AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY: The Lives and Times of James Russell, Amy, and Robert Lowell

by C. David Heymann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1979

What's worse than a plodding, banal, badly written literary biography? Three plodding, banal, badly written literary biographies rolled into one. Heymann has an immense amount of information about all the Lowells, poetic and otherwise, at his command; but he lacks either the skills or the patience to fashion it into art. To begin with, his trio is poorly balanced, with little in common except the family name. The poetry of James Russell Lowell has only a modest claim to our attention (Heymann neglects the prose, including the fine letters), and Amy Lowell's has practically none, but the reader is dragged through endless summaries-cum-samples of their many books. As if lecturing to freshmen, Heymann explains everything, down to the plot of Ph‚dre and the Oresteia. His judgment, most of the time, is reasonably sound, but he adds nothing to the critical consensus, and his writing is studded with outrageous bits of gaucherie, bad taste, and ignorance. J. R. Lowell was ""carefully groomed for the role of Boston Gauleiter in the arts."" Sir Leslie Stephen was ""no ordinary academic slouch."" Hannah Arendt, Cleanth Brooks, and Alfred Kazin are ""prominent apparatchiks."" The Catholic Worker is identified as an ""America-Firster publication."" Heymann has a solecism for every situation. T. S. Eliot's ""prestige as a poet gave. . . credulity to his critical opinions."" Robert Lowell ""keened on toy soldiers."" His ""In Memory of Arthur Winslow"" is an ""emotional etiology"" (or, alternately, ""a Kaddish"") for his grandfather. Anecdotes from the poets' private lives interrupt and enliven this tedious catalog of their work, but not often enough. Deplorable.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dodd, Mead

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION