The Fading Smile: Poets in Boston, 1995-1960, from Robert Frost to Robert Lowell to Sylvia Plath

by Peter Davison

“No one has attempted so knowing and evocative a description of this literary milieu. . . . Davidson’s approach is both novel and illuminating. He presents his authors individually [and as] a group, carefully tracing their relation to one another. . . . He is uniquely qualified to chronicle the complex story. He is the ultimate literary Boston insider―not only the longtime poetry editor for the Atlantic Montly but successively a key editor at three major publishing houses. The author of nine volumes of poetry, he knew all the major characters of his narrative personally. . . . [His book] provides a candid, first-hand account of the mid-century poetic revolution.” ―Dana Gioia, Washington Post Book World This extraordinary account, by a participant who knew them all, offers vivid reminiscences of Robert Lowell, Adrienne Rich, Stanley Kunitz, Sylvia Plath, Richard Wilbur, Anne Sexton, W. S. Merwin, and many others who interacted with each other and shaped American poetry at mid-century.

Genres: Poetry, Memoir, Biography

346 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

Peter Davison was an American poet, essayist, teacher, lecturer, editor, and publisher.

Davison worked as an editor at the Atlantic Monthly Press and Houghton Mifflin. He was also poetry editor for Atlantic Monthly. He was part of a literary milieu that included Robert Lowell, Robert Frost, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Richard Wilbur, and Donald Hall.

In 1963, his first book of poetry, Breaking of the Day, was awarded the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award by Dudley Fitts.

Breathing Room won the Massachusetts Book Award.

Among the authors Davison edited were Ward Just, Farley Mowat, William Least Heat-Moon, and Robert Coles.

Reviews

[Annie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting portraits and anecdotes about these poets, I suppose, but overall the tone of the book interfered. Has a very self-promotion-y feeling, like the author is trying to contextualize himself as on the same level or of the same memorability as Snodgrass, Lowell, Sexton, Plath, etc. and inserting his own poems or quoting things these authors have said about him and his poetry.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Davison's memoir centers on his experiences in the frequently kooky, wildly fruitful, and endlessly fascinating Boston poetry scene of the 1950s and 60s. With cameos from Robert Frost, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, the Merwins, Robert Lowell, Maxine Kumin, and Adrienne Rich (among many, many others), this was a stunning glimpse into an intellectual and creative community that (I would argue) is potentially unrivaled in literary history.

Though I didn't give the book five stars (the organization could have been better-handled, and it felt as if the memoir just cut off, mid-thought), it satisfied several hopes I had going into the reading of it: 1) I became violently jealous of Davison and everyone involved, for having lived in a time when the role of the poet was really, truly significant to a community's culture and livelihood, 2) I felt as if, rather than offered a sterile grocery list of facts about these poets, I was in on the intimate (but tender) gossip of the wider circle, and 3) I was inspired to write, and began thinking of ways in which I might better throw myself into my life as, yes, a writer. These poets did nothing half-heartedly; their entire beings were absolutely thrown into the wreckage of their work, and I was just enthralled by it. I shouldn't exoticize madness, as is often the tendency with icons like Sexton and Plath and Lowell, but nonetheless, I can't help but find appealing the awe-inspiring and sometimes frightening passion with which all of these writers were working. It was thrilling. But as I said, and perhaps this is merely a failing of the memoir form, there were moments where I just needed more--more clarity, more elaboration, more closure. That was me reading as a consumer of novels and biographies, though, so perhaps I shouldn't blame Davison. Any case, this comes highly recommended, especially if you're tired of all the medicinal work on these wacky writers--this is a smart, and balanced, game of he-said-she-said, and it's a truly enjoyable read.

[Jon]

Peter Davison combines memoir and criticism in this nostalgic, unsentimental look at a variety of poets who lived and worked in the Boston area during the 1950s and 60s. Favorite anecdote: W. S. Merwin follows Robert Lowell around at a party asking him what he thinks of his work until Lowell finally tells Merwin he's "a first-rate second-rate poet." (Well, you had to ask, Merwin.) Davison himself is hard on writers who he thinks failed to live up to their potential, such as Adrienne Rich,or who exploited their private demons to create less-than-great work, such as Anne Sexton. (I agree with him in both cases.) Davison is particularly good on Lowell, portraying him as a man who lived for literature--largely at the expense of life itself--and Sylvia Plath, whose tortured, conflicted personality comes through with awful clarity in Davison's rendering. Davison also includes poems by the poets he discusses and one of his own.

[AnnMarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because I wanted to feel smart, and I think it accomplished this goal.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly an interesting read, but somewhat galling as one realizes what extraordinary privilege and opportunity most of these writers had in comparison to the rest of us.

[Nicolas Shump · Rating 5 out of 5]

A poignant, lyrical, and revealing memoir on Boston area poets like Lowell, Plath, Anne Sexton, and others. Davison seems to have known or met everyone. He dated Plath briefly, attended Harvard with many of these writers, and as the poetry editor of The Atlantic Monthly and a publisher and editor, published many of these writers.
I like his decision to organize this book around the Boston literary scene. Though it usually only devotes a chapter to a particular poet, I think his portraits are often superior to book-length treatments of these writers. An admirable combination of literary analysis and literary memoir. To me this shows why poets are often the best critics and readers of other poets.
I actually met Davison once when he came to read his own poetry at Reed College. A very intelligent, friendly, and gracious man.

[max · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required reading for those purporting to take an interest in literary Boston. You will be amazed at the vast nuclear fission device that was the Hub in the 60s and 70--bringing together and splitting apart the greatest minds of American verse, and ultimately melting down into personal tragedy and "confessional" poetry.

Peter Davison is the perfect guide, looking out over the landscape from his office at the Atlantic Monthly, where he worked from his late 20s till his death last year.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting anecdotes about poets in and around Boston in late 40s, early 50s.