At the time of his death in 1935, Edwin Arlington Robinson was regarded as the leading American poet-the equal of Frost and Stevens. In this biography, Scott Donaldson tells the intriguing story of this poet's life, based in large part on a previously unavailable trove of more than 3,000 personal letters, and recounts his profoundly important role in the development of modern American literature. Born in 1869, the youngest son of a well-to-do family in Gardiner, Maine, Robinson had two brothers: Dean, a doctor who became a drug addict, and Herman, an alcoholic who squandered the family fortune. Robinson never married, but he fell in love as many as three times, most lastingly with the woman who would become his brother Herman's wife. Despite his shyness, Robinson made many close friends, and he repeatedly went out of his way to give them his support and encouragement. Still, it was always poetry that drove him. He regarded writing poems as nothing less than his calling-what he had been put on earth to do. Struggling through long years of poverty and neglect, he achieved a voice and a subject matter all his own. He was the first to write about ordinary people and events-an honest butcher consumed by grief, a miser with "eyes like little dollars in the dark," ancient clerks in a dry goods store measuring out their days like bolts of cloth. In simple yet powerful rhetoric, he explored the interior worlds of the people around him. Robinson was a major poet and a pivotal figure in the course of modern American literature, yet over the years his reputation has declined. With his biography, Donaldson returns this remarkable talent to the pantheon of great American poets and sheds new light on his enduring legacy.
| ISBN | 0231138423 | | Pages | 568 | | ISBN13 | 9780231138420
(What's this?) | | Volumes | 1 | | Publisher | Columbia University Press | | Weight (grammes) | 934 | | Imprint | Columbia University Press | | Published in | New York | | Format | Hardback | | Height (mm) | 235 | | Publication date | 12 Dec 2006 | | Width (mm) | 155 | | Library of Congress | 2006015660 | | Spine width (mm) | 39 | | DEWEY | 811.52 | | Academic level | Professional / Scholarly | | DEWEY edition | DC22 | |
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AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. A Hell of a Name for a Poet2. A Manor Town in Maine3. Never So Young Again4. Fall of the House of Robinson 5. A "Special" at Harvard 6. Farewell to Carefree Days 7. Shaping a Life 8. Loves Lost 9. Breaking Away 10. Poetry as a Calling 11. City of Artists12. The Saga of Captain Craig13. Down and Out14. Theater Days15. The End of Something16. Down and Out, Yet Again17. Life in the Woods, Death in Boston18. Reversal of Fortune19. A Poet Once Again20. A Breakthrough Book21. Reaching Fifty22. Seasons of Success23. A Sojourn in England24. MacDowell's First Citizen25. Recognition and Its Consequences26. Generosities27. Death of a Poet28. Beyond the SunsetNotesBibliographyIndex
A thoroughgoing biography that will likely become a touchstone for anyone interested in the poet's work and life. Recommended. -- Pam Kingsbury Library Journal A richly documented book that eclipses earlier biographies. -- Bruce Allen Down East: The Magazine of Maine 2/1/2007 [A] sterling biography. -- David Yezzi Wall Street Journal 1/27/2007 [A] readable and well-researched book. -- Rebecca Porte Minneapolis Star Tribune 2/2/2007 Unquestionably, Robinson's life and poetry are worthy of celebration. A Poet's Life offers the reader a chance to participate in that celebration. -- John Shulson Virginia Gazette 2/7/2007 Mr. Donaldson's close readings of the poems are masterful and edifying. -- Ernest Hilbert The New York Sun 2/26/2007 [Donaldson's] thorough documentation and responsiveness to Robinson's poetry displaces previous accounts of this fascinating, enigmatic character. -- William H. Pritchard Times Literary Supplement 3/23/2007 A smoothly readable, profoundly well-documented biography. -- X. J. Kennedy The New Criterion 4/1/2007 Scott Donaldson has been able to give us a superb accounting of the life of a major 20th century poet. -- Hannah Merker Maine Sunday Telegram 4/8/07 Donaldson's words, like his subjects, are always heartfelt. Republic 6/17/2007 If [Robinson's] reputation is ever to revive, and it should, the credit ought to go to Scott Donaldson and his biography. -- Charles Simic New York Review of Books 12/6/07
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