Robert Creeley: A Biography

by Ekbert Faas and Maria Trombacco

The first fifty years in the life of a great American poet. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1584651709
• ISBN13: 9781584651703
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: University Press of New England
• Length: 513 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Robert Creeley, the first forty years

As a longtime reader of Robert Creeley's work, I was lookingforward to this biography. I should have figured that Creeleywould not authorize a "traditional" biographer, and Ekbert Faas'sjuxtaposition of different perspectives and inclusion of a hugechunk of (Creeley's first wife) Ann MacKinnon's autobiography/diary as a 100 page coda make the book somewhat non-traditional(although the "life-writing" technique, where the "voice" ofCreeley is present in the narrative, should be familiar toany reader of Nick Tosches' fine biography of Dean Martin).Creeley's pre-1970 poems would sometimes take a seemingly autobiographical moment and view it in intense detail, or takea slice of the persona's stream-of-consciousness and break itdown into extreme close-up (not just to the level of the word,but to the level of the syllable). This biography now providesthe "background" for those works. Many intimate details are given, but fortunately we are spared TOO MUCH intimate detailand Mr. Creeley is able to keep some things private!The book also does a fine job of showing Creeley's complexrelationships with literary figures and the literary communityover the years--RC has always devoted a lot of time to championing thework of his fellow writers (and thus turned me onto many writers who have become important components in my life--thank you, Mr. Creeley!).My only complaint about this book is that right near the end (before the MacKinnon narrative), biographer Faas pretty muchtrashes the 80s/90s career of Creeley. It's as if Creeley'swork (and, as written by Faas, his life too!) has become blandand commercial because RC is no longer as combative and angryand frayed-at-the-edges. This reminds me of the people whoaccuse punk-rockers of "selling out" when they stop cutting themselves with razorblades and smashing their heads againstconcrete walls when they get past age 40. What's wrong withMr. Creeley enjoying life more, settling down, finding theeternal verities in the commonplace, and being a happy person?I admire the man's ability to evolve, and his work still useslanguage in fresh and unexpected ways while leading me to seelife and relationships in similarly fresh and unexpected ways.Faas's inability to see the "whole picture" of Creeley's lifeleads me to question how much he really understood Creeley atANY period in his life.Still, this is a necessary work for any Creeley reader or anyonewho cares about post-WWII American poetry.I also commend Creeley for allowing his biographer such freedom (I'm reminded of Bob Dylan's film DON'T LOOK BACKin that way), although I came away from the book with even morerespect for the man. Poetry is an important part of many people'slives thanks to Robert Creeley (both through his own pioneeringwork and his tireless championing of and providing an entryway into others' works), and this book does give the reader a senseof the man behind the work.