Re: Rare Hamilton *First* JDS Bio

citycabn (citycabn@gateway.net)
Thu, 28 Oct 1999 16:06:48 -0700 

Matt writes:

>
>Bruce:
>
>> Care to say any more re A Writer's Life?
>
>I wish I could remember more.  I think Will and I discussed it some
>length a long time ago, before the list moved to NYU under Tim.

 will, now that the Yankees have done it, get back to this list and sing.

  It was a real metamoment, though, standing
>there waiting for Hamilton's book on JDS just as Hamilton had stood
>there waiting for JDS's letters so he could write his book on JDS
>which, like the letters, ended up as part of the HRC JDS collection.
>In fact, that was the moment I discovered poststructuralism.

Seems like fun!

>
>I seem to recall that Hamilton was less resentful, and yet JDS still
>came off as a bigger jerk.  The paraphrasing was careful and fair.


I am very glad you say this.  Have *always* felt Hamilton has received an
unfair whipping.  Have never read his poems, but believe he is respected in
UK.  His Robert Lowell bio which I *have* read is fine and deals with
Lowell's mental illness and other problems (which were numerous)
respectfully.  I think Hamilton's original intention was honorable and I
still wish someone would pull it off.  The "In the Search of..." just sinks
with that awful companion along on the quest for...  though there is some
sharp writing in it (and of course he does marshal the available JDS facts).
But Christ, I wish JDS had just let AWL go ahead with publication.  And with
Peggy's in the offing, I guess his lawyers are working overtime behind the
scenes.  Or is it going to be a puff piece and not a Daddy Dearest????

>Texas boasts some fancy faculty alumni, including the
>recently-mentioned Borges.  But yes, Rao was before my time; I
>enrolled at Texas as an undergrad in 1990, _F&Z_ in one hand and _The
>Queen is Dead_ in the other...

I didn't know about Borges.  I still recommend to you Raja Rao's excellent
novel The Serpent and The Rope which deals with, in part, the East/West
dilemma and throws in a huge dollop of fine writing plus love story plus
philosophy plus history plus mysticism plus, oh, just pick it up and
complain about it in a later post <grin>.  So no grad work at Texas, all at
Georgia?  I enrolled at California State University at Fullerton in 1968 as
a  17-year-old Quantitative Methods major scared shitless by the looming
idea of going to Viet Nam.  The Queen is Dead????

regards,
Bruce