Librarian’s Cache: Robert Hoover’s Zen

Zen Culture by Robert Hoover

In 1977, the American writer Thomas Hoover published his Zen Culture to a host of very positive reviews. Within a few years he had made it freely available on the web, where I found it and read it. Deeply impressed by and appreciative of Hoover’s work, I then uploaded it to The Haiku Foundation Digital Library, where it now awaits a very natural readership, those haiku poets and enthusiasts who have not yet read it or want to renew their acquaintance. Of it, the Library Journal said, “Hoover covers the ground in an easy and informative way, describing the origins of Zen itself and the Zen roots of swordsmanship, architecture, food, poetry, drama, ceramics, and many other areas of Japanese life. The book is packed with facts, the bibliography is excellent, the illustrations few but most appropriate, and the style clear and smooth. A most useful book for all collections.”

Garry Eaton is the Digital Librarian for The Haiku Foundation. On the first Wednesday of each month he will highlight some part of the Foundation’s holdings.