Dear Editor: A History of Poetry in Letters

by Billy Collins (Foreword), Joseph Parisi (Editor), Stephen Young (Editor)

Poignant, hilarious, and brutally frank, Dear Editor reveals the personalities and untold stories behind the creation of modern poetry. "The history of poetry and Poetry in America are almost interchangeable, certainly inseparable," A. R. Ammons wrote. Dear Editor , in gathering over 600 surprisingly candid letters to and from the editors of Poetry , traces the development of poetry in America: Ezra Pound's opinion of T. S. Eliot ("It is such a comfort to meet a man and not have to tell him to wash his face, wipe his feet") and of Robert Frost ("dull as ditch water...[but] set to be 'literchure' someday"); Edna St. Vincent Millay's pleas for an advance ("I am become very, very thin, and have taken to smoking Virginia tobacco"); Wallace Stevens on himself ("I have a pretty well-developed mean streak"). Here are the inside stories, the rivalries between aspiring authors, the inspirations behind classics, the practicalities (and politicking) of publishing. In fascinating anecdotes and literary gossip, scores of poets offer insights into the creative process and their reactions to historic events.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

512 pages, Hardcover

First published October 14, 2002

About the author

William James Collins is an American poet who served as the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He was a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York, retiring in 2016. Collins was recognized as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library (1992) and selected as the New York State Poet for 2004 through 2006. In 2016, Collins was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. As of 2020, he is a teacher in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton.

Reviews

[Margaret Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel confident (even this early on) in calling this one of the best books I will read in 2018. The hundreds of pages of letters between the editors and contributing poets of POETRY offer a unique and much more insightful history of the magazine than a perfectly executed piece of prose could have ever done. Most authors of interesting work have interesting lives to go along with it, and this is true of the poets included in Dear Editor. The letters employ a wide range of style and emotion, but are never anything less than riveting. Robert Frost is mild and stately, Edgar Lee Masters and Wallace Stevens are hilariously funny, and Pound is, of course, unfortunately irrepressible. The book also provides much-needed historical context for people like myself, who have scarcely been formally taught about poetry, and would have been hard-pressed to say anything concrete about poetic movements in the 20th century.
Harriet Monroe's indomitable, kind spirit is pervasive throughout. It is probably impossible to detail all that she did in her lifetime for the art-form, but Dear Editor makes a valiant attempt.

[Norma · Rating 3 out of 5]

very interesting. it gave me a much better feel for what was going on in the world of poetry in the early 20th century. what an exciting time it was. reading this made me wish i could write better poetry.

[Della · Rating 5 out of 5]

fascinating

[Bill]

A history of Poetry Magazine. not all of poetry which would have been much longer one imagines. Took this back to library. I want to purchase this to read at leisure.