Bibliograph

Robert Lowell, setting the river on fire, a study of genius, mania, and character, Kay Redfield Jamison

Type

Label

Robert Lowell, setting the river on fire, a study of genius, mania, and character, Kay Redfield Jamison

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 431-510) and index

resource.biographical

individual biography

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Robert Lowell, setting the river on fire

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

972527812

Responsibility statement

Kay Redfield Jamison

Sub title

a study of genius, mania, and character

Summary

"The best-selling author of An Unquiet Mind now gives us 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. Now Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison brings her expertise to bear on his story, illuminating the relationship between bipolar illness and creativity, and examining how Lowell's illness and the treatment he received came to bear on his work. 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 Jamison had unprecedented access to Lowell's medical records, as well as to previously unpublished drafts and fragments of poems, and was the first biographer to speak to his daughter. With this new material and a psychologist's deep insight, Jamison delivers a bold, sympathetic account of a poet who was--both despite and because of mental illness--a passionate, original observer of the human condition"--provided by publisher

Table Of Contents

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 2: Mania and Depression: Clinical Description, Diagnosis, and Nomenclature -- Appendix 3: Medical History of Robert Lowell (by Thomas Traill, FRCP)

Classification