Poets, Poetics, and Politics America's Literary Community Viewed from the Letters of Rolfe Humphries, 1910–1969 Edited by Richard Gillman and Michael Paul Novak With a Biographical Essay by Ruth Limmer 320 pages, 20 photographs, 6 x 9 Paper ISBN 978-0-7006-0589-7, $14.95 Rolfe Humphries (1894–1969), in addition to being an outstanding poet, left an impressive trail as a translator, teacher, critic, and editor. But, as Richard Gillman maintains in his introduction, poetry was the driving force behind these other special skills and interests. Humphries was, Gillman writes, an example of "the total poet. . . . If ever there were poets who did in fact breathe their art, he was one of them." These letters for the first time illumine Humphries and his achievements. We see him as the mentor to younger poets, including Theodore Roethke, providing rare glimpses of poetics and the creative process; the teacher so charmed by horseracing he sometimes "put an exam on the blackboard . . . and then bugged out for the track"; the "literary terrorist" whose criticism Robert Frost never forgot and probably never forgave him for; the translator whose Aeneid prompted W.H. Auden to call it "a service for which no public reward could be too great"; the author of an introduction to Ezra Pound's poems who defied Pound's demand that a reference to his anti-Semitism be deleted. And so on and on, in all of Humphries' surprising variety and unfailing candor. Active in America's literary community, Humphries was a friend of many poets and writers, including Louise Bogan, Edmund Wilson, and Roethke. This volume takes on added meaning by completing the published account of the relationships of these four as already told by Roethke, Bogan, and, to a lesser extent, Wilson. Poets, Poetics, and Politics is set in a period that opened just two years before the birth of Harriet Monroe's Poetry; when it closed, most of the twentieth century's literary giants had died. Also in this time, many writers, Humphries included, dreamed the dreams of communism; his letters on this subject are both informative and absorbing. "Rolfe Humphries was an American original who deserves to be better known. He was a vital presence in the life of American poetry from the early 1920s until his death, and an active player in the literary and political battles of the 30s. . . . [These letters reveal] a man whose warmth, kindness, robust irreverence, deep love of his art, and courage in living give us the impression of a human wholeness so often lacking in his better-known peers."--New York Times Book Review "Captivating. . . . Humphries' letters open a window onto the literary world of Theodore Roethke, Louise Bogan, Edmund Wilson, and other important American writers."--Jay Parini, author of The Last Station and Theodore Roethke: An American Romantic "Candid, argumentative. These high-energy letters illuminate Humphries' influence on Roethke."--Publishers Weekly "A wonderfully appropriate memorial. . . . The letters abound in peppery opinions and fair-minded yet uncompromising critical appraisals of fellow poets and writers, and reflect Humphries' humorous outlook on life and the catholicity of his interests--Catullus, Ovid, baseball, the racetrack."--The New Yorker "The letters are often pungent and flavorful."--George H. Douglas, author of six books and editor of seven, including Edmund Wilson's America RICHARD GILLMAN is the author of Too Much Alone and Lunch at Carcassonne. MICHAEL PAUL NOVAK is the author of The Leavenworth Poems, Sailing by the Whirlpool, and A Story to Tell.   Home | About the Press | Recent Awards | Contact Us | Order New Books: | By Author | By Subject | By Title | By Series Books in Print: | By Author | By Subject | By Title | By Series ©2007 University Press of Kansas 2502 Westbrooke Circle, Lawrence, KS 66045-4444 Phone (785) 864-4155; Fax (785) 864-4586