Lost Puritan: A Life of Robert Lowell

by Paul Mariani

"Thorough and just. . . . Quietly, surely in touch with its distinguished subject."―Richard Wilbur Robert Lowell's poetry radically altered the American literary landscape, combining as it did family drama and an apocalyptic view of the history of our times. He won three Pulitzer Prizes and two National Book Awards for poetry. Married three times, always to writers, he had his dark side, suffering from crippling bouts of manic depression and alcoholism.

Using hundreds of Lowell's unpublished manuscripts and letters, and dozens of interviews, Paul Mariani has given us a balanced, passionate, and readable life, capturing the man, his age, and his place in literary history.

Genres: Biography, Poetry, Nonfiction, Psychology, History, Religion, Politics

552 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1994

Reviews

[Nicolas Shump · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Paul Mariani's biography of John Berryman, Dream Song, so I had high hopes for this book too. Mostly everything I liked about the Berryman bio is missing from here. It is tedious with too much detail and is basically a very matter of fact retelling of Lowell's life. It is reminiscent of Michael Mott's The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton in this respect.
The life of the subject is lost in all the details. Instead of interpreting the details and information through his own critical filter, Mariani just piles it on. It's weird, but Mariani is himself a respected American poet, but as a biographer he seems to lose all that makes poetry worth reading. The vividness, the discriminating use of details, the voice, all these are absent from Mariani's work.
He rarely even tries to read Lowell's poetry critically. He talks of the critical reception of his work, and quotes contemporaries or other critics, but offers too little of his own analysis.
Mariani seems to be in such awe of Lowell that he refuses to consider him critically. It would be a good reference work if you did not know much about Robert Lowell, but not for any insight into him as a poet. If you want a good biography of Robert Lowell, I'd recommend Ian Hamilton's Robert Lowell: A Biography.

[Keith Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did enjoy reading this big biography. It took me back to the details of Lowell's life that informed his poems, and it helped put the poems in the biographical context that has become so important for understanding Lowell. It was also an interesting picture of that lost time in literary culture -- when we could have the "big man" who would dominate a moment, whom most people could agree was a figure we all had to come to terms with. And the writers thought that about themselves! That they were important and were doing important things. That is gone, and it's probably a good thing. Even though only half a century has passed, it's hard to believe that dominant attitude has disappeared.

I have read Mariani's other big biographies -- one on William Carlos Williams and one on John Berryman. Both of those books took me back to the poems, and led to exciting rereading of the work. Interestingly, this one didn't. And I think that was a weakness. But why didn't it?

I think, in the end, Mariani was more interested in Lowell's mental illness than he was in Lowell's poetry. Now someone could say that I am making a distinction without a difference there, but I don't think so. Lowell's poetry was very accomplished, a deeply studied art by a brilliant man, who happened from time to time to have severe manic episodes. Yes, to go mad. Sometimes those episodes influenced the poems, but they did not create the work. I don't think most readers would be left with that impression from this biography.

On the other hand, I know that Lowell's mania dominated the conversation about him during and shortly after his life. But in the 40 years since, that detail has become a footnote. When Lowell is discussed now (and I'm often surprised by how little he is discussed), he is understood as one of the important figures who freed up the use of wildly subjective material (along with his friends Elizabeth Bishop and Adrienne Rich, and Ginsberg, etc.). And that influence, whether recognized or not, is an important legacy.

All that said, I did go back to the poems, leafing around in that gigantic "Collected Poems" from a few years ago. And there are a lot of wonderful poems. And lots of allusion and reading on display too. The depth of that reading isn't at all clear in Mariani's biography. He's more interested in the psychiatry than he is in the study.

[Peter Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

A straightforward, rote, generally unevaluative survey of a life, an even-handedness that one would certainly prefer for their own biography. But few of us create poetry or polemic like Cal Lowell, and though I admire Mariani for abstaining (mostly) from any personal judgement of Lowell’s actions, I can’t help but be dissatisfied with the book's distance from its subject. Perhaps I'm falling into the altogether magnetic character of the great poet, but then I wouldn't be the first (just read this book). There’s such a life to weigh in on, and if not a life then at least a life in poems… which Mariani also generally avoids. He cites a good many poems, but close reading is scant, which is a shame because when it shines through his reading is astute. He was, after all, a very good poet himself. You get his take on Skunk Hour, and a few other moments of analysis, but otherwise the poetry is kept strangely separate. So I will be on the lookout for a literary biography. In all, I would still recommend this one, but it’s a good thing Lowell had an eventful life, because that kept things ticking.

[Paul Boger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I needed many years, and more than one try, to absorb this exhaustive chronology of Lowell’s life. Liberally quoting his letters, and those of his wives, lovers, and friends, it paints a detailed, journalistic portrait of a deeply troubled, old money aristocrat, whose poetry defined a generation-in-turmoil. Definitely for students of the era and the art. I can’t imagine anyone else wading through the wreckage here for pure enjoyment.

[Farrah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A most excellent treatment of a most complicated life.

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

a little gossipy and thin on the real stuff of literature, but lowell's life was lived at such a level that its ordinary details touch on the higher planes of history

[JerryDeanHalleck · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another massive blow- by- blow, seemingly day-by-day literary biography. Long on details and facts, short on critical interpetation, or atmosphere. 450 pages of "and then Lowell did this and then did that". Very dry - almost unreadable.

For example, Lowell did something almost no other literary figure did, he refused** to serve in WW2 and wrote a letter to FDR justifying it. And he spent a 6 months in Prison. It was pretty amazing. So, how did that effect his life? What did his family and friends think? Later, did he regret it or was he proud? Did he write any poetry about it? Were the authorities too hard on him? Was his stance noble and just - or not?

But we don't get any detailed analysis from Mariani. We get one page providing Lowell's justification (based on his letters and a later interview) and then 9 pages about Jean Lowell life while Robert Lowell was away, with a chronology of Lowell's imprisonment. The wider issues are never examined or commented on.

And all of the book is like that. Very disappointing.

** - many didn't serve because they were 4-F. James Agee, W. Burroughs, T. Williams, Bowles and Capote were labeld "unfit for service".

[Josh Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is the best bio on Lowell. Definitely prefer it over the Ian Hamilton.

[Rod Benson]

Just started this book after finding it by chance at Gleebooks second-hand in Glebe Point Rd, Sydney. This is the kind of literary biography I like: painstakingly detailed, well researched, psychologically rich, beautifully written. A good chaser to John Carey's William Golding, which I absolutely loved (for the same reasons).

[Betsy Kalman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you, Paul Mariani, for your work. I was fascinated to the very end with Robert Lowell's lifelong passion for literature and poetry. It was interesting to see Lowell shift from tightly structured form at the beginning of his career, to the wildly moving free verse he wrote at the end of his life.

[Eugene Melino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-done, thorough biography. Mariani knows how to tell a story, and his prose is clear. He admires Lowell and Lowell's writing, but he is still able to view his subject critically.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not three stars for the book, Mariani is a sensitive and witty and empathetic storyteller.

Three stars for Cal. I respect the talent, but my god what a fucked-up human being.

[Stefan Block · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and thorough. Perhaps slightly too thorough.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lowell was a deeply flawed man. It's a long, sad and destructive story of highly gifted man.