Robert Lowell, setting the river on fire : a study of genius, mania, and character
/ Kay Redfield Jamison
- First edition.
- New York : Alfred A. Knopf , 2017
- 532 p. : illus. ; 25 cm
Includes bibliographical references and index
I. Introduction: Steel and Fire -- II. Origins: The Puritanical Iron Hand of Constraint -- III. Illness: The Kingdom of the Mad -- IV. Character: How Will the Heart Endure? -- V. Illness and Art: Something Altogether Lived -- Mortality: Come; I Bell Thee Home -- Appendix I: Psychiatric Records of Robert Lowell -- Appendix II: Mania and Depression: Diagnosis and Nomenclature -- Appendix III: Medical History of Robert Lowell (by Thomas Traill, FRCP).
A groundbreaking life of one of the major American poets of the twentieth century that is at the same time a fascinating study of the relationship between manic-depressive (bipolar) illness, creative genius, and character. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry, Robert Lowell (1917-1977) put his manic-depressive illness into the public domain. His New England roots, early breakdowns, marriages to three eminent writers, friendships with other poets, vivid presence as a teacher and writer refusing to give up in the face of mental illness - Jamison gives us Lowell's life through a lens that focuses our understanding of the poet's intense discipline, courage, and commitment to his art. Jamison had unprecedented access to Lowell's medical records, as well as to previously unpublished drafts and fragments of poems, and was the first biographer to speak to his daughter.