Letters of Wallace Stevens

Rating:
Summary: These are not the letters of Keats
Review: If there is one poet who I think Stevens is most comparable to it is Keats. It has to do with their great musical quality, the richness of vocabulary and language, polyphonic beauty in their long lines. Keats' letters are among the greatest in the language and help define not only his own poetic practice, but make a real contribution to literary theory in general. Stevens' letters do illuminate various aspects of his art but they seem to me to be on a wholly different level entirely from the poetry. The banker- businessman- husband is a much more pedestrian soul than the poet. The Letters are of great value to any student or scholar of Stevens, but they are not on the literary level of his great poetry.
He was however or so I have the impression of from these letters a devoted father to his daughter. This at least gives a sense that the value of his life was not only in the great poetry he created.

Rating:
Summary: fascinating letters and a indispensible reference
Review: Not only are these letters to Harriet Monroe, William Carlos Williams, Allen Tate, Donald Hall, Robert Frost (and many others) fascinating and entertaining, but the comprehensive index makes it possible to find Stevens' own comments about and explanations of individual poems--for instance, his favorite poem was "The Emperor of Ice Cream"--and details about the circumstances in which they were composed. Not only does Stevens outline his evolving theory of poetry, he also expresses his opinions about contemporary art, music and more.

Readers that enjoy literary correspondence should also see One Art (the letters of Elizabeth Bishop).