Overview

An intimate portrait of the twentieth-century American poet May Swenson (19131989) was one of the most important and original poets of the twentieth century. The Key to Everything is a biography of this experimental American modernist that draws directly from her unpublished diaries and her letters to friends, family, and colleagues, most notably Elizabeth Bishop. In 1952, Swenson wrote in her diary, ""I want to confirm my life in a narrative-my Lesbianism, the hereditary background of my parents, grandparents, origins in the 'old country.'"" Taking up Swenson's uncompleted autobiographical plan, Margaret Brucia tells Swenson's story as much as possible through her own words. While chronicling the whole of Swenson's life, this book focuses on the period from 1936 to 1959, when she came of age artistically and personally in New York City. Against the backdrop of the Great Depression, the Federal Writers' Project, Greenwich Village, and the emergence of gay culture, Swenson's diaries lay bare her aspirations, fears, joys, and disappointments. Readers see the poet and person emerge, inextricably entwined, as Swenson describes her struggles with poverty, anonymity, and predatory men; her romantic relationships; and the people she met, the books she read, and the work she produced. The most detailed and intimate biography of Swenson to date, The Key to Everything is a unique portrait of a poet who resisted labels throughout her life.

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9780691247236

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""Quoting extensively from Swenson’s writings, Brucia allows the poet’s voice to clearly emerge. . . . A perceptive, sympathetic biography."" * Kirkus Reviews *

""Quoting extensively from Swenson’s writings, Brucia allows the poet’s voice to clearly emerge. . . . A perceptive, sympathetic biography."" * Kirkus Reviews * ""A laudable work that relies on Swenson’s extensive diaries and letters to give the book a personal, intimate feel. It represents the first true biography of a woman who—through her experimentation with form (particularly the use of ‘shape’ poems), her propensity to write cerebral, often whimsical verse, and her willingness to explore, especially in her latter work, her lesbian sexuality—fashioned her own unique contribution to modern poetry.""---Paul Alexander, Washington Post

Author Information

Margaret A. Brucia is a Fulbright scholar, the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome. Trained as a classicist, she has a special interest in women's diaries and letters. Paul Crumbley is professor emeritus of English at Utah State University and coeditor of Body My House: May Swenson's Work and Life. David Hoak is an independent scholar whose work focuses on letters between poets, including May Swenson and Elizabeth Bishop.

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