The Interior Castle (68 page)

3
“the winter of four books”: Robert Lowell’s diary, 1974, quoted in Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 82.

4
“formal, difficult poems” to “achieve such a life”: Axelrod,
Robert Lowell
, pp. 36–37. See also Robert Lowell, “After Enjoying Six or Seven Essays on Me,”
Salmagundi
no. 37 (Spring 1977), p. 113.

5
“Consorting with the Tates”: Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 50.

6
“how often we”: Caroline Gordon to JS, n.d., McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa.

7
“for the millionth time”: JS to Peter Taylor, Nov. 1942, Vanderbilt University Library.

8
“Cal was very right” to “grossness of their lives”: Peter Taylor to JS, Aug. 29, 1944, JS Collection, U. of Co.

9
“There is not”: R. P. Blackmur,
Kenyon Review
7 (Spring 1945), p. 348.

10
“much more interested”: Axelrod,
Robert Lowell: Life and Art
, p. 46.

11
“abstract-minded, sharp-witted”: Allen Tate, “Remarks on the Southern Religion,” in
I’ll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1980), p. 170.

12
“Thank God for being”: Caroline Gordon to Dorothy van Doren, April 6, 1937, quoted in Waldron,
Close Connections
, p. 170.

13
“We had this statement”: JS to Peter Taylor, Mar. 1943, reprinted in
Shenandoah
30, no. 3 (1979), p. 37.

14
“passionate pilgrim” to “worldly world”: Philip Rahv,
Essays on Literature & Politics, 1932–1972
, ed. Arabel J. Porter and Andrew J. Dvosin (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978), p. 46.

15
“On a clear morning”: JS,
Boston Adventure
(New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich/A Harvest Book, 1971), p. 3.

16
“With its first page”: Alfred Kazin, “Art and Resistance,”
The New Republic
, 111 (Oct. 23, 1944), p. 539.

17
“become the master”: copy of Harcourt, Brace editorial report on
Boston Adventure
MS, JS Collection, U. of Co.

18
“all are sick”: Edmund Wilson,
Axel’s Castle: A Study in the Imaginative Literature of 1870–1930
(New York: Norton, 1984), p. 134.

19
“My mother believed”: JS,
Boston Adventure
, p. 28.

20
“infamous beyond pardon” to “utterly improbable”: Ibid., p. 77.

21
“so fantastic that”: Ibid., p. 7.

22
“I looked upon my mother”: Ibid., p. 164.

23
“My father was not” to “could stand alone”: Ibid., p. 172.

24
“Then he put”: Ibid., pp. 48–49.

25
“that I might”: Ibid., p. 3.

26
“It was not until then”: Ibid., p. 4.

27
“I had not read”: Ibid., pp. 119–120.

28
“Between these two”: Ibid., p. 181.

29
“I think he writes”: Ibid., p. 180.

30
“Boston was something”: Ibid., p. 285.

31
“It takes an outlander”: Ibid., p. 374.

32
“I read him constantly” to “all the triumphs”: Ibid., p. 259.

33
“literary convention” to “romantically wayward”: Elizabeth Hardwick, “Poor Little Rich Girls,”
Partisan Review
12, no. 3 (Summer 1945), p. 420.

34
“Hopestill in my book”: JS to Edward Joseph Chay, Feb. 27, 1946, JS Collection, U. of Co.

35
“The eyes”: JS,
Boston Adventure
, p. 505.

36
“I cannot say”: Ibid., p. 425.

37
“It was a sanctuary”: Ibid., p. 449.

38
“the fear of my own mind”: Ibid., p. 459.

39
“looked again”: Ibid., p. 538.

40
“Four of us”: Caroline Gordon to Katherine Anne Porter, quoted in Veronica A. Makowsky,
Caroline Gordon: A Biography
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 124.

41
“the larger part”: T. S. Eliot,
Selected Essays of T. S. Eliot
, p. 18.

42
“poetry … must be”:
Robert Lowell: Collected Prose
, p. 60.

43
“There must be many”: Allen Tate,
Essays of Four Decades
, pp. 124, 126.

44
“I am so sorry”: Caroline Gordon to JS, n.d., McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa.

45
“I have decided”: Caroline Gordon to JS, n.d., McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa.

46
“I have not ever forgiven him”: JS to Peter Taylor, Dec. 13, 1946, Vanderbilt University Library.

47
“effort to deduce”: Philip Rahv,
Literature and the Sixth Sense
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969), p. 225.

48
“solidity of specification”: Ibid., p. 231.

49
“world of utility” to “actual being”: John Crowe Ransom, “The Understanding of Fiction,”
Kenyon Review
12, no. 2, (Spring 1950), p. 201.

50
“I wished … to make”: Allen Tate,
The Fathers
(Denver: Alan Swallow, 1960), p. ix–x.

51
“I guess it wasn’t”: JS to Peter Taylor, Apr. 1943, Vanderbilt University Library.

52
“a little guilty” to “married to someone else”: Caroline Gordon to Katherine Anne Porter, quoted in Waldron,
Close Connections
, p. 209.

53
“He really has no interest”: Caroline Gordon to Josephine Herbst, n.d., Ibid., p. 76.

54
“I wonder if Caroline’s”: John Peale Bishop to Allen Tate, Ibid., p. 146.

55
“He has commenced”: JS to Peter Taylor, Nov. 1942, Vanderbilt University Library.

56
“We are hoping”: JS to Peter Taylor, Feb. 1943, Vanderbilt University Library.

57
“I have intended all week”: JS to Peter Taylor, Apr. 1943, reprinted in
Shenandoah
30, no. 3 (1979), pp. 36–37.

58
“When [Cal] asked”: JS to Peter Taylor, Nov. 1942, Vanderbilt University Library.

59
“constant criticism”: Waldron,
Close Connections
, p. 208.

60
“Imagine the Bean Bert”: JS to Peter Taylor, July 10, 1943, reprinted in
Shenandoah
30, no. 3 (1979), p. 40.

61
“Either a tubercular”: JS to Peter Taylor, July 20, 1943, Vanderbilt University Library.

62
“nervous exhaustion”: JS to Peter Taylor, Aug. 3, 1943, Vanderbilt University Library.

63
“is by no means”: JS to Peter Taylor, July 10, 1943, reprinted in
Shenandoah
30, no. 3 (1979), p. 38.

64
“Mrs. Ames”: Ibid., p. 39.

65
“I could stay here”: JS to Peter Taylor, Aug. 3, 1943, Vanderbilt University Library.

66
“As the taxi brought me”: JS diary, Dec. 27, 1949, JS Collection, U. of Co.

67
“is doing something” to “too deep for words”: Caroline Gordon to JS, n.d., McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa.

68
“I wrote [Mrs. Ames]”: Caroline Gordon to JS, n.d., McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa.

69
“I wrote Mrs. Lowell”: Caroline Gordon to JS, n.d. McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa.

70
army employment questionnaire: Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 86.

71
“declaration of personal responsibility” to “propaganda and violence”: typescript in Houghton Library, Harvard University, quoted in Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 89.

72
“You know more”: Robert Lowell to his grandmother Mrs. Arthur Winslow, n.d., Houghton Library, quoted in Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 90.

73
“carried through to unconditional surrender”: typescript in Houghton Library, Harvard University, quoted in Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 89.

74
“You know, Jean”: Allen Tate to JS, Nov. 19, 1943, McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa.

75
“the most decisive thing”: Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 86.

76
“poetic temperament”: article from Boston
Post
, Sept. 10, 1943, quoted in Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 90.

77
“whole man” to “aggressive stance”: Ibid., p. 85.

78
“I have not started”: JS to Peter and Eleanor Taylor, Oct. 10, 1943, Vanderbilt University Library.

79
“It was a rather bad winter”: JS to Paul and Dorothy Thompson, Oct. 12, 1944, courtesy of the Thompsons.

80
Two of her closest friends: Cecile Starr interview with author, Dec. 4, 1986.

81
“He is the most attractive” to “presently they left”: JS to Eleanor and Peter Taylor, Nov. 1943, reprinted in
Shenandoah
30, no. 3 (1979), pp. 46–47.

82
“This morning”: Ibid., pp. 47–48.

83
“Charlotte Hideous”: Ibid., p. 48.

84
“Bobby” to “integrity of purpose”: Mrs. Charlotte Lowell to JS, Nov. 10, 1943, courtesy of Blair Clark.

85
“great trouble with”: JS unpublished memoir, courtesy of Oliver Jensen.

86
“more Catholic than the church”: Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 96.

87
“crazy”: Simpson,
Poets in Their Youth
, p. 145.

88
“It is not right”: JS to Peter Taylor, Feb. 11, 1944, quoted in Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 96.

1
“I myself have nothing”: JS to Cecile Starr, n.d., courtesy of Cecile Starr.

2
“Our dreams are probably” to “unattractively materialistic”: JS to Eleanor Taylor, June 29, 1944, Vanderbilt University Library.

3
He had looked forward: Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 97.

4
“Cal … is working”: JS to Peter Taylor, July 26, 1944, Vanderbilt University Library.

5
“Cal has started writing” to “I spend my time”: JS to Eleanor Taylor, July 31, 1944, Vanderbilt University Library.

6
“Despite the ugliness”: JS to Peter Taylor, July 12, 1944, Vanderbilt University Library.

7
“Actually I think few things”: JS to Eleanor Taylor, June 29, 1944, Vanderbilt University Library.

8
“It was as though”: JS, “The Lippia Lawn,”
Collected Stories
, p. 177.

9
“It’s a crime” to “now detested”: Ibid., p. 178.

10
“There ain’t nothing”: JS, “The Darkening Moon,”
Collected Stories
, p. 254.

11
“swarmed slimily” to “reptilian odor”: Ibid., p. 261.

12
Her novel did very well: Harcourt, Brace royalty statements for
Boston Adventure
, JS Collection, U. of Co.

13
“Your book struck me” to “first title best”: Philip Rahv to JS, n.d., JS Collection, U. of Co.

14
“Cal’s book”: JS to Paul and Dorothy Thompson, Oct. 12, 1944, courtesy of the Thompsons.

15
“The success of this book”: JS to James Robert Hightower, Sept. 8, 1944, JS Collection, U. of CO.

16
“It looks as if”: Caroline Gordon to JS, n.d., McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa.

17
“I hope it’s going”: JS to James Robert Hightower, Sept. 8, 1944, JS Collection, U. of Co.

18
“we are neither respectable nor rich”: Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 101.

19
“I am so glad”: JS to Mary Lee Frichtel, Oct. 1944, JS Collection, U. of Co.

20
“The shock was”: JS to Peter Taylor, Nov. 16, 1944, Vanderbilt University Library.

21
“image of a modest schoolteacher”: Pinkham, “Jean,” p. 28.

22
“It was not a very good trip”: JS to Cecile Starr, May 5, 1945, courtesy of Cecile Starr.

23
“I have bad nerves”: JS to Edward Joseph Chay, Dec. 22, 1944, JS Collection, U. of Co.

24
“The book on James” to “nothing but the symbol”: JS to Peter Taylor, Dec. 14, 1944, Vanderbilt University Library.

25
“something completely new”: JS to James Robert Hightower, Mar. 21, 1945, JS Collection, U. of Co.

26
“My new novel is”: JS to Edward Joseph Chay, Feb. 4, 1945, JS Collection, U. of Co.

27
“
BETWEEN THE PORCH AND THE ALTAR
” to “only at your best”: Allen Tate to JS, Aug. 5, 1944, McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa.

28
“She was not assured”: JS, “Between the Porch and the Altar,”
Collected Stories
, p. 412.

29
“leaving herself alone”: Ibid., p. 413.

30
one critic observed: Albert Gelpi, “The Reign of the Kingfisher: Robert Lowell’s Prophetic Poetry,” in
Robert Lowell: Essays on the Poetry
, ed. Steven Gould Axelrod and Helen Deese (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 60.

31
“my heart”: Robert Lowell, “Colloquy at Black Rock,” in
Lord Weary’s Castle
and
The
Mills of the Kavanaughs
(San Diego, New York, London: Harcourt Brace/A Harvest Book, 1974), p. 11.

32
“quite clearly Lowell”: Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 97.

33
“second prize-winning novelette”:
Partisan Review
12 (Spring 1945), p. 149.

34
“Anything happening”: Randall Jarrell to Robert Lowell, Aug. 1945, in
Randall Jarrell’s Letters
, ed. Mary Jarrell (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1985), p. 128.

35
“Since I like”: Allen Tate to JS, Aug. 9, 1945, McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa.

36
“The ivory tower”: JS, “The Captain’s Gift,”
Collected Stories
, p. 439.

37
“You have concentrated”: Caroline Gordon to JS, n.d., McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa.

38
“cut off cleanly”: JS, “The Captain’s Gift,”
Collected Stories
, p. 445.

39
“What I am trying”: Caroline Gordon to JS, n.d., McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa.