The Wounded Surgeon: Confessions and Transformations in Six American Poets
by: Kirsch, Adam

Hardcover. NY, W.W. Norton & Co., 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 299 pages. The author investigate the trauma behind poets Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, John Berryman, Randall Jarrell, and Delmore Schwartz. They formed one of the great constellations of talent in American literature. In the decades after World War II, they changed American poetry forever by putting themselves at risk in their poems in a new and provocative way. Their daring work helped to inspire the popular style of poetry now known as 'confessional.' But partly as a result of their openness, they have become better known for their tumultuous lives-afflicted by mental illness, alcoholism, and suicide-than for their work. This book reclaims their achievement by offering critical 'biographies of the poetry'-tracing the development of each poet's work, exploring their major themes and techniques, and examining how they transformed life into art. Clean copy.