"Sergei Yesenin was a Russian poet who, in 1925, hanged himself after writing his farewell poem in blood. Jim Harrison's "correspondence" with Yesenin is an American masterwork. " "In the early 1970s, Harrison was living in poverty on a hard-scrabble farm, suffering from depression and suicidal urges. He began to write daily prose-poem letters to Yesenin, confiding to his unlikely friend about sex, drunkenness, family, politics - about living for another day. Although "the rope" remained ever present, Harrison listened to his poems: "My year-old daughter's red robe hangs from the doorknob shouting Stop. ""--BOOK JACKET.