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Nothing Stays Put: The Life and Poetry of Amy Clampitt
An evocative portrait of the beloved and acclaimed poet, whose late-in-life success took the literary world by storm.
“Clampitt comes to life here...Spiegelman’s Nothing Stays Put embodies a different kind of investigation, not surveillance but a thoughtful examination that at times still spins off into a kind of awe.” — The Washington Post
With the publication of her first book of poems in her sixty-third year, Amy Clampitt rose meteorically to fame, launching herself from obscurity to the upper ranks of American poetry all but overnight, and living a whirlwind eleven years, until her death in 1994. Years later, as renowned poetry scholar Willard Spiegelman wades into her papers and poems, he discovers a woman of dazzling intellect, staunch progressive politics, and an inexhaustible sense of wonder for the world and the words we’ve invented to describe it.
Giving equal weight to the life and the poetry, Spiegelman untangles Clampitt’s famously allusive lines to reveal the experiences they emerged from, pulling the curtain back on her nearly four decades of artistic anonymity, and in doing so assembling a rich period piece of Manhattan during the days in which Clampitt worked for Oxford University Press and the National Audubon Society—writing cheery, discursive office memos, and two novels that never got published, before hitting her stride in verse.
Nothing Stays Put is a gift to poetry fans, an inspiration to artists striving at any age, and an ode to this most unlikely of literary celebrities, who would publish five acclaimed books and win a MacArthur “Genius Grant” nearly all in the final decade of her life.
“Clampitt comes to life here...Spiegelman’s Nothing Stays Put embodies a different kind of investigation, not surveillance but a thoughtful examination that at times still spins off into a kind of awe.” — The Washington Post
With the publication of her first book of poems in her sixty-third year, Amy Clampitt rose meteorically to fame, launching herself from obscurity to the upper ranks of American poetry all but overnight, and living a whirlwind eleven years, until her death in 1994. Years later, as renowned poetry scholar Willard Spiegelman wades into her papers and poems, he discovers a woman of dazzling intellect, staunch progressive politics, and an inexhaustible sense of wonder for the world and the words we’ve invented to describe it.
Giving equal weight to the life and the poetry, Spiegelman untangles Clampitt’s famously allusive lines to reveal the experiences they emerged from, pulling the curtain back on her nearly four decades of artistic anonymity, and in doing so assembling a rich period piece of Manhattan during the days in which Clampitt worked for Oxford University Press and the National Audubon Society—writing cheery, discursive office memos, and two novels that never got published, before hitting her stride in verse.
Nothing Stays Put is a gift to poetry fans, an inspiration to artists striving at any age, and an ode to this most unlikely of literary celebrities, who would publish five acclaimed books and win a MacArthur “Genius Grant” nearly all in the final decade of her life.
432 pages, Hardcover
Published February 28, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 26, 2023
I've loved Amy Clampitt's poetry for a long time, but because she isn't a 'fashionable' poet and possibly because she was American, there wasn't much available by way of finding out about the woman herself. Spiegelman addresses this in what is a comprehensive biography in which no stone is left unturned to attempt to present her life and works.
Some of this I found a bit much but it really hits stride when Amy herself does, and the writing about her later years and her poetry and process are fascinating, lively and utterly absorbing.
Some of this I found a bit much but it really hits stride when Amy herself does, and the writing about her later years and her poetry and process are fascinating, lively and utterly absorbing.
June 4, 2023
Going into this book, I knew very little about Clampitt's work or history. I wanted to love it because I greatly admire Spiegelman's own work. However, Spiegelman often gets in his own way with his metacommentary on the difficulties of writing a biography. It's interesting, and it's fine for him to have an opinion but it often interrupted Clampitt's story, keeping her at a distance, more like a lecture than a book. Or it might be some of the laundry list of details he would spend time on in order to integrate a specific quote by Clampitt--which sometimes didn't seem like they added much, if any, value or understanding of her. It might be that this is his first biography, though. It might be, too, that my expectations were set by Heather Clark's biography on Sylvia Plath, Red Comet, for which I felt immersed in Plath, her life and poems. There were moments, though, especially when Spiegelman discusses when Clampitt was actively writing as well as her thoughts about poetry and publishing, where I could feel her and inhabit her world, albeit all too briefly. In the end, it's still a worthwhile read, filled with a history of Clampitt told lovingly by its author--so much so, that it does make me now want to pick up and read her collections.
May 14, 2023
This is an elegant and discursive biography of a poet who deserves to be better known. Spiegelman has carefully and thoroughly researched her journals, letters and interviews and also draws on anecdotes from those who knew her to paint a detailed and loving picture of his subject. In the process he also brings into focus the bohemian life of the New York artistic scene she inhabited. Not to mention that his prose is a joy to read.
As I read this book I was constantly drawn to Clampitt’s poetry, which I was unfamiliar with prior to reading this book. Her style is quite brilliant, and is likely to be a bit off-putting for some readers. But in the case of writers of genius it is often the case that their defects are their virtues. Clampitt’s very long sentences, abstruse vocabulary and recondite allusions make it difficult to take in her work after just one or two readings. However, Spiegelman is an erudite guide and his discerning investigations were a great assistance.
I heartily recommend this book to any readers who want to learn more about contemporary American poetry.
As I read this book I was constantly drawn to Clampitt’s poetry, which I was unfamiliar with prior to reading this book. Her style is quite brilliant, and is likely to be a bit off-putting for some readers. But in the case of writers of genius it is often the case that their defects are their virtues. Clampitt’s very long sentences, abstruse vocabulary and recondite allusions make it difficult to take in her work after just one or two readings. However, Spiegelman is an erudite guide and his discerning investigations were a great assistance.
I heartily recommend this book to any readers who want to learn more about contemporary American poetry.
September 6, 2024
Interesting biography of an intriguing poet, but redundant in many parts—tighter editing needed.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews