First published in America in 1979, The Gift is a modern classic. This inspiring examination of the 'gift economy' is even more relevant now than when it originally appeared. It's a brilliantly argued defence of the place of creativity in our increasingly market-orientated society.
The Reviews
'Persuasive and fascinatingly illustrated, The Gift profits immensely from the modesty and unpretentiousness of Hyde's writing and the fascinated good nature with which he expounds his propositions.'Tim Martin, Independent on Sunday
'A masterpiece - The Gift is the best book I know of for the aspiring young, for talented but unacknowledged creators, or even for those who have achieved material success and are worried that this means they've sold out.'
Margaret Atwood
Paperback
368 pages
Price: £8.99
ISBN: 9781841959931 Other editions
Hardback
Lewis Hyde was born in Boston and studied at the Universities of Minnesota and Iowa. In addition to The Gift, he is the author of Trickster Makes This World, a portrait of the disruptive imagination all cultures need if they are to remain lively and open to change. Editor of On the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg and The Essays of Henry D Thoreau, Hyde is now writing a defence of the 'cultural commons', that vast store of ideas and art we have inherited from the past. A MacArthur Fellow and former director of creative writing at Harvard, Hyde is currently the Professor of Creative Writing at Kenyon College in Ohio.
