Late romance Anthony Hecht, a poet's life

David Yezzi

Book - 2023

"Anthony Hecht (1923-2004) was one of America's greatest poets, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and widely recognized as a master of formal verse that drew on wide-ranging cultural and literary sources, as well as Hecht's experiences as a soldier during World War II, during which he fought in Germany and Czechoslovakia and helped to liberate the Flossenburg concentration camp. In Late Romance, David Yezzi-himself a renowned poet and critic-reveals the depths that informed the meticulous surfaces of Hecht's poems. Born to a wealthy German-Jewish family in Manhattan, Hecht saw his father lose nearly everything during the stock market crash of 1929. He grew into an accomplished athlete, actor, writer, and eventually a soldier... in the crucible that consumed the world. Returning from the war, Hecht struggled to reconcile what he had witnessed and experienced, suffering from mental illness that required hospitalization. But he found the means to channel his emotions into poetry of lasting meaning, control, and depth; along with Robert Lowell, James Merrill, Theodore Roethke, and Elizabeth Bishop, Hecht remains a vital presence in letters. Published to celebrate the 100th year of his birth, and to coincide with an edition of his collected poems (to be published by Knopf), Late Romance is the definitive, dramatic biography of a uniquely-gifted writer"--

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Subjects
Genres
Biographies
Published
New York : St. Martin's Press 2023.
Language
English
Main Author
David Yezzi (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
viii, 469 pages, 16 pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781250016584
  • Introduction: Recognition and Reversal
  • 1. Hecht & Sons (1923-1934)
  • 1. "Death Sauntering About"
  • 2. Out of the Swamp
  • 3. "A grave and secret malady …"
  • 2. "An Education for Which I Received No Grades …" (1935-1941)
  • 1. "A corn roast and bonfire in summer camp …"
  • 2. "Lingering flavors of the clergy"
  • 3. Dr. Seuss Makes a House Call
  • 3. "Ghosts from the Ovens" (1942-1946)
  • 1. You'll Be Sorry
  • 2. In the Ruhr Pocket
  • 3. "How often you have thought about that camp …"
  • 4. "Now the quaint early image of Japan …"
  • 5. "I am there. I am there."
  • 4. Mr. Ransom in Ohio, Mr. Tate in New York (1946-1948)
  • 1. "I had to go back to school"
  • 2. "A dangerous influence"
  • 3. "Unfettered but unfreed …"
  • 5. Italian Journey (1949-1951)
  • 1. "The most beautiful sight in the world …"
  • 2. "An extraordinarily lucky choice"
  • 3. Auden in the Mezzogiorno
  • 6. Roman Holidays (1952-1955)
  • 1. On the Janiculum
  • 2. Bellow, Brandeis, Blucher, and a Book
  • 3. Marrying Magdalene
  • 7. "Marriages Come to Grief in Many Ways …" (1956-1961)
  • 1. Mon Semblable, Mon Frère-Leonard Baskin at Smith
  • 2. Sylvia and Ted and Pat and Tony
  • 3. Jason and Adam
  • 8. Harder Hours (1962-1967)
  • 1. "A different mother tongue"
  • 2. Back to Bard
  • 9. Late Romance (1968-1975)
  • 1. Higgledy-piggledy
  • 2. "Heureux qui, comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage …"
  • 3. "Here in this bleak city of Rochester"
  • 10. Apprehensions (1976-1980)
  • 1. "Something in the light"
  • 2. "Something by Shakespeare"
  • 3. "He haunts me here, that seeker after law …"
  • 11. "Waiting for Things to Mend" (1981-1992)
  • 1. Murmurs
  • 2. "O ye laurels …"
  • 12. Presumptions (1993-1998)
  • 1. Leaving Academe
  • 2. Deaths in Winter
  • 13. Both Alike to Thee (1998-2004)
  • 1. A Midrash for Baskin
  • 2. Il Golfo Paradiso
  • 3. Among the English Poets
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Yezzi (More Things in Heaven) delivers an affectionate and meticulous biography of fellow poet Anthony Hecht (1923--2004). Beginning with Hecht's childhood in a wealthy German Jewish enclave on New York's Upper East Side, Yezzi details his subject's formative years as a budding poet at Bard College and the horrors he witnessed fighting in WWII, including when he took part in the liberation of the Flossenbürg concentration camp. Tracing the development of Hecht's style, Yezzi explains that during Hecht's studies as a non-matriculating "special student" at Kenyon College after the war, he adopted mentor John Crowe Ransom's "Eliotic impersonality," which sought to disguise autobiographical elements and consider them as if at a remove. The period from 1967 to 1971 was transformative for Hecht, Yezzi suggests, describing how during that time Hecht won the Pulitzer Prize for The Hard Hours, which "bolstered his reputation and career," and married his former student, Helen D'Alessandro, a book editor who offered him reprieve from his "periods of melancholy." Yezzi provides astute analysis of how Hecht's life influenced his poetry--noting that "Aubade," one of his last poems, was inspired by his contemplation of "the anguish his death would cause" Helen--and the careful research, drawn from Hecht's archives and letters and interviews with his friends, brings the poet to vivid life. This will stand as the definitive account of an influential American poet. (Nov.)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Chronicle of an acclaimed poet. Yezzi, a poet, playwright, and editor of the Swallow Anthology of New American Poets, makes his debut as a biographer with a sensitive, comprehensive study of Anthony Hecht (1923-2004), former poet laureate of the U.S. and winner of the Pulitzer Prize and many other honors. Hecht was born in New York City to a wealthy family of non-observant Jews. While his brother, whose infirmities included epilepsy and partial paralysis, drew all the family's attention, Hecht grew up feeling "solitary, adrift." He attended tony schools but was a desultory student. Only in 1940, when he landed at Bard College, did he begin to thrive. The war intervened, though, and he enlisted in the Reserve Corps. Accepted into the Army Specialized Training Program, he was sent to Carleton College to learn German in preparation for translating. When the program was discontinued, he was thrown into the infantry, and his wartime experiences marked him forever. Although he never killed anyone, he emerged with an "excruciating sense of moral compromise" and PTSD. On the GI Bill, he enrolled at Kenyon College, where John Crowe Ransom was his academic adviser. The Ransom circle "became his literary home base, a place of belonging from which to begin writing in earnest." Yezzi engagingly traces Hecht's growing reputation; friendships with a host of literary stars, including Saul Bellow, Anne Sexton, James Merrill, Joseph Brodsky, Leonard Baskin, and W.H. Auden; his coveted awards; and his teaching career at Bard, Smith, Harvard, Georgetown, and the University of Rochester, where he was "the star of the English department." His personal life at times was volatile--he was prone to depression and suffered breakdowns; his first marriage ended in divorce. His second, though, proved a source of lasting happiness. Yezzi's intimate knowledge of Hecht's poetry informs a sympathetic, authoritative portrait. An artful, well-informed biography. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.