“Allows us to in part experience Olson’s engagement and use of the Mayans, in particular his research on the script, while at the same time giving us a lesson on translation and poetics. The context that Tedlock provides not only paints an interesting picture of Olson but also provides an opportunity to lay out fundamental questions and issues about which all students of Mayan culture should be thinking.”—Michael D. Carrasco, coeditor of
“An original contribution to the literary and biographical scholarship on Olson. Tedlock engages in a kind of dialogue with Olson. He gracefully brings Olson’s inquiries in Yucatán into connection with a great deal of scholarship, most of which corrects Olson’s speculations, but some of which rather gives more substance to matters that Olson noticed. This dialogue is what gives this book its richness.”—Robert von Hallberg, editor of