From Publishers Weekly
Drawing on dozens of anecdotes and memoirs of Robert Creeley's contemporaries, as well as Creeley's own letters and papers, literary editor and scholar Faas (Young Robert Duncan; etc.) presents a largely unflattering portrait of the acclaimed poet's first 50 years. Having lost both his father and his left eye by age four, Creeley (b. 1926), in Faas's portrait, is on a perennial quest to heal his fractured ego. Growing up in a household dominated by women his mother and four sisters Creeley appeared to avenge himself on the women he seduced. Throughout his travels and marriages, he casually ensnared and then disposed of wives of close friends. Treating rivals with unbridled scorn, Creeley intermittently battled with the angels of creativity and the demons of conceit. He reacted to failure with impotence and then rage, resulting in violence imaginary or real and drinking bouts. When critic M.L. Rosenthal wrote not quite flatteringly about Creeley's poems, for example, Creeley concluded that Rosenthal had "something against him." Creeley's contemporaries, under Faas's gaze, don't fare much better: Kenneth Rexroth emerges as a jealous, deceitful, unstable cuckold amidst a circle of amoral, self-absorbed writers that included Denise Levertov, Jack Kerouac and Charles Olson. Despite numerous excerpts from his poetry and references to his considerable literary successes, there is little here to enlighten readers about Creeley's contributions to contemporary American poetry or about the regard accorded him by many in the world of poetry. To that end, the memoirs of Creeley's first wife, Ann MacKinnon, which are excerpted at length, are far more useful. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
The first fifty years in the life of a great American poet.

From the Publisher
6 x 9 trim. 40 illus LC 2001-091501

About the Author
EKBERT FAAS teaches at Vanier College, York University, Canada. He is author of Towards a New American Poetics (1978), editor of Kenneth Rexroth's Excerpts from a Life (1981), and coeditor of Irving Layton & Robert Creeley: The Complete Correspondence, 1953 - 1978 (1990).

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Robert Creeley, one of the most revered voices of contemporary American poetry, has attained an almost legendary status, based on his role in such avant-garde movements as Black Mountain, Tish, and the Beats. Ekbert Faas focuses on the first 50 years of Creeley's life - the years of rebellion, restless travel, tumultuous liaisons, anger, and violence that gave his writing a raw candor. Along the way he developed a flair for noticing the talent of others, and as a small press publisher and editor he promoted the likes of Layton, Ginsberg, Kerouac, Olson, and Burroughs. Their stars rose while he scraped by, until finally, suddenly, fame arrived. His poetry collection For Love and novel The Island earned him critical acclaim that has outlasted that of his contemporaries. Since then his poetry has become increasingly autobiographical and nostalgic, and now he contemplates the commonplace for inspiration.

In this tour-de-force biography, Ekbert Faas, a major scholar and critic of contemporary American poetry, pioneers a new kind of life-writing, one that tells its stories through the emotions, thoughts, and, above all, language of the dramatis personae. He exchanges the authorial omniscience of the traditional biography for an utter fidelity to his sources: anecdotes and stories are told, re-told, and told again, always through the words of those who lived them, allowing Creeley to reveal himself beneath the myths created by reinvention, imagination, and wishful thinking.

SYNOPSIS

The first fifty years in the life of a great American poet.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Drawing on dozens of anecdotes and memoirs of Robert Creeley's contemporaries, as well as Creeley's own letters and papers, literary editor and scholar Faas (Young Robert Duncan; etc.) presents a largely unflattering portrait of the acclaimed poet's first 50 years. Having lost both his father and his left eye by age four, Creeley (b. 1926), in Faas's portrait, is on a perennial quest to heal his fractured ego. Growing up in a household dominated by women his mother and four sisters Creeley appeared to avenge himself on the women he seduced. Throughout his travels and marriages, he casually ensnared and then disposed of wives of close friends. Treating rivals with unbridled scorn, Creeley intermittently battled with the angels of creativity and the demons of conceit. He reacted to failure with impotence and then rage, resulting in violence imaginary or real and drinking bouts. When critic M.L. Rosenthal wrote not quite flatteringly about Creeley's poems, for example, Creeley concluded that Rosenthal had "something against him." Creeley's contemporaries, under Faas's gaze, don't fare much better: Kenneth Rexroth emerges as a jealous, deceitful, unstable cuckold amidst a circle of amoral, self-absorbed writers that included Denise Levertov, Jack Kerouac and Charles Olson. Despite numerous excerpts from his poetry and references to his considerable literary successes, there is little here to enlighten readers about Creeley's contributions to contemporary American poetry or about the regard accorded him by many in the world of poetry. To that end, the memoirs of Creeley's first wife, Ann MacKinnon, which are excerpted at length, are far more useful. (Oct. 26) Copyright 2001 Cahners BusinessInformation.

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