Journey Around My Room: The Autobiography of Louise Bogan

by Louise Bogan, Ruth Limmer (Editor)

Collected autobiographical essays by the poet.

Genres: Memoir, Poetry, Nonfiction, Biography

197 pages, Hardcover

First published November 17, 1980

About the author

She was appointed the fourth Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress in 1945.

As poetry editor of The New Yorker magazine for nearly 40 years, Bogan played a major role in shaping mainstream poetic sensibilities of the mid-20th Century.

The Poetry Foundation notes that Bogan has been called by some critics the most accomplished woman poet of the twentieth century. It further notes that, "Some critics have placed her in a category of brilliant minor poets described as the "reactionary generation." This group eschewed the prevailing Modernist forms that would come to dominate the literary landscape of the era in favor of more traditional techniques.

Dictionary of Literary Biography contributor Brett C. Millier named Bogan "one of the finest lyric poets America has produced," and added that "the fact that she was a woman and that she defended formal, lyric poetry in an age of expansive experimentation made evaluation of her work, until quite recently, somewhat condescending."

Elizabeth Frank's biography of Louise Bogan, Louise Bogan: A Portrait, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this. It is a collection of odds and ends by this woman who was incredibly influential in poetry - particularly in poetry in education - in this country. This is not the story of that. it is the story of her particular life in flashes and images and things that she wrote that have been collected in the appropriately subtitled "mosaic."

[Hank Stuever · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Those about me, from childhood on, had sought love. I heard and saw them. I saw them rise and fall on that wave. I closely overheard and sharply overlooked their joy and grief. I worked from memory and example." -- Louise Bogan

Strange and beautiful recollected memories and biography.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of observations is written beautifully. It’s poetry in prose and rhythm. Her descriptions are succinct and as thorough as a photograph.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bogan is a poet I’ve never attended to, so I thought this might be a new discovery for me. It’s well written, but after reading about a third, I quit. It’s simply not my cup of tea—internal description of psychological state, detailed description of externals, etc.

[Dovofthegalilee]

Any reservations that I had before this book to say that women poets are all crazy has been thoroughly lifted! Louise Bogan a winner of the Bollingen award but like so many other poetesses - Dickinson, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath she just wasn't stable. I'm not sure why this is such a notable trait in women who succeed in poetry but I think I'll go back to Robert Service and Frost!