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Robert Lowell Manuscript

 Collection — Box: VMF 10, Folder: 10
Identifier: MS-VMF-vmf102

Autograph poem, signed, For Marshall Bean (first two stanzas of a poem which was revised and published as "Soft wood" for Harriet Winslow in 1964). Inscribed to Marshall Bean "hoping your days will be as healing and painless as possible." 1 page. Accompanied by typed letter, signed, from Lowell to "Mr. Wheeler" (Burton Wheeler of Washington University) declining an invitation to speak in St. Louis and mentioning Peter Taylor, a college roommate and a “half Saint Louis and half Memphis man.”

Dates

  • Creation: undated

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Open

Conditions Governing Use

Users of the collection must read and agree to abide by the rules and procedures set forth in the Materials Use Policies.

Providing access to materials does not constitute permission to publish or otherwise authorize use. All publication not covered by fair use or other exceptions is restricted to those who have permission of the copyright holder, which may or may not be Washington University.

If you wish to publish or license Special Collections materials, please contact Special Collections to inquire about copyright status at (314) 935-5495 or spec@wumail.wustl.edu. (Publish means quotation in whole or in part in seminar or term papers, theses or dissertations, journal articles, monographs, books, digital forms, photographs, images, dramatic presentations, transcriptions, or any other form prepared for a limited or general public.)

Extent

2.00 items

1 folders

Biographical Information

Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet, considered to be one of the founders of the confessional poetry movement. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Lowell received his high school education at St. Mark's School, where he met and was influenced by the poet Richard Eberhart. Then Lowell attended Harvard College for two years before transferring to Kenyon College to study under John Crowe Ransom and Allen Tate. After Lowell graduated from Kenyon in 1940 with a degree in Classics, he worked on a Master’s degree in English literature at Louisiana State University for one year before World War II broke out. Lowell was a conscientious objector during World War II and served several months at the federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut.

Lowell's first book of poems, Land of Unlikeness (1944), did not receive much attention. However, in 1946, Lowell received wide acclaim for his next book, Lord Weary's Castle, which included five poems slightly revised from Land of Unlikeness, plus thirty new poems and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1947. Lowell won the National Book Award for poetry in 1960 for Life Studies which was published in 1959. Lowell followed Life Studies with Imitations (1961), a volume of loose translations of poems by classical and modern European poets, including Rilke, Montale, Baudelaire, Pasternak, and Rimbaud, for which he received the 1962 Bollingen Poetry Translation Prize. In 1964, Lowell also tried his hand at playwriting with three, one-act plays that were meant to be performed together as a trilogy, titled The Old Glory.

During 1967 and 1968 he experimented with a verse journal, published as Notebook 1967-68 (and later republished in a revised edition, titled Notebook). Lowell referred to these fourteen-line poems as sonnets although they sometimes failed to incorporate regular meter and never incorporated rhyme.  The last work in Lowell's sonnet sequence, The Dolphin (1973), won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize.  Lowell published his last volume of poetry, Day by Day, in 1977, the year of his death. In May 1977, Lowell won the $10,000 National Medal for Literature awarded by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and Day by Day was awarded that year's National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry.

From 1950 to 1953, Lowell taught in the well-reputed Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. Over the years, he taught at a number of other universities including Boston University, the University of Cincinnati, Yale University, Harvard University, and the New School for Social Research.

Marshall Emery Bean (November 3, 1931-December 11, 2013) was an autograph dealer living in Saco, Maine, who corresponded with various intellectual figures of his day.

Burton M. Wheeler (March 27, 1927-February 17, 2012) was the former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor emeritus of English and religious studies, Washington University in St. Louis.

Processing Information

Processed July 1969

Title
Robert Lowell Manuscript
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
eng

Revision Statements

  • 2021 March 17: Resource record updated in ArchiveSpace by Sarah Schnuriger.

Collecting Area Details

Part of the Manuscripts Collecting Area

Contact:
Joel Minor
Olin Library, 1 Brookings Drive
MSC 1061-141-B
St. Louis MO 63130 US
(314) 935-5495