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Aristotle’s much-translated On Poetics is the earliest and arguably the best treatment that we possess of tragedy as a literary form. The late Seth Benardete and Michael Davis have translated it anew with a view to rendering Aristotle’s text into English as precisely as possible. A literal translation has long been needed, for in order to excavate the argument of On Poetics one has to attend not simply to what is said on the surface but also to the various puzzles, questions, and peculiarities that emerge only on the level of how Aristotle says what he says and thereby leads one to revise and deepen one’s initial understanding of the intent of the argument. As On Poetics is about how tragedy ought to be composed, it should not be surprising that it turns out to be a rather artful piece of literature in its own right.

    Benardete and Davis supplement their edition of On Poetics with extensive notes and appendices. They explain nuances of the original that elude translation, and they provide translations of passages found elsewhere in Aristotle’s works as well as in those of other ancient authors that prove useful in thinking through the argument of On Poetics both in terms of its treatment of tragedy and in terms of its broader concerns. By following the connections Aristotle plots between On Poetics and his other works, readers will be in a position to appreciate the centrality of this little book for his thought on the whole.

    In an introduction that sketches the overall interpretation of On Poetics, Davis argues that, while On Poetics is certainly about tragedy, it has a further concern extending beyond poetry to the very structure of the human soul in its relation to what is, and that Aristotle reveals in the form of his argument the true character of human action.

Michael Davis revisits questions of interpretation in Greek tragedy emerging in the thought of the late Seth Benardete. While this is not the book Benardete would have written, it wrestles with problems that bear his indelible mark.  In the extant tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, only one story is treated by all three––the tale of Electra. Davis endeavors to develop Benardete's understanding of the story's deeper meaning, as well as the connections that might be drawn between the three authors. He follows a thread that brings Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides closer together according to a powerful and shared theme––namely, that the female is the deeper (even if less easily accessible and articulated) of the pair of fundamental principles constituting human beings.

Davis accomplishes much more than an exegetical bridge as he connects us with ancient memory and wisdom. "When we cannot resist the temptation to recoil morally from their terminology, we risk the tragedy of losing their profound thoughts about our humanity––their philosophical anthropology." Davis has remarkably made of a niche study a stunning source material for more universal questions. This is a book that is as timely as it is ageless.

"Poetry is language at play. In New Songs of Innocence S.J. Hodson is hard at work in this playground teasing us with syllabic verse ("Beside Himself with Calm"), haiku stanzas ("A Cougar Strolled By"), sonnet, ("Sonnet for Miriam"), and villanelle ("A Poet's Dark Night of the Soul"). He relishes the natural rhythm of speech and knows how to polish it metrically. He rhymes in wonderfully complex ways, combining end rhyme, internal rhyme, slant rhyme, sight rhyme and the unexpected sudden break from rhyme.

But poetry isn't just play, however clever. Language is a serious matter. It's not working unless it opens us up to our world. Beauty is at once at odds with and requires truth. In this ancient quarrel between poetry and philosophy, S.J. Hodson comes down squarely on both sides. At its best poetry teaches without preaching. If Blake's Songs of Innocence calls established religion into question to recover wonder at the religious spirit that gives birth to it, Hodson's New Songs of Innocence means to call into question science, the established religion of our time, to wonder again at what gives birth to it, the scientific spirit. […]

[Hodson] writes not so much to please his audience as to tease and teach his audience-and what a pleasure it is to be taught this way. Making poetry is for him serious-a way to think, a way to wonder. But he is also masterful at playfully seducing others to wonder. If 'philosophy begins in wonder,' these poems are invitations to philosophize. S.J. Hodson is one of the most interesting and talented poets of his generation, and yet he remains known to only a very few. In New Songs of Innocence, we are graced with his first published book of poetry. We should be thankful and hope it will not be his last." Taken from the Introduction by Michael Davis

Education in the United States is under attack, but there’s still one street that’s full of hope. Sesame Street was created in 1969 with the aim to help less fortunate children better prepare for school. Since then, it has been viewed by an estimated 190 million children across 150 countries and prepared generations of children for kindergarten. Without Sesame Street, where would they go?

Within the walls of Sesame Workshop’s idea factory, the people behind the show have been battling forces that would have snuffed it out long ago. Its federal funding has been slashed, despite it being the gold standard of children’s educational programming, and only through heroic efforts has it avoided cancellation. Meanwhile, Sesame Workshop continues to address educational and social needs in children that would otherwise go unmet.

Street Fight weighs how the ongoing experiment in educating preschoolers through television has served the world’s children, while also revealing the limitations and complications that left some viewers behind. Drawing from over two hundred interviews and including oral histories from the show’s performers and executives, journalist Michael Davis pulls back the curtain to look at the people and events that shaped Sesame Street from the 1990s to the present. From public scandals to behind-the-scenes tensions, Street Fight traces the evolution of a beloved American institution against the backdrop of a rapidly changing media landscape.

All too often, Sesame Street only makes the news during a media firestorm. This book recounts what happens the other 364 days of the year

This volume brings together Seth Benardete’s studies of Hesiod, Homer, and Greek tragedy, eleven Platonic dialogues, and Aristotle’s Metaphysics.

The Argument of the Action spans four decades of Seth Benardete’s work, documenting its impressive range. Benardete’s philosophic reading of the poets and his poetic reading of the philosophers share a common ground, guided by the key he found in the Platonic dialogue: probing the meaning of speeches embedded in deeds, he uncovers the unifying intention of the work by tracing the way it unfolds through a movement of its own. Benardete’s original interpretations of the classics are the fruit of this discovery of the “argument of the action.”