"When I was young and proud and poor and feisty," George Garrett wrote of himself in a 1985 essay on the group of southern writers known as the Fugitives, "and such things seemed to matter, I was vain about my independence, eager to be, if I could, like Mr. Faulkner, the cat who walks alone. ... And so, from time to time, I paid a price for the privilege of my freedom." For over forty years, Garrett has maintained his independence -- from literary camps and schools, from popular styles and positions, and even from repeating himself and his own successes. He has published during that time a collection of books, remarkable in number, in their uniformly high quality and commitment to distinctive style, and in their wide-ranging explorations of different genres and formal techniques. The list of his books includes seven collections of poems, eight collections of short fiction...