Description: These letters document the evolution of Lowell's work and illuminate another side of his life: his deep friendships with other writers, his manic depression, his marriages to three prose writers, and his involvement with the antiwar movement of the 1960s.
Brief description: Robert Lowell (1917-1977) was the renowned and pathbreaking author of many leading works in American poetry, including Life Studies (FSG, 1959), For the Union Dead (FSG, 1964), and Day by Day (FSG, 1977).
Review Quotes:
"As this valuable collection makes clear, [Lowell] tirelessly rewrote and reimagined everything, including his own life." --Charles McGrath, The New York Times
"Absorbing and intimate . . . As they unfold, the letters play a resonant obbligato to the life and the poems alike." --Helen Vendler, The New Republic "The most important book to appear on the American literary scene in many years." --Eric Ormsby, The New York Sun