A Poet's Revolution
The Life of Denise Levertov
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- $30.99
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- $30.99
Publisher Description
This first full-length biography of Anglo- American poet and activist Denise Levertov (1923-1997) brings to life one of the major voices of the second half of the twentieth century, when American poetry was a powerful influence worldwide. Drawing on exhaustive archival research and interviews with 75 friends of Levertov, as well as on Levertov’s entire opus, Donna Krolik Hollenberg’s authoritative biography captures the full complexity of Levertov as both woman and artist, and the dynamic world she inhabited. She charts Levertov’s early life in England as the daughter of a Russian Hasidic father and a Welsh mother, her experience as a nurse in London during WWII, her marriage to an American after the war, and her move to New York City where she became a major figure in the American poetry scene. The author chronicles Levertov’s role as a passionate social activist in volatile times and her importance as a teacher of writing. Finally, Hollenberg shows how the spiritual dimension of Levertov’s poetry deepened toward the end of her life, so that her final volumes link lyric perception with political and religious commitment.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Diaries, letters, and span of 20 books keep Hollenberg (H.D.: The Poetics of Childbirth and Creativity) focused on the interior life of poet Levertov, her former teacher, in this comprehensive biography where poems are "the most important facts'". Poetry was "holy" to Levertov, who committed faithfully to writing at 16. From a girlhood in Essex just before WWII, marriage to Mitch Goodman and its dissolution in America, death of her difficult older sister Olga, to a burgeoning sense of political activism, experiences are secondary, in Hollenberg's hands, to their contexts behind the poems. With surprises for Levertov's most ardent readers (she wrote the playful prose behind an illustrated book about Sylvia the pig), the account should also fascinate American poetry aficionados as Levertov intersects with luminaries (William Carlos Williams, Adrienne Rich, and Robert Creeley, among others) both in intense friendship and occasional quarrel. When describing a rift between Levertov and old friend Robert Duncan in light of their poetic responses to the Vietnam War, Hollenberg considerately points out that Levertov hoped the friendship would reignite "spontaneously" if they met on the street. Questions of identity and the poet's role in the world are touchstones to which Levertov (and her biographer) often return, making this journey worthwhile.
