! 9/13 via City Lights Books!

via Tin House Books:

"Sunday, September 13, we're delighted to launch this electrifying anthology of poems! Celebrate the arrival of RESISTENCIA: POEMS OF PROTEST AND REVOLUTION by joining us online for a celebration hosted by our friends at City Lights Bookstore!

Register here: https://redpoppy.net/events.html

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Crushing It

by Erin Becker (Goodreads Author)

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Looking for Mexico: Modern Visual Culture and National Identity (e-Duke books scholarly collection.)

by John Mraz

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Un río dos Riveras (Spanish Edition)

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Mark Eisner and 1 other person liked Creolecat ’s status update Creolecat wants to read City Lights: Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the Biography of a Bookstore
Feb 05, 2026 09:01AM · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of City Lights by Gioia Woods. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — City Lights by Gioia Woods <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
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Mark Eisner made a comment in the group Goodreads Librarians Group — removing books I didn't write from author page [done] topic " Greg wrote: "Done. Please edit the title / subject of your post and add [Done] so other librarians know it is complete." Thank you, Greg. ...more "
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this book contains landscapes of longing that spill off the pages and over my senses, over borders, bonding while pierces and floods the resonance still remains, as I trust it will always
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Mark Eisner liked a quote “Sólo me quedaba sentirlo. Escucharlo respirar, mirar su panza de ballena subir y bajar. Pero no más sonidos suyos para mí. Se nos acabaron las palabras. Eso es la muerte, pensé, un diálogo se rompe, se vuelve monólogo y nunca más es de a dos.” Arelis Uribe
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this book contains landscapes of longing that spill off the pages and over my senses, over borders, bonding while pierces and floods the resonance still remains, as I trust it will always
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Quotes by Mark Eisner (?)

“Oh, let what I am keep on existing and ceasing to exist,
and let my obedience align itself with such iron
conditions
that the quaking of deaths and of births doesn't shake
the deep place I want to reserve for myself eternally.”
― Mark Eisner, The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems

tags: poetry, poetry-quotes

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Mark’s Quotes

“Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations.”
― Lawrence Ferlinghetti

tags: lyricism, poetry

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“Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

tags: enjoy-life, fearlessness, live-in-the-moment

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“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that receives it.”
― Edith Wharton

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“Libraries, archives, and museums all find themselves at the intersection of materiality and the mystical. Perhaps this is why we’re so quiet when we enter them.”
― Jenn Shapland

tags: libraries

7 likes

“I want to live the rest of my life, however long or short, with as much sweetness as I can decently manage, loving all the people I love, and doing as much as I can of the work I still have to do. I am going to write fire until it comes out of my ears, my eyes, my noseholes--everywhere. Until it's every breath I breathe. I'm going to go out like a fucking meteor!”
― Audre Lorde

tags: dying, life, living, love, loving, motivation, motivational-quote, work, working, writing

462 likes

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