Warren, Jarrell, and Lowell

"Robert Penn Warren, Randall Jarrell, and Robert Lowell maintained lifelong, well-documented friendships with one another, often discussing each other‘s work in private correspondence and published reviews. The author‘s work traces the artistic and personal connections between the three writers. Her study uncovers the significance of their parallel literary development and reevaluates dominant views of how American poetry evolved during the mid-twentieth century. Familiar accounts of literary history, most prominently the celebration of Lowell‘s "Life Studies" as a revolutionary breakthrough into confessional poetry, have obscured the significance of the deep connections that Lowell shared with Warren and Jarrell. During the 1950s, the three poets became public figures, producing major works that addressed the nation‘s postwar need to reconnect with humanity. They continued to respond in interlocking ways throughout the 1960s, with each writer using innovative stylistic techniques to create a colloquy with readers that directed attention away from superficial matters and toward the important work of self-reflection. Drawing from biographical materials and correspondence, along with detailed readings of many poems, the work offers a compelling new perspective on the shaping of twentieth-century American poetry"--