Appleman's "Proverbs'

by Edd Doerr

Looking for some fun reading this summer? Let me recommend Philip Appleman's latest book of poetry, just off the press, "Perfidious Proverbs and Other Poems: A Satirical Look at the Bible" (Prometheus Books, 140 pages, $14).

If we need a secular humanist poet laureate, let me nominate Phil Appleman. Perfidious Proverbs does with brisk humor what Hitchens, Harris, Dawkins, and the others do with a straight face and a lot more verbiage. Here's my blurb on the book's cover --

"Start with a base of Walt Whitman, add a dash of Kahlil Gibran, throw in a generous splash of Mark Twain, season well with Ambrose Bierce, heat to a boil, and -- voila! -- a Philip Appleman
bouillabaisse, a peppery treat not for the timid or fainthearted."

Phil is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Indiana University (my alma mater) and author of nine books of poetry and three novels. But more importantly, he is the author of the Norton Critical Editions of "Darwin" (two separate editions) and the Norton Critical Edition of Malthus' "Essay on Population", in addition to his "The Silent Explosion", on the problem of overpopulation.