Robert Lowell was one of the most influential American poets of the 20th century. This volume explores the various contexts of Lowell's life and work and evaluates his oeuvre from new perspectives. Individual chapters address his relation to the South, his religious evolution, aspects of his marriages and private life, his bipolar disorder seen through new theories of mental illness, his work as a letter writer and a connoisseur of art and photography. The book also introduces new parameters for a contemporary study of Lowell, commenting on current debates about race and privilege, feminism, ecoconsciousness, his engagement with the natural environment as well as his friendships with Randall Jarrell and Robert Penn Warren.

‘On the whole Robert Lowell in Context offers a beneficial balance of informed distinction and reassessment. These essays refuse to flatten their subject or dismiss him as an outmoded ivory avatar, while simultaneously highlighting the ways in which precisely this aspect - his centrality and access to the American world of arts and culture - gave him a rich, evolving means of commentating on the state of the republic in his lifetime.’

Robert Lowell Source: The Times Literary Supplement

‘Recommended.’

K. Gale Source: CHOICE