Jim Harrison (1937-2016) Tribute List

Author Jim Harrison died on March 26, 2016 at the age of 78. A novelist and poet, Harrison was as comfortable covering rugged external terrain as he was the interior emotional landscape of his characters. Harrison's writing overflows with the pleasures of the senses: how things smell, feel and taste. He lived his life that way as well, as he was an avid sportsman and champion eater and drinker. He wrote extensively about both sports and food, addressing the latter in the volume The Raw and The Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand. Here are thirteen vocabulary words from the work of Jim Harrison.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. moderate
    lessen the intensity of
    The reason to moderate is to avoid having to quit.
    - Off to the Side: A Memoir
  2. ineffable
    defying expression or description
    If you added it up, without her there was nothing--but with her even the simplest of gestures of walking a bird dog in the desert, or selecting the ingredients for a meal for two rather than one took on an ineffable charm.
    - Revenge
  3. inane
    devoid of intelligence
    The world that used to nurse us
    now keeps shouting inane instructions.
    That's why I ran to the woods.
    - Songs of Unreason
  4. maw
    the mouth, jaws, or throat
    Often, lately, the night is a cold maw
    and stars the scattered white teeth of the gods, which spare none of us. At dawn I have birds, clearly divine messengers that I don't understand
    yet day by day feel the grace of their intentions.
    - Age Sixty-Nine
  5. steadfastly
    with resolute determination
    Suits obviously had helped to promote bad government and he was as guilty as anyone for wearing them so steadfastly for twenty years. Of late he had become frightened of the government for the first time in his life, the way the structure of democracy had begun debasing people rather than enlivening them in their mutual concern.
    - Legends of the Fall
  6. debase
    corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality
    Suits obviously had helped to promote bad government and he was as guilty as anyone for wearing them so steadfastly for twenty years. Of late he had become frightened of the government for the first time in his life, the way the structure of democracy had begun debasing people rather than enlivening them in their mutual concern.
    -Legends of the Fall
  7. multifarious
    having many aspects
    As an English major I was familiar with the stories of dozens of writers trying to get their work done among the multifarious diversions of the world and the hurdles of their own vices. A professor had said that what saved writers is that they, like politicians, had the illusion of destiny that allowed them to overcome obstacles no matter how nominal their work.
    - The English Major
  8. vice
    moral weakness
    As an English major I was familiar with the stories of dozens of writers trying to get their work done among the multifarious diversions of the world and the hurdles of their own vices. A professor had said that what saved writers is that they, like politicians, had the illusion of destiny that allowed them to overcome obstacles no matter how nominal their work.
    -The English Major
  9. nominal
    insignificantly small; a matter of form only
    As an English major I was familiar with the stories of dozens of writers trying to get their work done among the multifarious diversions of the world and the hurdles of their own vices. A professor had said that what saved writers is that they, like politicians, had the illusion of destiny that allowed them to overcome obstacles no matter how nominal their work.
    - The English Major
  10. suffuse
    cause to spread or flush or flood through, over, or across
    He does read her the poem and her feminine capacity for romanticism for a moment approaches his own and they are suffused in a love trance, a state that so ineluctably peels back the senses making them fresh again whatever ages the lovers might be.
    - Legends of the Fall
  11. ineluctable
    impossible to avoid or evade
    He does read her the poem and her feminine capacity for romanticism for a moment approaches his own and they are suffused in a love trance, a state that so ineluctably peels back the senses making them fresh again whatever ages the lovers might be.
    - Legends of the Fall
  12. mockery
    humorous or satirical mimicry
    ...her mind was so exhausted with trying to hold the world together, tired of being the living glue for herself, as if she let go, great pieces of her life would shatter and fall off in mockery of the apocalypse.
    - The Woman Lit by Fireflies
  13. apocalypse
    a cosmic cataclysm in which God destroys the powers of evil
    ...her mind was so exhausted with trying to hold the world together, tired of being the living glue for herself, as if she let go, great pieces of her life would shatter and fall off in mockery of the apocalypse.
    -The Woman Lit by Fireflies
Created on Sun Mar 27 17:42:12 EDT 2016 (updated Sun Mar 27 22:35:13 EDT 2016)

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