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Sustaining Air: The Life of Larry Eigner
The biography of a poet seminal to postwar American poetry
The poet Larry Eigner (1927–1996) was a key figure in New American poetry, which grew out of the Black Mountain School and San Francisco Renaissance, and a major influence on the Language poets. Eigner also had cerebral palsy as the result of an accident at birth. It is fortuitous that the poet lived his life in two locations vibrant in both poetics and disability activism. Except for brief periods attending camp and school, he lived with his parents in Swampscott, Massachusetts, until the age of 51. Later, he moved to Berkeley, California, at the height of the disability rights movement. In the 1950s, Eigner attended Camp Jened, which later became famous in the film Crip Camp .
Bartlett’s biography covers every significant phase of Eigner’s his childhood and young adulthood when he began typing poems with one finger on the manual typewriter that was a bar mitzvah gift; his first publications and the maturation of his poetic interests through correspondence with poets of the era; and after his move to Berkeley, the ever-expanding circle of friends, poets, caretakers, and collaborators he established there. The result is a deeply insightful account of an utterly distinctive voice whose influence widens and deepens with each new generation that encounters him.
The poet Larry Eigner (1927–1996) was a key figure in New American poetry, which grew out of the Black Mountain School and San Francisco Renaissance, and a major influence on the Language poets. Eigner also had cerebral palsy as the result of an accident at birth. It is fortuitous that the poet lived his life in two locations vibrant in both poetics and disability activism. Except for brief periods attending camp and school, he lived with his parents in Swampscott, Massachusetts, until the age of 51. Later, he moved to Berkeley, California, at the height of the disability rights movement. In the 1950s, Eigner attended Camp Jened, which later became famous in the film Crip Camp .
Bartlett’s biography covers every significant phase of Eigner’s his childhood and young adulthood when he began typing poems with one finger on the manual typewriter that was a bar mitzvah gift; his first publications and the maturation of his poetic interests through correspondence with poets of the era; and after his move to Berkeley, the ever-expanding circle of friends, poets, caretakers, and collaborators he established there. The result is a deeply insightful account of an utterly distinctive voice whose influence widens and deepens with each new generation that encounters him.
198 pages, Paperback
Published July 18, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 16, 2023
Poets of a certain age, like me, know who Larry Eigner is, having been introduced to his work via the Donald Allen edited anthology, The New American Poetry 1945 - 1960 (Grove Press, 1960). My copy has long become loose-leaf through content use over the years. I recall being puzzled by Eigner's work (& of others in the anthology) but over time, reading Cid Corman's Origins, & memoirs & histories of the era I had gotten to know a little more of Eigner's life & work. Now there is this long-awaited biography of Larry Eigner by poet, scholar, activist Jennifer Bartlett.
Larry Eigner (1927 - 1996) lived most of his life in Swampscott, MA, & at the end in Berkley, CA. Eigner had cerebral palsy, as does Bartlett, that profoundly limited his mobility, to which he responded by adapting how he composed his poems on a typewriter. But his extensive correspondence with many of the major poets of the mid-20th Century brought him support & respect for his work & eventually important publication, such as the Allen anthology.
This biography is an easy read, linking his private home life with Eigner's expanding presence in the mid-Century literary world, painting a picture of the man & the artist, as is done by the best biographies. Of particular note is Eigner's early interest in the ecology movement, which makes his life relevant to 21st Century readers, beyond his unique, imaginative, innovative poetry.
The book includes 10 pages of photos, a detailed Index, extensive bibliography, notes & a chronology/calendar compiled by Eigner scholar George Hart, who also wrote the Introduction. A good read.
Larry Eigner (1927 - 1996) lived most of his life in Swampscott, MA, & at the end in Berkley, CA. Eigner had cerebral palsy, as does Bartlett, that profoundly limited his mobility, to which he responded by adapting how he composed his poems on a typewriter. But his extensive correspondence with many of the major poets of the mid-20th Century brought him support & respect for his work & eventually important publication, such as the Allen anthology.
This biography is an easy read, linking his private home life with Eigner's expanding presence in the mid-Century literary world, painting a picture of the man & the artist, as is done by the best biographies. Of particular note is Eigner's early interest in the ecology movement, which makes his life relevant to 21st Century readers, beyond his unique, imaginative, innovative poetry.
The book includes 10 pages of photos, a detailed Index, extensive bibliography, notes & a chronology/calendar compiled by Eigner scholar George Hart, who also wrote the Introduction. A good read.
April 7, 2024
I am so grateful to anyone who reads Sustaining Air. To my knowledge, it is the only biography of a poet with a severe disability published in the United States.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews