The Key to Everything (eBook)

May Swenson, A Writer's Life

Margaret A. Brucia (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
288 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
9780691247229 (ISBN)

Infos

An intimate portrait of the twentieth-century American poetMay Swenson (19131989) was one of the most important and original poets of the twentieth century. The Key to Everything is a biography of this experimental American modernist that draws directly from her unpublished diaries and her letters to friends, family, and colleagues, most notably Elizabeth Bishop. In 1952, Swenson wrote in her diary, ';I want to confirm my life in a narrativemy Lesbianism, the hereditary background of my parents, grandparents, origins in the ';old country.'' Taking up Swenson's uncompleted autobiographical plan, Margaret Brucia tells Swenson's story as much as possible through her own words.While chronicling the whole of Swenson's life, this book focuses on the period from 1936 to 1959, when she came of age artistically and personally in New York City. Against the backdrop of the Great Depression, the Federal Writers' Project, Greenwich Village, and the emergence of gay culture, Swenson's diaries lay bare her aspirations, fears, joys, and disappointments. Readers see the poet and person emerge, inextricably entwined, as Swenson describes her struggles with poverty, anonymity, and predatory men; her romantic relationships; and the people she met, the books she read, and the work she produced.The most detailed and intimate biography of Swenson to date, The Key to Everything is a unique portrait of a poet who resisted labels throughout her life.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 8.7.2025
• Zusatzinfo: 28 b/w illus.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
• Schlagworte: Alfred Kreymborg • American women poets • ANCA • anzia • anzia yezierska • Apartment • Arnold • ART • Bishop • books • Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference • brother • Child • Childhood • Christmas • Church • cold • Dan • Death • Depression-Era New York City • Diary • dress • earlier • Edith • Elizabeth Bishop • ENTRY • Fall • Family • Friends • FWP (Federal Writers Project) • George • Glad • Grant • Greenwich Village in the 20th century • Hair • Hope • Interview • James Baldwin • James Laughlin • Job • Kept • Kreymborg • Lake • lesbian poets • Letter • Lota • Love • Lover • MacDowell Colony • Margaret • Margaret A. Brucia • Mary • May Swenson • Modern Poetry • MONEY • months • Mormon • mormons • Nature • new york city writers • Parents • PEARL • Plat • Poems • Poet • Poetry • Prose • Publication • Raven Poetry Circle • Relationship • Richard Wright • room • Rozanne Knudson • SALT • Sister • spent • ST • Story • Street • Sunny • Swenson • Sylvia • Thilda • Thomas • To Find Myself: May Swenson's Formative Years • TRIP • Utah Writers • Village • Weeks • Western American Writers • wife • Women’s diaries • WPA (Works Progress Administration) • writers • yaddo • Zan
• ISBN-13: 9780691247229 / 9780691247229