Memoirs
by
49/99
Critics' Rating Index
41/99
Readers' Rating Index
n/a
Scholars' Citation Index
84/99
Volume of Reviews
6/99
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About This Book
A complete collection of Robert Lowell's autobiographical prose, from unpublished writings about his youth to reflections on the triumphs and confusions of his adult life. Robert Lowell's Memoirs is an unprecedented literary discovery: the manuscript of Lowell's lyrical evocation of his childhood, which was written in the 1950s and has remained unpublished until now. Meticulously edited by Steven Gould Axelrod and Grzegorz Kosc, it serves as a precursor or companion to his groundbreaking book of poems Life Studies, which signaled a radically new prose-inflected direction in his work, and indeed in American poetry. Memoirs also includes intense depictions of Lowell's mental illness and his determined efforts to recover. It concludes with Lowell's reminiscences of other writers, among them T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Ezra Pound, John Berryman, Anne Sexton, Hannah Arendt, and Sylvia Plath. Memoirs demonstrates Lowell's expansive gifts as a prose stylist and his powers of introspection and observation. It provides striking new evidence of the range and brilliance of Lowell's achievement. Includes black-and-white photographs
Reviews
"Lowell's rich language and startling perceptiveness are nothing short of captivating."
"The family portraits, rich in stabbing detail, deepen our understanding of Lowell's childhood and his attempts at recovery in the 'balanced aquarium' of the hospital."
"This book's editors, Steven Gould Axelrod and Grzegorz Kosc, silently and deftly amend, in their footnotes, Lowell's many small errors of fact, and point out where he seems to have invented characters."
"A rich book for scholars and fans of Lowell's poetry."
"Memoirs is anchored by 'My Autobiography,' which takes the reader to Lowell's early adulthood ..."
"Along with these recollections of his past are striking portraits of the effects of his bipolar disorder ..."
"Memoirs should not serve as an introduction to Lowell and his work as much as a supplement, inviting us to discover or revisit his peerless poems."
"The book is rounded out by a dozen or so vignettes of fellow poets and friends."
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