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  • Published: 15 February 2018
  • ISBN: 9780307744616
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 560
  • RRP: $39.99

Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire

A Study of Genius, Mania, and Character



In his Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry, Robert Lowell put his manic-depressive illness (now known as bipolar disorder) into the public domain, creating a new and arresting language for madness. Here Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison brings her expertise in mood disorders to bear on Lowell's story, illuminating not only the relationships among mania, depression, and creativity but also the details of how Lowell's illness and treatment influenced the great work that he produced (and often became its subject). Lowell's New England roots, early breakdowns, marriages to three eminent writers, friendships with other poets such as Elizabeth Bishop, many hospitalizations, and vivid presence as both a teacher and a maker of poems are all explored, as Jamison gives us the poet's life through a lens that focuses our understanding of his intense discipline, courage, and commitment to his art. Drawing upon a trove of new material and a psychologist's deep insight, Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire delivers a bold, sympathetic account of a poet who was--both despite and because of mental illness--a passionate, original observer of the human condition.

PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • In this magisterial study of the relationship between illness and art, the best-selling author of An Unquiet Mind, Kay Redfield Jamison, brings an entirely fresh understanding to the work and life of Robert Lowell (1917-1977), whose intense, complex, and personal verse left a lasting mark on the English language and changed the public discourse about private matters.

In his poetry, Lowell put his manic-depressive illness (now known as bipolar disorder) into the public domain, and in the process created a new and arresting language for madness. Here Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison brings her expertise in mood disorders to bear on Lowell’s story, illuminating not only the relationships between mania, depression, and creativity but also how Lowell’s illness and treatment influenced his work (and often became its subject). A bold, sympathetic account of a poet who was—both despite and because of mental illness—a passionate, original observer of the human condition.

  • Published: 15 February 2018
  • ISBN: 9780307744616
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 560
  • RRP: $39.99

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Praise for Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire

  • "Intellectually thrilling.... Achieves a magnificence and intensity that sets it apart." --The Washington Post
  • "Groundbreaking." --The New Yorker
  • "Remarkable.... One reads this biography--so full of incident--as one would read a novel." --The New York Review of Books
  • "Impassioned.... A remarkably poignant, in-depth ... look at the making of art." --The Wall Street Journal