Notes from Source: Discusses the following three books: “If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho” by Anne Carson, “The Sappho History” by Margaret Reynolds, and “Sappho’s Leap” by Erica Jong. Some time around the 9C, Sappho’s nine books were lost. We have some tantalising scraps, single lines and short quotations, but only one complete poem, the “Ode to Aphrodite”. Then, around the turn of the 20C, some scraps of papyrus from an ancient rubbish tip at Oxyrhnchus in Egypt turned out to contain fragments of poetry, including substantial chunks of Sappho. Reconstructing Sappho from what remains is like trying to get a sense of a whole Tyrannosaurus rex from just one claw.

Further Notes: Publisher: LRB, Ltd