I interrupted my wife's Sunday newspaper idyll to read aloud another's review of this book. My kids were stumped for birthday gift ideas. She put two and two together. What I expected was words that attempt to describe an art form. What I got was a date to a Saturday night text-dance and a trip down album-cover memory lane. This book is a "Land of 1,000 Dances" for the eyes. Stay away if you can't tap your feet and read at the same time.

The fact that this book has been almost completely superseded by Seay's new and selected poems (OPEN FIELD, UNDERSTORY) testifies to its quality: most of it is much too fine not to be reprinted in a selection of Seay's best work. His most affecting poems first appeared here, including "When Once Friends," "Where Our Voices Broke Off," "Audubon Drive, Memphis," "Mountains by Moonlight," and "An Ideal of Itself." THE LIGHT AS THEY FOUND IT is the watershed of this important American poet's career.

Mr. Seay's poetry is a great inspiration to poets everywhere. He has harnessed a life's work into these pages. The reader can see his transformation from young poet to seasoned writer. He is truely one of the best modern poets around.

I started reading this book for a paper I was writing in one of my history classes. I loved it so much that I constantly find myself referring to it in everyday conversations. It's not your typical history book. It is a collection of essays and interviews with people that lived during the thirties told from their own mouths in southern slang. Needless, to say it is hard to put it down once you start reading. Would be a great read for anyone interested in Alabama and/or the time period. I recommend to anyone and have even given out a few copies as gifts to people.