Journey Around My Room: The Autobiography of Louise Bogan

by Ruth Limmer

Journal and notebook entries, memoirs, stories, poems, and excerpts from letters form a mosaic illuminating the life and art of the lyric poet and literary critic

Genres: Memoir, Poetry, Nonfiction, Biography

197 pages, Paperback

First published November 17, 1980

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this. It is a collection of odds and ends by this woman who was incredibly influential in poetry - particularly in poetry in education - in this country. This is not the story of that. it is the story of her particular life in flashes and images and things that she wrote that have been collected in the appropriately subtitled "mosaic."

[Hank Stuever · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Those about me, from childhood on, had sought love. I heard and saw them. I saw them rise and fall on that wave. I closely overheard and sharply overlooked their joy and grief. I worked from memory and example." -- Louise Bogan

Strange and beautiful recollected memories and biography.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of observations is written beautifully. It’s poetry in prose and rhythm. Her descriptions are succinct and as thorough as a photograph.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bogan is a poet I’ve never attended to, so I thought this might be a new discovery for me. It’s well written, but after reading about a third, I quit. It’s simply not my cup of tea—internal description of psychological state, detailed description of externals, etc.

[Dovofthegalilee]

Any reservations that I had before this book to say that women poets are all crazy has been thoroughly lifted! Louise Bogan a winner of the Bollingen award but like so many other poetesses - Dickinson, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath she just wasn't stable. I'm not sure why this is such a notable trait in women who succeed in poetry but I think I'll go back to Robert Service and Frost!