Author Description

This elegant collection of ten poems in quatrains speaks to an era that is past and a humanity that endures. At once taut and generous, Meg Freer’s verse is, like the man of integrity she makes known to us, driven by a compelling “quiet power.” Chantel Lavoie, author of Where the Terror Lies (Quattro Books, 2012) and This Is about Angels, Women, and Men (Mansfield Press, 2020) Meg Freer’s study, in ten poems, of Jean Leon—emigré, cabbie, restaurateur, friend of Hollywood’s stars, “poet of vines”—is spare, sure-footed, fact-driven, and delightfully enigmatic. A Man of Integrity exists in that liminal space where biography meets story and history is transmuted by imagination. Here is a rare treat best paired with a bottle of Leon’s own 3055 Chardonnay. Anne Archer, author of Ich Heisse Clara (Alien Buddha Press, 2021) and From the Frontenacs (Woodpecker Lane Press, 2022) Meg Freer's A Man of Integrity paints the American dream—so often a goose chase—as something realized through the life of Jean Leon, artfully tracing the roots of realization—suffering, hardship, integrity, luck—and following the trajectory all the way through to his eventual decline. Rarely do we see a life’s full arc in one go, but Freer’s distillation has panoramic potency, and her deft use of suggestiveness to skirt the shadows of man and myth makes it all the more enticing. Lucky is Leon, one more time, to live on in her words, and lucky are we to have them both take up residence in us. Ricky Ray, author of The Sound of the Earth Singing to Herself (Fly on the Wall Press, 2020)