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D. Vance Smith, . Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2020, 10, 299 pp., 2 b&w ill.

by Thomas Willard (Author)
3 Pages
Open Access
Journal: Mediaevistik Volume 34 Issue 1 pp. 270 - 272

Summary

D. Vance Smith’s new book is an unusual one in several ways. The Acknowledgments, often placed first in academic books, are relegated to a position between the last chapter and the end notes. Meanwhile, the Preface acknowledges that the author’s chief debts are to the psychologist and psychiatrist who, along with his wife, kept him alive as he struggled with the medieval poems about death. For Smith was also struggling with his own undiagnosed bipolar disorder, which “nearly brought me [i.e., him] to an end.” The licensed psychologist he saw regularly is the person to whom he dedicates the book; he likens her to Reason in the medieval French

Details

Pages
3
DOI
10.3726/med.2021.01.18
Open Access
CC-BY
Product Safety
Peter Lang Group AG

Biographical notes

Thomas Willard (Author)

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Title: D. Vance Smith, . Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2020, 10, 299 pp., 2 b&w ill.