The Wounded Surgeon

Confession and Transformation in Six American Poets

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by Adam Kirsch

W. W. Norton and Co.

Due/Published June 2005, 256 pages, cloth

ISBN 0393051978

The six poets featured in The Wounded Surgeon - Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, John Berryman, Randall Jarrell, Delmore Schwartz, and Sylvia Plath - were the most recent constellation of great poets in our history, a group of friends, colleagues, and rivals who changed the face of American literature. Their poems about childhood trauma, madness, and sex shattered taboos about what was acceptable in poetry, inspiring 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." In his essays, Kirsch reclaims their literary achievement by offering critical "biographies of the poetry" - tracing the development of each poet's work, exploring the major themes and techniques, and examining how these poets transformed life into art.