For Nelson Mandela

"Apartheid is one of the enduring shadows of evil of our time. It falls upon those of us who enjoy political freedom and severely qualifies that freedom, just as this century's unique campaigns against life - the Holocaust, the proliferation of nuclear arms - severely qualify our personal hopes, ambitions, and dreams of happiness. Of apartheid's peculiar evil Nelson Mandela has long been the symbol of heroic, living resistance. How beyond the confines, even the eloquence, of any poetry, this man's achievement!" - Joyce Carol Oates (from the back of book)