Robert Lowell (1917–1977)

Author of Life Studies & For the Union Dead

58+ Works 3,429 Members 24 Reviews 19 Favorited

About the Author

Robert Lowell (1917-1977) was the renowned and controversial author of many books of poetry, including Day by Day (FSG, 1977), For the Union Dead (FSG, 1964), and Life Studies (FSG, 1959). Saskia Hamilton is the author of three books of poetry, including Corridor, She is the editor of The Dolphin show more Letters, 1970-1979: Elizabeth Hardwick, Robert Lowell, and Their Circle and The Letters of Robert Lowell, and coeditor of Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. She teaches at Barnard College. show less

Includes the names: Lowell R., Robert Lowell, [Robert Lowell], Lowell Robert, ed

Works by Robert Lowell

Popular Recent

Life Studies & For the Union Dead (1967) 456 copies

Collected Poems (2003) 438 copies

Selected Poems (1965) 242 copies

Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell (2008) 227 copies

Imitations (1961) 182 copies

Life Studies (1959) 159 copies

Selected Poems: Revised Edition (1977) 133 copies

Lord Weary's Castle [and] The Mills of the Kavanaughs (1961) 126 copies

Day by Day (1977) 118 copies

For the Union Dead (1964) 118 copies

The Collected Prose (1987) 101 copies

The Letters of Robert Lowell (2005) 99 copies

Notebook 1967-68 (1969) 91 copies

Becoming a Poet: Elizabeth Bishop with Marianne Moore and Robert Lowell (1938) 86 copies

The Dolphin (1973) 82 copies

Robert Lowell's Poems: A Selection (1974) 79 copies

Selected Poems: Expanded Edition: Including selections from Day by Day (2007) 76 copies

Near the Ocean (1888) 76 copies

The Old Glory (1965) 67 copies

Notebook (1970) 65 copies

The Dolphin Letters, 1970-1979: Elizabeth Hardwick, Robert Lowell, and Their Circle (2019) 63 copies

Lord Weary's Castle (1946) 44 copies

History (1973) 43 copies

For Lizzie and Harriet (1973) 36 copies

Randall Jarrell, 1914-1965 (1967) — Editor — 35 copies

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1945) — Contributor — 32 copies

New Selected Poems (2017) 27 copies

Memoirs (2022) 27 copies

The Old Glory: Endecott and the Red Cross; My Kinsman, Major Molineux; and Benito Cereno (2000) 20 copies

The Mills of the Kavanaughs (1951) 17 copies

Poems 1938-1949 (1950) 9 copies

The Voice of the Poet: Robert Lowell (2000) 7 copies

The voyage and other versions of poems by Baudelaire (1968) 7 copies

Il delfino e altre poesie (1989) 5 copies

Dolfĳn en zeemeermin (1984) 5 copies

Benito Cereno — Author — 4 copies

Apuntes Autobiograficos (2013) 3 copies

Poezje (1986) 2 copies

Antología (1982) 2 copies

Dear Elizabeth 2 copies

The Public Poetry of Robert Lowell (1970) 1 copy

Poesía completa-2 (Spanish Edition) (2017) 1 copy

Gedichte : engl. u. deutsch (1982) 1 copy

Antony Brade 1 copy

The Dead in Europe (Interpreting Literature - 5th Edition) 1 copy

Poesía Completa-1 (Spanish Edition) (2017) 1 copy

A Story Or Two from an Old Dutch Town. [1878] (2016) 1 copy

Apunts del natural ; Morts per la unió (2019) 1 copy

Salmagundi: Robert Lowell (Special Issue) (1966) 1 copy

Fall 1961 1 copy

Por los Muertos de la Unión y Otros Poemas [821.134 / LOW] 1 copy

"Prayer for the Union Dead" 1 copy

Sick 1 copy

As a Plane Tree by the Water (Interpreting Literature - 5th Edition) 1 copy

Skunk Hour 1 copy

Robert Lowell (Video Tape: Voices & Visions Series, 60 Minutes) (VHS) (1988) 1 copy

Robert Lowell [sound recording] 1 copy

Brief Selected Poems 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

The Oresteia: Agamemnon / The Libation Bearers / The Eumenides (0458) — Translator, some editions — 10,207 copies

Ariel (1965) — Foreword, some editions — 4,123 copies

Phaedra (1677) — Translator, some editions — 1,971 copies

The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms (2000) — Contributor — 1,263 copies

Prometheus Bound (0480) — Translator, some editions — 1,235 copies

The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry (1990) — Contributor — 752 copies

World Poetry: An Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time (1998) — Contributor — 448 copies

A Pocket Book of Modern Verse (1954) — Contributor, some editions — 443 copies

Contemporary American Poetry (1962) — Contributor, some editions — 385 copies

Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness (1993) — Contributor — 334 copies

The Portable Sixties Reader (2002) — Contributor — 327 copies

The Faber Book of Modern Verse (1936) — Contributor, some editions — 286 copies

American Religious Poems: An Anthology (2006) — Contributor — 162 copies

The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now (2008) — Contributor — 153 copies

Poetry Speaks Expanded: Hear Poets Read Their Own Work from Tennyson to Plath (2007) — Contributor — 151 copies

The Faber Book of Beasts (1997) — Contributor — 141 copies

Poets of World War II (2003) — Contributor — 133 copies

Emergency Kit (1996) — Contributor, some editions — 108 copies

War No More: Three Centuries of American Antiwar and Peace Writing (2016) — Contributor — 86 copies

Selected Poems (1965) — Translator, some editions — 81 copies

Gods and Mortals: Modern Poems on Classical Myths (1684) — Contributor — 69 copies

American Sonnets: An Anthology (2007) — Contributor — 66 copies

The Lost World (1965) — Introduction, some editions — 63 copies

Famous American Plays of the 1960s (1972) — Contributor — 63 copies

Lament for the Makers: A Memorial Anthology (1996) — Contributor — 51 copies

Published and Perished: Memoria, Eulogies, and Remembrances of American Writers (2002) — Contributor — 37 copies

Buzz Words: Poems About Insects (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets Series) (2021) — Contributor — 34 copies

Where is Vietnam? American poets respond; an anthology of contemporary poems (1967) — Contributor, some editions — 33 copies

The Killing Spirit : An Anthology of Murder for Hire (1996) — Contributor — 33 copies

60 Years of American Poetry (1996) — Contributor — 28 copies

Pulitzer Prize Reader (1961) — Contributor — 27 copies

William Carlos Williams: A Collection of Critical Essays (1966) — Contributor, some editions — 22 copies

The Company They Kept, Volume Two: Writers on Unforgettable Friendships (2011) — Contributor — 21 copies

Possibilities of Poetry: An Anthology of American Contemporaries (1970) — Contributor — 17 copies

Phaedra and Figaro: Racine's Phèdre (1961) — Translator, some editions; Translator, some editions — 13 copies

Sunlight on the River: Poems About Paintings, Paintings About Poems (2015) — Contributor — 10 copies

Pegasus, the winged horse: A Greek myth (1963) — Introduction, some editions — 8 copies

Buckshee (1966) — Introduction, some editions — 6 copies

New World Writing 20 (1962) — Contributor — 3 copies

Robert Penn Warren's Brother to Dragons: A Discussion (1983) — Contributor — 2 copies

Critical Essays on William Carlos Williams (1995) — Contributor — 2 copies

New world Writing 21 — Contributor — 1 copy

The Best of American Poetry [Audio] (1997) — Contributor — 1 copy

The Paris Review 25 1961 Winter-Spring — Contributor — 1 copy

Conversations on the craft of poetry — Contributor — 1 copy

An Evening of poetry at the Skinners' Hall : for the benefit of the Royal Hospital and Home for Incurables, 15th… — Contributor — 1 copy

Tagged

(222) 20th century (238) Aeschylus (193) American (185) American literature (223) American poetry (171) ancient (121) Ancient Greece (236) Ancient Greek (95) ancient literature (78) anthology (542) antiquity (82) classic (229) classical (94) classical literature (117) classics (827) drama (1,427) fiction (501) French (142) French literature (97) Greece (257) Greek (570) Greek drama (146) Greek literature (279) Greek tragedy (164) history (108) literature (634) non-fiction (165) own (86) play (286) plays (549) poems (80) poetry (4,002) read (190) Sylvia Plath (111) theatre (376) to-read (652) tragedy (395) translation (189) unread (77)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name: Lowell, Robert
Legal name: Lowell, Robert Traill Spence, IV
Other names: Lowell, Cal
Birthdate: 1917-03-01
Date of death: 1977-09-12
Burial location: Stark Cemetery, Dunbarton, New Hampshire, USA
Gender: male
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Place of death: New York, New York, USA
Cause of death: heart attack
Places of residence: New York, New York, USA
Education: Harvard College (1935-1937)
Kenyon College (BA|Classics|1940)
Louisiana State University (1940-41)
St Mark's School, Southborough, Massachusetts, USA
Occupations: poet
translator
teacher
playwright
Relationships: Blackwood, Caroline (wife)
Hardwick, Elizabeth (wife)
Stafford, Jean (wife)
Citkowitz, Evgenia (stepdaughter)
Tate, Allen (teacher)
Bishop, Elizabeth (friend) (show all 18)
Jarrell, Randall (friend)
Taylor, Peter Hillsman (friend)
Eberhart, Richard (teacher)
Moore, Merrill (psychiatrist)
Ransom, John Crowe (teacher)
Plath, Sylvia (student)
Sexton, Anne (student)
Vendler, Helen (student)
Bidart, Frank (friend)
Brooks, Cleanth (teacher)
Lowell, James Russell (great-great-uncle)
Ellis, Alice Thomas (friend)
Organizations: National Academy and Institute of Arts and Letter
American Academy of Arts and Letters
Phi Beta Kappa
Iowa Writers' Workshop
Boston University
University of Cincinnati (show all 10)
Yale University
Harvard University
New School for Social Research
Kent University, Canterbury, England
Awards and honors: Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (1947-1948)
American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award (1947)
National Institute of Arts and Letters Award (1947)
Guggenheim fellowship (1947)
Boston Arts Festival Poet (1960)
Harriet Monroe Poetry Award (1952) (show all 15)
Harriet Monroe Memorial Prize (1961)
Levinson Prize (1963)
Golden Rose Trophy, New England Poetry Club (1964)
Sarah Josepha Hale Award (1966)
National Council on the Arts grant (1967)
Copernicus Award (1974)
National Medal for Literature (1977)
Litt.D., Williams College (1965)
Litt.D., Yale University (1968)

Members

Reviews

Life Studies: and, For the Union Dead by Robert Lowell

Not a surprise due to their close friendship, but this is undeniably influenced by Elizabeth Bishop, especially toward the latter end of Life Studies. Skunk Hour and Night Sweat are the stars of the show in my opinion... how can you beat the subtle sorrow of "I dabble in the dapple of the day"?

3.75 because I'm feeling #pretentious.

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cbwalsh | 5 other reviews | Sep 13, 2023 |

Lord Weary's Castle by Robert Lowell

So masterful of rhythm, sound, and allusional texture that I hardly ever cared to know the meaning. This is what Stevens would have been if he'd been good at the technical aspects of poetry.

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judeprufrock | Jul 4, 2023 |

Words in air : the complete correspondence between… by Elizabeth Bishop

I have never read correspondence before (except in epistolary novels) so I was pleasantly surprised by how readable it was. These letters cover a 30 year span which allows the reader to really get to know Bishop and Lowell. I would recommend either reading their poetry first or having it handy to refer to as (not surprisingly) there are a lot of references to specific poems (even to specific lines or words in the poems).

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leslie.98 | 2 other reviews | Jun 27, 2023 |

Selected poems by Robert Lowell

This collection seems to have little bearing on the original [b:Selected Poems|6947805|Selected Poems|Robert Lowell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1254841970s/6947805.jpg|1237929], published in 1965. It is a shame that the title couldn't have been something different... This expanded edition is a selection of what the editor thought were the best poems in each of Lowell's major books (including the original [b:Selected Poems|6947805|Selected Poems|Robert Lowell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1254841970s/6947805.jpg|1237929] which was probably my least favorite part) and thus is more of a "best of" collection.

The editor has done a marvelous job with the notes in the appendix, and I also recommend reading the introduction (for once -- generally I dislike introductions!).… (more)

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leslie.98 | Jun 27, 2023 |

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