About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherNortheastern University Press

ISBN-10155553788X

ISBN-139781555537883

eBay Product ID (ePID)3038383010

Product Key Features

Number of Pages256 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NameWith Robert Lowell and His Circle : Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz and Others

SubjectPersonal Memoirs, Literary, Poetry, American / General

Publication Year2012

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaLiterary Criticism, Biography & Autobiography

AuthorKathleen Spivack

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.8 in

Item Weight13.6 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2012-027775

Dewey Edition23

Reviews"I devoured the book in one sitting; it's extraordinarily evocative of the poet and his time. Thank you so much for writing it."-Don Share, Senior Editor, Poetry Magazine, "I devoured the book in one sitting; it's extraordinarily evocative of the poet and his time. Thank you so much for writing it."ÑDon Share, Senior Editor, Poetry Magazine, "I devoured the book in one sitting; it's extraordinarily evocative of the poet and his time. Thank you so much for writing it."--Don Share, Senior Editor, Poetry Magazine, "A passsionate, unpretentious and carefully documented memoir in which the main character is not a poet-although the book is full of lively sketches of writers-but the practice of poetry itself. We see the intensity and sheer everyday labor, with insight into the particular impact of the period on women writers."- StreetFeet, "Spivack's portrait offers a window on a man, a city, and a method for anyone not lucky enough to have taken part in those times."- Boston Globe, "Spivack records Lowell's mix of generosity and obliviousness that endeared him to writer friends and students. . . . [Her portrait offers a window on a man, a city, and a method for anyone not lucky enough to have taken part in those times."--Valerie Duff, The Boston Globe, "Spivack records Lowell's mix of generosity and obliviousness that endeared him to writer friends and students. . . . [Her] portrait offers a window on a man, a city, and a method for anyone not lucky enough to have taken part in those times."ÑValerie Duff, The Boston Globe, "Spivack's portrait offers a window on a man, a city, and a method for anyone not lucky enough to have taken part in those times."-Boston Globe, "A passsionate, unpretentious and carefully documented memoir in which the main character is not a poetÑalthough the book is full of lively sketches of writersÑbut the practice of poetry itself. We see the intensity and sheer everyday labor, with insight into the particular impact of the period on women writers."ÑStreetFeet, "Spivack records Lowell's mix of generosity and obliviousness that endeared him to writer friends and students. . . . [Her] portrait offers a window on a man, a city, and a method for anyone not lucky enough to have taken part in those times."--Valerie Duff, The Boston Globe, "Spivack records Lowell's mix of generosity and obliviousness that endeared him to writer friends and students. . . . [Her] portrait offers a window on a man, a city, and a method for anyone not lucky enough to have taken part in those times."-Valerie Duff, The Boston Globe, "A passsionate, unpretentious and carefully documented memoir in which the main character is not a poet--although the book is full of lively sketches of writers--but the practice of poetry itself. We see the intensity and sheer everyday labor, with insight into the particular impact of the period on women writers."--StreetFeet, "A passsionate, unpretentious and carefully documented memoir in which the main character is not a poet-although the book is full of lively sketches of writers-but the practice of poetry itself. We see the intensity and sheer everyday labor, with insight into the particular impact of the period on women writers."-StreetFeet, "This book is absorbing and alive, human and compelling . . . the best memoir yet about Robert Lowell."--Steven Gould Axelrod, University of California, Riverside "A portrait [of Lowell] that serves to define his role as poet and teacher in fresh and significant ways . . . This is a memoir that will make an impact right away and that will be referred to by scholars, readers and biographers for many years to come."--Thomas Travisano, Hartwick College, "Spivack records Lowell's mix of generosity and obliviousness that endeared him to writer friends and students. . . . [Her] portrait offers a window on a man, a city, and a method for anyone not lucky enough to have taken part in those times."--Valerie Duff, The Boston Globe "I devoured the book in one sitting; it's extraordinarily evocative of the poet and his time. Thank you so much for writing it."--Don Share, Senior Editor, Poetry Magazine "A passsionate, unpretentious and carefully documented memoir in which the main character is not a poet--although the book is full of lively sketches of writers--but the practice of poetry itself. We see the intensity and sheer everyday labor, with insight into the particular impact of the period on women writers."-- StreetFeet "Spivack's portrait offers a window on a man, a city, and a method for anyone not lucky enough to have taken part in those times."-- Boston Globe "Spivack writes feelingly about the plight of the female poet in those days... Grateful to count most of these people as friends, she writes about them with an almost girlish enthusiasm."-- Washington Post "Reporting her impressions with warmth and wit, she tells of Lowell's kindness, his intense commitment to poetry, his encouragement of other writers, and of some of his well-known shortcomings (especially behaviors associated with his manic depression). . . . A tone of genuine but not reverential affection predominates throughout the book, and Spivack's demystification of popular associations of genius and madness is particularly welcome. . . .Recommended."-- Choice "Though the term circle might describe any group of people connected by a shared interest, it seems especially apt in its suggestion of gravity, or centripetal force, when referring to Lowell's influence. Only an artist capable of sharing considerable gifts of expert advice and friendship could have drawn so many talented young writers, future influences themselves, to the "deep gloom" of Boston for so many years. Kathleen Spivack's retracing of her own orbital path offers an engaging, heartfelt evocation of an uncommonly rich period in the history of American poetry."-- American Book Review, "Spivack records Lowell's mix of generosity and obliviousness that endeared him to writer friends and students. . . . [Her portrait offers a window on a man, a city, and a method for anyone not lucky enough to have taken part in those times."-Valerie Duff, The Boston Globe, "Spivack's portrait offers a window on a man, a city, and a method for anyone not lucky enough to have taken part in those times."--Boston Globe, "Spivack's portrait offers a window on a man, a city, and a method for anyone not lucky enough to have taken part in those times."ÑBoston Globe

Grade FromCollege Graduate Student

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal811/.54 B

Table Of ContentACKNOWLEDGMENTS TO THE READER Introduction The "Family" Oberlin and Boston, 1958-1959 Early Days in Boston First Impressions, January 1959 First Meeting with Robert Lowell Boston University, 1959 First Classes at Boston University, 1959-1960 Sylvia Plath, 1959-1960 Robert Lowell's Appearance Lowell's Way of Teaching Anne Sexton, 1959-1974 Later Visits with Anne Sexton Reflections on Psychotherapy and Sleep Teatime with Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick Literary Boston in the Late '50s and '60s Social Milieu, Class, and the Literary Tradition Significant Other, 1959-1977 Adrienne Rich, 1960s The Two Sets of Classes Boston University and Harvard, 1959-1977 Elizabeth Bishop and Ping-Pong, 1974-1979 Boston and Its Influence Bishop and Lowell Lowell's Poet Friends Frank Bidart, Lord Gowrie, Bill Alfred Stanley Kunitz, 1971-2006 Lowell and Women Students, Friends, and Wives! Young Marriage in Somerville A Small Apartment, a Mad Inventor, Literary Visitors, 1960-1977 He Was Ancient! He Was Over Forty! (After Office Hours at Harvard) The Underside "Madness" and the Culture of Nervous Breakdowns Alcohol and Drugs Gender and Suicide A Gifted Young Student Peter Kaplan, 1963-1977 The "Po Biz" Submission, Rejection, Money "Genius at Work" Revision, Presentation, Contribution Allen Ginsburg and Robert Lowell Two Branches of American Poetry The "Romantics" Seminar, Harvard University, Spring 1977 Final Spring, 1977 Looking for Robert Lowell's Grave, October 1977 Notes of a Witness NOTES SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY CREDITS

SynopsisIn 1959 Kathleen Spivack won a fellowship to study at Boston University with Robert Lowell. Her fellow students were Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, among others. Thus began a relationship with the famous poet and his circle that would last to the end of his life in 1977 and beyond. Spivack presents a lovingly rendered story of her time among some of the most esteemed artists of a generation. Part memoir, part loose collection of anecdotes, artistic considerations, and soulful yet clear-eyed reminiscences of a lost time and place, hers is an intimate portrait of the often suffering Lowell, the great and near great artists he attracted, his teaching methods, his private world, and the significant legacy he left to his students. Through the story of a youthful artist finding her poetic voice among literary giants, Spivack thoughtfully considers how poets work. She looks at friendships, addiction, despair, perseverance and survival, and how social changes altered lives and circumstances. This is a beautifully written portrait of friends who loved and lived words, and made great beauty together. A touching and deeply revealing look into the lives and thoughts of some of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, With Robert Lowell and His Circle will appeal to writers, students, and thoughtful literary readers, as well as to scholars.

LC Classification NumberPS3569.P56Z46 2012

With Robert Lowell and His Circle : Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz and Others by Kathleen Spivack (2012, Trade Paperback)

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