The Animal Library marks the debut of a remarkable poet ó a poet of the flesh, his own and that of the animals he has lived with all his life, whether real or imaginary. Jason Camlotís father was a furrier and he grew up in a world where, inevitably, ìbaby fur gets in your eyesî or in ìyour mouth.î In dreams, the poet becomes a whale corpse ìwashed up/ on a very pale beach/ and hundreds of flies came,/ and people,/ to see the tusk,/ spun like coral glass.î And as the boy grows up, images, at once curiously literal and yet surreal ó images of being devoured or skinned alive ó stay with him. The beauty of this collection is one of the mot juste, a concreteness and precision, coupled with a superb sense of rhythm.

ó Marjorie Perloff

Critical Comment

ì…Camlotís graphic exactness adds to the power of his vivid, animated images.î

ó Betty Goodwin

ì…Camlotís style is rich and telling, taking us from smutty Chicago to ancient Greece, from the 19th century Decadents to modern biological polemics.î

ó Hour, 2001