Epic poem, biography, literary criticism, historical romance--in A Gift, David Slavitt presents the fascinating life of Mozart's librettist, Lorenzo de Ponte, one of history's great unknowns, a man blessed and cursed by his conviction that within him lay the capacity for literary greatness.

David R. Slavitt has published 130 books of poetry, fiction, and translation. Born in White Plains, New York, and educated at Andover, Yale, and Columbia, Slavitt has worked at Newsweek and taught at Temple University, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Bennington College.