Ship of Gold: The Essential Poems of Émile Nelligan [Paperback]

A legend of 19th century French Canadian poetry, Émile Nelligan was only 16 when he fell under the influence of Baudelaire and Rimbaud and began writing taut, confidently surrealistic poems, shot through self-lacerating melancholy. Translating Nelligan’s “essential” poems, along with a sharp introduction contextualizing his legacy as one of the “first poets to write openly about suicide, neurosis, and psychological breakdown,” Marc di Saverio has given us a rivetingly fresh version of Nelligan for a new generation.

"Di Saverio is a poet whose imagination belongs in the company of Blake, Pound, Layton, Rimbaud, Nelligan, among others." —Darren Bifford, Arc Magazine 

Émile Nelliganwas a pioneer of French-Canadian literature. Following a series of public readings in 1899 he suffered a mental breakdown from which he never recovered. All of Nelligans 107 poems were written when he was between the ages of 16 and 19. Marc di Saverio is the author of a previous collection of poems,Sanitorium Songs(2010). In 2016, he was awarded the City of Hamilton Arts Award For Best Emerging Writer.