Saskia Hamilton (1967–2023)
Author of Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell
About the Author
Saskia Hamilton teaches at Barnard College.
Image credit: Crop by davidgn; Original Photo By David Shankbone - Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1706922
Works by Saskia Hamilton
Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell (2008) — Editor — 232 copies, 4 reviews
The Dolphin Letters, 1970-1979: Elizabeth Hardwick, Robert Lowell, and Their Circle (2019) — Editor — 65 copies
Associated Works
McSweeney's Issue 6 (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern): We Now Know Who (2002) — Contributor — 203 copies, 5 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Hamilton, Saskia
- Birthdate
- 1967
- Date of death
- 2023-06-07
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Washington, D.C., USA
- Cause of death
- brain cancer
- Education
- Kenyon College (BA|1989)
- Occupations
- Poet
professor
Members
Reviews
Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between… by Elizabeth Bishop
This is a book I'll keep dipping into in front of the fire, the poems at hand, without concern for finishing.
I have never read correspondence before (except in epistolary novels) so I was pleasantly surprised by how readable it was. These letters cover a 30 year span which allows the reader to really get to know Bishop and Lowell. I would recommend either reading their poetry first or having it handy to refer to as (not surprisingly) there are a lot of references to specific poems (even to specific lines or words in the poems).
I only made it through 1947-1951. It was visits with Ezra Pound, stays in Key West on the Hemmingway property and stays at Yaddo with the likes of Flannery O'Connor, stays on the rocky coast of Novia Scotia. Coercing Dylan Thomas to make a recording of his work for the poetry collection at the Library of Congress, because that's where you work. Attending a reception for Edith and Osbert Sitwell at New York City's Gotham Book Mart with Marianne Moore, William Carlos Williams, Tennessee Williams, W.H. Auden, Stephen Spender, Randall Jarred and others. Can you imagine? Mental breakdown, asthmatic collapse, failed marriage. The graffiti in Florence, Italy, reads: "Death to the criminal MacArthur," but back in New York your dissecting stanza 5, line 7 of the Kavanaughs. Don't even get me started on Harcourt Brace. 1951-1977 and trips to Brazil with Aldous Huxley for another time. After all, 811 pages of letters isn't exactly summer reading.… (more)
I'm not sure what terrain I was expected to traverse in this collection. The poems felt brittle and tepid without cracks or breaks, or moments of "ah."
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 9
- Also by
- 2
- Members
- 482
- Popularity
- #51,208
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 5
- ISBNs
- 18