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The Time I Got the Full Dickey
My memorable lunch with poet and novelist James Dickey
These days, James Dickey is remembered as the writer of the novel Deliverance. More accurately, he is remembered as the writer of the novel that became the movie Deliverance.
In his prime, he was more known as a poet. He was the US Poet Laureate from 1966–1968. His book Buckdancer’s Choice won the National Book Award for Poetry.
I read Deliverance and was impressed not by its violence, but by its lyrical descriptions of the mountains and rivers near where I live. It is a gorgeous book, but much of it has not aged well.
His later novel, To the White Sea, seems to me to provide a better glimpse into Dickey the man. It tells the story of an airman shot down near Tokyo during WWII and cutting a murderous, psychopathic path across the outlying areas.
You see, when I was growing up in a small town just outside of Columbia, SC, James Dickey was a powerful presence. He taught at the University of South Carolina and was a bit of a celebrity. He was known, yes, for his novels and poetry. But he was also known for his bombastic and even aggressive personality.
Like the main character in To the White Sea, Dickey seemed to have convinced himself that he transcended normal morality and…
