The Glass House: The Life of Theodore Roethke

by Allan Seager

This exquisitely written biography of major American poet Theodore Roethke by his close friend and fellow writer Allan Seager was greeted with great enthusiasm in the literary community when it originally appeared in 1968. Kirkus Reviews found The Glass House “finely wrought, compassionate, intimate, and bound to be of inestimable value to all future Roethke scholars” in its exploration of Roethke’s life and its relationship to his art; critic Hugh Kenner called it “simply the best American biography.”

Biographer Allan Seager interviewed a number of Roethke’s friends and fellow writers, and he had access to the voluminous notes the poet left behind. Seager reveals the Theodore Roethke who existed behind the public persona – a complex, self-contradictory, gentle, often disturbed mysterious, and ruthlessly honest man. One of the book’s most moving passages is the defense of the poet’s role within the university, written by a colleague when Roethke was faced with the threat of dismissal. A committed teacher himself, Seager succeeds in doing justice to an often neglected aspect of Roethke’s achievement, his remarkable power as a teacher, and his unusual and committed teaching style.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 1991

Reviews

[Chris Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read if you like or study Roethke, as it's the only biography of him out there. The writing isn't always the best, and the author often inserts himself and his speculations a bit too much, but overall it is a helpful and informative read. It's clarifying to see how Roethke often exaggerated his past, but not terribly surprising given his profession.

[Miriam]

"He was out to create people anew, to implant or uproot, rearrange, abrade if necessary, their sensibilities, to tear down and trample on all familial and social veils between themselves and the world as he saw it (he could be contemptuous enough, sometimes even publicly, of their origins, the long coddling and the money, contemptuous and admiring at once), and expose their little naked spirits, lift them with love or drag them by sheer force of will up to the level where they could confront the most important thing in the world which was, of course, poetry, confront, comprehend, and sing it themselves"

[David Buhler · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the greatest biographies I have ever read. A bio. of Theodore Roethke written a friend (also a literary man, teacher and novelist) who knew him well. This book opened my eyes to the difficulty of writing poetry, especially if the poet uses his own internal landscape as subject, as Roethke did until in his final years he began to look outward and upward. He is named as America's greatest poet, the only rival being Robert Lowell. This book has inspired me to read Roethke's collected poems and I have found many many that love.

[Johnny Trash · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit dull and thick for me (or maybe I'm the one who's dull and thick). But it's an interesting story of an interesting poet and his adventures with mental health and illness. Roethke grew up in Minnesota but lived from the 1940s to the early 60s in Washington State (Bainbridge Island) and is considered to have brought poetry to the Pacific Northwest.

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deserves to be the definitive biography-- detailed, appreciative, knowledgeable.

[Jack Pryor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I prefer The Sentimental Education