“haughtiness and chilliness”: Robert Lowell, “91 Revere Street,” Collected Prose, 330.
“There was iron in the air”: Robert Lowell, “Washington, D.C. 1924,” Houghton Library, Robert Lowell Papers, Houghton Library, Ms Am 1905, 2221.
“What Bobby needs”: Ibid.
“taking brisk walks”: Robert Lowell, “Antebellum,” Collected Prose, 300.
“The patient states”: Robert Lowell’s medical record, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, 1957.
“He was an unwanted child”: Psychological evaluation of Robert Lowell, Judge Baker Clinic, Boston, January 21, 1937, HRC.
“ ‘You know’ ”: Robert Lowell, “Unwanted,” Collected Poems, 832.
“Mother, / I must not blame”: Ibid., 833.
“all his life consciously rebelled”: Robert Lowell’s medical records, Payne Whitney Clinic, 1949.
He had refused to learn: Ibid.
“was not to be mastered”: Ibid., 1954.
Mania, he told his doctor: Ibid.
“Charlotte was a Snow Queen”: John Thompson, “Robert Lowell, 1917–1977,” New York Review of Books, October 27, 1977, 14.
“a monstrous woman”: Blair Clark, interview with Ian Hamilton, 1979, Ian Hamilton Papers, British Library.
“Mrs. Hideous”: Jean Stafford, letter to Caroline and Allen Tate, n.d., 1943, Princeton.
“all the joy goes out of”: Elizabeth Hardwick to Robie and Anne Macauley, n.d. February 1953, HRC.
“In general Mrs. L.”: Letter from Elizabeth Hardwick to Ian Hamilton about his biography of Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Hardwick Papers, HRC.
“The thing about the Lowells”: Elizabeth Hardwick’s notes on C. David Heymann’s book American Aristocracy: The Lives and Times of James Russell, Amy, and Robert Lowell (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1980), Elizabeth Hardwick Papers, HRC.
“Mother had lately been having”: Robert Lowell, “Washington, D.C. 1924,” Autobiographical Prose, Houghton Library, 2221.
In 1957 he told his doctor: Robert Lowell’s medical records, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, 1957.
“She went into a hypnotic trance”: Letter from Merrill Moore, M.D., to Donald Macpherson, M.D., March 23, 1937, Merrill Moore, M.D., files, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
“I think that she can become”: Letter from Merrill Moore, M.D., to Arlie Bock, M.D., April 1, 1937, Merrill Moore, M.D., files, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
Lowell’s father was sufficiently concerned: Notes from Robert Lowell, Sr., to Merrill Moore, M.D., March 25, 1937, Merrill Moore, M.D., files, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
“she came to”: Letter from Merrill Moore, M.D., to Donald Macpherson, M.D., March 23, 1937, Merrill Moore, M.D., files, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
“slightly manic”: Psychotherapy record of Charlotte Lowell, March 8, 1937, medical records of Merrill Moore, M.D., Robert Lowell Papers, HRC, box 19.1.
“How does your patient”: Shakespeare, Macbeth, act 5, scene 3, Folger edition.
“Has Byrnam Woods”: Charlotte Lowell, undated manuscript given to Merrill Moore, M.D., Merrill Moore, M.D., files, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
habits of the French emperor: Robert Lowell, “1916,” Autobiographical Prose, Houghton Library, 2209.
“learned how to lead her father”: Robert Lowell, “Antebellum Boston,” Collected Prose, 297.
“a mania about Napoleon”: William Healy, M.D., report on Robert Lowell, Judge Baker Guidance Center, January 21, 1937 (summary of Dr. Healy’s earlier observations, made in December 1932), Merrill Moore, M.D., files, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
“And I, bristling”: Robert Lowell, “Commander Lowell: (1887–1950),” Collected Poems, 172.
“for uprooting races”: Robert Lowell, “Napoleon,” Collected Poems, 474.
“Cal came down and sat”: Correspondence from Jonathan Raban to author, October 21, 2016.
“was half orphaned”: Robert Lowell, “Robert T. S. Lowell,” Collected Poems, 791.
“His ivory slide rule”: Robert Lowell, “Near the Unbalanced Aquarium,” Collected Prose, 356.
“life had opened out”: Robert Lowell, Autobiographical Prose, “The Balanced Aquarium,” draft 6, Houghton Library, 2226.
“buccaneer imagination”: Ibid.
“were afraid of his heart condition”: Ibid.
“Why doesn’t he fight back?”: Robert Lowell’s medical records, Payne Whitney Clinic, 1949.
“In his forties”: Robert Lowell, “91 Revere Street,” Collected Prose, 316.
“Mrs. Lowell,”: Elizabeth Hardwick, interview with Ian Hamilton, November 21, 1979, Ian Hamilton Papers, British Library.
“a bit frightened”: Ibid.
“constantly belittled”: Robert Lowell medical records, Payne Whitney Clinic, 1949.
“affectionate, but distant”: Ibid., 1954.
“gentle and considerate”: Ibid.
“quiet and humorous”: Robert Lowell medical records, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, 1957.
“I was like Father”: Robert Lowell medical records, Payne Whitney Clinic, 1954.
“We were all born”: Robert Lowell, “Rock,” Autobiographical Prose, Houghton Library, 2220.
“inattentive languor”: Robert Lowell, “The Balanced Aquarium,” “At Payne Whitney,” Autobiographical Prose, Houghton Library, 2226–28.
“suffering or heroic man”: Letter from Robert Lowell to Elizabeth Bishop, September 18, 1950, Letters, 159.
“I think you would like”: Letter from Robert Lowell, Sr., to Robert Lowell, October 16, 1949, Houghton Library.
“I liked the way”: Letter from Robert Lowell, Sr., to Robert Lowell, December 26, 1949, Houghton Library.
“Talking with Daddy”: Robert Lowell, “Washington, D.C. 1924,” Autobiographical Prose, Houghton Library, 2221.
“Somehow it’s hard”: Letter from Robert Lowell to Elizabeth Bishop, June 27, 1961, Letters, 383.
“At forty-five”: Robert Lowell, “Middle Age,” Collected Poems, 325.
“I think, though I didn’t”: Robert Lowell, “To Daddy,” Collected Poems, 513.
“There were no tickets for”: Robert Lowell, “Beyond the Alps,” Collected Poems, 114.
“I picked with a clean finger nail”: Robert Lowell, “My Last Afternoon with Uncle Devereux Winslow,” Collected Poems, 165–66.
“doing very poor work”: William Healy, M.D., report on Robert Lowell, Judge Baker Guidance Center, January 21, 1937 (summary of Dr. Healy’s earlier observations, made in December 1932), Merrill Moore, M.D., files, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
repetitively rocked himself back and forth: Charlotte Winslow Lowell’s descriptions of Lowell’s behavior as a young child are contained in several letters and reports to Merrill Moore, M.D., November 24 and 26, 1936, Merrill Moore, M.D., files, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
“On the top floor”: Robert Lowell, “Antebellum Boston,” Collected Prose, 300.
creativity and intelligence often diverge: For a review of the relationship between intelligence and creativity, see E. Jauk, M. Benedek, B. Dunst, and A. C. Neubauer, “The Relationship Between Intelligence and Creativity: New Support for the Threshold Hypothesis by Means of Empirical Breakdown Detection,” Intelligence 41 (July 2013): 212–21.
The gap between: For a review of the clinical and scientific literature, see F. K. Goodwin and K. R. Jamison, Manic-Depressive Illness.
“reticent, unwilling to face”: Judge Baker Guidance Center report, December 1932, HRC.
“We are having trouble”: Medical files of Merrill Moore, M.D., November 24, 1936, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
“We tried to explain”: Ibid.
“I always thought that Bobby”: Ibid., 1936.
“He returned home”: Ibid.
“terrible temper tantrums”: Ibid.
“Mentally or verbally”: Robert Lowell, “Antebellum Boston,” Collected Prose, 304.
“early stage of a psychosis”: Medical files of Merrill Moore, M.D., Novem
ber 26, 1936, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
“something of a genius”: Letter from Merrill Moore, M.D., to the Guggenheim Foundation recommending Lowell for a fellowship, February 13, 1937, HRC. On January 13, 1938, Moore wrote to Charlotte Lowell, “More and more I am convinced that he is a man of genius and that we will just have to adjust to him as he is.” On December 28, 1938, Moore wrote to Charlotte Lowell, “He has no smile in him. He is sincere, honest, simple, easily influenced. He has poor judgment and doesn’t think clearly but with all these things he has in him a spark of genius which must be sheltered from cold blasts….Your charge from now on becomes very clear. It is to protect and nourish a genius….A perfectly normally extroverted male.” Medical files of Merrill Moore, M.D., Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
“He glowered apelike”: Medical files of Merrill Moore, M.D., December 26, 1936, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
“I have been churning”: Letter from Robert Lowell to Robert T. S. Lowell, March 4, 1937, Letters, 13–14.
“There was rebellion”: Robert Lowell, “Rebellion,” Collected Poems, 32.
“myself brooding”: Robert Lowell, “Charles River,” Notebook 1967–68 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969), 37.
“I struck my father”: Ibid.
“Father, forgive me”: Robert Lowell, “Middle Age,” Collected Poems, 325.
“gentle, faithful, and dim man”: Robert Lowell, “Near the Unbalanced Aquarium,” Collected Prose, 363.
“I hope there will be peace”: Ibid.
“Tell me what I saw”: Robert Lowell, “Caligula,” Collected Poems, 360.
“I have come to realize”: Letter from Robert Lowell to Richard Eberhart, July 10, 1935, Dartmouth College Library.
“that he always forgives”: Letter from Robert Lowell to Richard Eberhart, August 1935, Dartmouth College Library.
“Sometimes, when we are”: Robert Lowell, “Grass stroke,” ca. 1936, Miscellaneous Prose, Houghton Library, 2790.
“When I woke up and lay”: Ibid.
“a sense of grandeur”: Letter from James B. Munn to Robert Lowell, Sr., ca. 1935, Merrill Moore, M.D., files, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
“The honor of earning”: Letter from Robert Lowell to Charlotte Lowell and Robert T. S. Lowell, August 9, 1936, Letters, 10.
“My vocation is writing”: Robert Lowell to Charlotte Lowell, July 5, 1937, Houghton Library.
“I have no doubt”: Letter from Robert Lowell to Richard Eberhart, n.d. summer 1937, Letters, 18.
Boston newspapers: Boston Evening Traveller, December 21, 1938.
“We are dealing with a boy who has”: Letter from Merrill Moore, M.D., to Charlotte Lowell, February 17, 1938, Merrill Moore, M.D., files, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
“The longer I know Cal”: Ibid.
“It is my opinion”: Letter from Merrill Moore, M.D., to John Crowe Ransom, April 21, 1937, files, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
“tight, compact, difficult”: Letter from Merrill Moore, M.D., to Charlotte Winslow Lowell, January 13, 1938, Merrill Moore, M.D., files, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
“It looks as if our future job”: Letter from Merrill Moore to Charlotte Lowell, January 24, 1938, Merrill Moore, M.D., files, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
“I can well understand”: Letter from Charlotte Lowell to Robert Lowell, October 22, 1949, Houghton Library. Lowell was at the time hospitalized at the Payne Whitney Clinic.
“Nothing could have given”: Letter from Charlotte Winslow Lowell to Robert Lowell, March 25, 1951, Houghton Library.
“Time is so final”: Letter from Charlotte Winslow Lowell to Robert Lowell, March 1, 1951, Houghton Library.
“Most of our lives were weighed”: Letter from Robert Lowell to Ezra Pound, March 20, 1954, Letters, 222.
“It has taken me”: Robert Lowell, “To Mother,” Collected Poems, 790.
“Stand and live”: Robert Lowell, “Where the Rainbow Ends,” Collected Poems, 69.
“She kept trying”: Robert Lowell, “Near the Unbalanced Aquarium,” Collected Prose, 349.
“black and gold baroque casket”: Ibid., 350.
“was breaking into fiery flower”: Ibid.
“Mother, permanently sealed”: Ibid.
“shone in her bridal tinfoil”: Ibid.
“While the passengers”: Robert Lowell, “Sailing Home from Rapallo (February 1954),” Collected Poems, 179–80.
“The wheel is broken”: Robert Lowell, “New England,” Poems 1935, Houghton Library, 2042. It is written in Ecclesiastes 12:6–7, “Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the foundation, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”
5. A BRACKISH REACH
“the bough”: Robert Lowell, “After the Surprising Conversions,” Collected Poems, 62.
“plains of treeless farmland”: Robert Lowell, “Visiting the Tates,” Collected Prose, 58.
“I was Northern”: Ibid., 59.
“Like a torn cat”: Ibid., 60.
“Lowell is more than a student”: Cited in Ian Hamilton, Robert Lowell, 72. Hamilton gives his source as Hamilton’s interview with Peter Taylor, 1980.
“I often doubt”: Robert Lowell to John Crowe Ransom, December 8, 1961, Chalmers Memorial Library, Kenyon College.
“How sad and serious”: Peter Taylor, “1939,” The Collected Stories of Peter Taylor (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969), 336–37.
“Monday I graduated”: Letter from Robert Lowell to Charlotte and Robert Lowell, Sr., n.d. June 1940, Letters, 29.
“he kept saying”: Letter from Jean Stafford to William Mock, November 27, 1938, Dartmouth College Library.
“I had the tongue of an adder”: Jean Stafford, “An Influx of Poets,” The New Yorker, November 6, 1978.
“an uncouth, neurotic”: Letter from Jean Stafford to William Mock, November 27, 1938, Dartmouth College Library.
“Jean is mysterious”: Letter from Robert Lowell to Peter Taylor, December 4, 1946, Letters, 59.
“thrown almost into a psychosis”: January 1, 1939, Merrill Moore, M.D., files, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
“hypomanic happiness”: Ibid.
“ ‘Then I was wide’ ”: Robert Lowell, “The Mills of the Kavanaughs,” Collected Poems, 83.
“the blue of morning”: Robert Lowell, “The Mills of the Kavanaughs,” Kenyon Review 12 (1951); 1–39.
“vast, valuable museum”: Elizabeth Hardwick, interview with Darryl Pinckney, “The Art of Fiction No. 87,” Paris Review 96 (Summer 1985).
“I was born a non-believing Protestant”: Robert Lowell, “A Conversation with Ian Hamilton,” Collected Prose, 277.
“Though his immediate ancestors”: “Robert Lowell: 1917–1977,” no author, n.d., 5-page typed manuscript, HRC.
“I remember well”: Letter from Robert Lowell to Bishop Maurice Schexnayder, February 13, 1977, Letters, 664.
“When I first married”: Robert Lowell to Vernon Williams, M.D., n.d. 1950s, Robert Lowell Papers, HRC.
“It’s what he’s been destined for”: Letter from Peter Taylor to Robie Macaulay, March 1941, Vanderbilt.
“veritable messiah”: Letter from Jean Stafford to James Hightower, September 9, 1941, University of Colorado.
“I think becoming a Catholic”: Robert Lowell, “An Interview with Frederick Seidel,” Collected Prose, 258.
“In a day when poets aspire”: Randall Jarrell, “Poetry in War and Peace,” Partisan Review 12 (Winter 1945): 125.
“Members of my family”: Robert Lowell, public letter to President Roosevelt, September 7, 1943, Collected Prose, 367–70.
“These are the tranquillized Fifties”: Robert Lowell, “Memories of West Street and Lepke,” Collected Poems, 187.
“No one,” he wrote: Letter from Robert Lowell to Peter Taylor, October 11, 1943, Letters, 42.
“so fanatical”: Letter from Jean Stafford to Pe
ter Taylor, February 11, 1944, Vanderbilt.
“He had a terrifying seizure”: Letter from Jean Stafford to Peter Taylor, July 12, 1944, Vanderbilt.
that were “written”: Quoted in Robert Fitzgerald, “The Things of the Eye,” eulogy for Robert Lowell, Harvard University, March 2, 1978, Poetry 132 (1978): 107.
“The bones cry for the blood”: Robert Lowell, “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket,” Collected Poems, 17.
“the percussion and brass section”: Seamus Heaney, The Government of the Tongue (London: Faber & Faber, 1988), 94.
“I got drunker”: Letter from Robert Lowell to Babette Deutsch, February 24, 1955, Letters, 245.
“Their boats were tossed”: Robert Lowell, “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket,” Collected Poems, 15.
“sea wings, beating landward”: Ibid.
“upward angel”: Ibid., 18.
“My desire”: Henry David Thoreau, Journal 2: 1842–1848, ed. Robert Sattelmeyer (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 150–51.
“I saw many marble feet”: Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod (1865; New York: Penguin, 1987), 7.
“A brackish reach”: Robert Lowell, “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket,” Collected Poems, 14.
“If I had found one body”: Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, 13.
“I do set my bow”: Genesis 9:13.
“The waters shall no more become”: Genesis 9:15.
“You could cut the brackish winds”: Robert Lowell, “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket,” Collected Poems, 18.
III. ILLNESS: THE KINGDOM OF THE MAD
“At last the trees”: Robert Lowell, “Man and Wife,” Collected Poems, 189.
6. IN FLIGHT, WITHOUT A LEDGE
“Getting out of the flats”: Letter from Robert Lowell to Theodore Roethke, June 6, 1958, University of Washington Libraries.
“used up”: Jean Stafford, quoted in Ian Hamilton, Robert Lowell, 121.
“merely used the Church”: Letter from Allen Tate to Peter Taylor, April 10, 1949, Vanderbilt.
“When I came on”: Letter from Robert Lowell to George Santayana, February 1, 1951, Letters, 167.
“I recognize that your center”: Letter from George Santayana to Robert Lowell, March 1, 1951, Houghton Library.
“more distinguished activity”: John Cheever, quoted in Ben Alexander, “The Yaddo Records: How an Institutional Archive Reveals Creative Insights,” English Studies in America 30 (March 2004).
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