Lowell, Robert (redirected from Robert Lowell)

Lowell, Robert (Robert Traill Spence Lowell 4th), 1917–77, American poet and translator, widely considered the preeminent poet of the mid-20th cent., b. Boston, grad. Kenyon College (B.A., 1940). A grandnephew of James Russell Lowell, in 1940 he converted to Roman Catholicism and married the writer Jean Stafford. During World War II he served a jail sentence as a conscientious objector. He taught at Boston Univ. and at Harvard. His second wife (1949–72) was the novelist and critic Elizabeth Hardwick.

Lowell's poetry is individualistic and intense, rich in symbolism and marked by great technical skill. His later work indicates a philosophic acceptance of life and the world. His Life Studies (1959) is a frank and highly autobiographical volume in verse and prose, one of the first and most influential works of what is widely called "confessional" poetry. Lowell often used his life as raw material for his verse, writing, for instance, of his family, his relationships with his wives, and his frequent bouts of depression and madness. Among his other poetry collections are Lord Weary's Castle (1946; Pulitzer Prize), For the Union Dead (1964), Near the Ocean (1967), Notebook: Nineteen Sixty-Seven to Nineteen Sixty-Eight (1969), The Dolphin (1973; Pulitzer Prize), Day by Day (1977), and Last Poems (1977). His translations include Racine's Phèdre (1969), Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound (1969), and miscellaneous European verse, collected as Imitations (1961). His dramatic adaptation of Melville's story "Benito Cereno" is part of Lowell's trilogy of plays, The Old Glory (1968).

Bibliography

See his collected poems ed. by F. Bidart and D. Gewanter (2003) and collected prose ed. by R. Giroux (1987); Robert Lowell: Interviews and Memoirs (1988), ed. by J. Meyers; The Letters of Robert Lowell (2005), ed. by S. Hamilton; biographies by I. Hamilton (1982), P. Mariani (1994), R. Tillinghast (1995), and S. P. Stuart (1998); studies by M. Perloff (1973), J. Crick (1974), J. Price, ed. (1974), S. Yenser (1975), S. G. Axelrod (1978), B. Raffel (1981), M. Rudman (1983), N. Procopiow (1984), J. Meyers (1985), S. G. Axelrod, ed. (1986 with H. Deese and 1999), H. Bloom, ed. (1987), K. Wallingford (1988), and W. Doreski (1999).

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Lowell, Robert

 orig. Robert Traill Spence Lowell, Jr.

(born March 1, 1917, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died Sept. 12, 1977, New York, N.Y.) U.S. poet. Lowell was a descendant of a distinguished family that included James Russell Lowell and Amy Lowell. Though he turned away from his Puritan heritage, it forms the subject of much of his poetry. His first major work, Lord Weary's Castle (1946, Pulitzer Prize), contains “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket.” Life Studies (1959) contains an autobiographical essay and 15 complex, confessional poems largely based on his family history and personal life, which included time in mental institutions. His activities in liberal causes in the 1960s influenced his next three volumes, including For the Union Dead (1964). His later collections include The Dolphin (1973, Pulitzer Prize).

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Lowell, Robert (Traill Spence, Jr.) (1917–77) poet; born in Boston, Mass. He studied at Harvard (1935–37), and Kenyon College, Ohio (B.A. 1940). A conscientious objector in World War II, he served a prison sentence (1943–44). He taught at many institutions, was Consultant in Poetry, Library of Congress (1947–48), and wrote several plays and translations. A troubled man and brilliant poet, he combined his two beings in launching the so-called confessional school of poetry, and has been honored for his disquieting works, as in Notebook 1967–1968 (1969; augmented 1970).