Photo: Philip Friedman/Studio D

Love & Fame
By John Berryman

After winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1965 for 77 Dream Songs (later released with additions as The Dream Songs) John Berryman wrote two more volumes of poetry including Love & Fame, the last collection he published before jumping off a bridge. "Because he had achieved something so complicated and dense in the earlier book," Franco says, "I felt like Love & Fame provided him with the space to be much more spare and plainspoken. These poems also have a very strong voice."

Franco's next pick: What Makes Sammy Run? by Budd Schulberg