Life Studies is the fourth book of poems by Robert Lowell . Most critics (including Helen Vendler , Steven Gould Axelrod , Adam Kirsch , and others) consider it one of Lowell's most important books, and the Academy of American Poets named it one of their Groundbreaking Books. Helen Vendler called Life Studies Lowell's "most original book." It won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1960.
26-755: Life Studies was first published in London by Faber & Faber . This was to allow for it to be entered for selection by the Poetry Book Society , one condition being that the first edition must be British. Because of the rush to release the book in Britain, the British first edition does not include the "91 Revere Street" section. The first American edition was published in 1959 by Farrar, Straus and Cudahy based in New York City. Part I of
52-640: A Fox-Hunting Man . The book was at first published anonymously; the author's name, Siegfried Sassoon , was added to the title page for the second impression. Over the next six months, it was reprinted eight times. Poetry was originally the most renowned part of the Faber list, with W. H. Auden , Stephen Spender , and Louis MacNeice joining Ezra Pound , Marianne Moore , Wyndham Lewis , John Gould Fletcher , Roy Campbell , James Joyce , David Jones (artist-poet) and Walter de la Mare being published under T. S. Eliot's aegis. Under Geoffrey Faber's chairmanship,
78-453: A declaration of my faith or lack of faith." Part II contains only one piece which is titled "91 Revere Street" and is the first (and only) significant passage of prose to appear in one of Lowell's books of poems. It centers, with intricate detail, on Lowell's childhood when his family was living in Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood at 91 Revere Street. The piece, which is the longest one in
104-406: A literary adviser; in the first season, the firm issued his Poems 1909–1925 . In addition, the catalogues from the early years included books by Ezra Pound , Jean Cocteau , Herbert Read , Max Eastman , George Rylands , John Dover Wilson , Geoffrey Keynes , Forrest Reid , Charles Williams , and Vita Sackville-West . In 1928, Faber and Faber published its first commercial success, Memoirs of
130-661: A mental hospital, for example, interested me very much." The website for the Academy for American Poets states that, "Lowell's work in Life Studies had an especially profound impact that is discernible not only in the poetry of his direct contemporaries, such as Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton , but also in the treatment of biographical detail by countless poets who followed." John Thompson in The Kenyon Review supports this contention stating that, "For these poems,
156-436: A profound influence over the poetry she was writing at that time (and which her husband would publish posthumously as Ariel a few years later), stating, "I've been very excited by what I feel is the new breakthrough that came with, say, Robert Lowell's Life Studies , this intense breakthrough into very serious, very personal, emotional experience which I feel has been partly taboo. Robert Lowell's poems about his experience in
182-402: A review of Life Studies , entitled " Poetry as Confession " which first applied the term "confessional" to Lowell's approach in Life Studies , and led to the name of the school of Confessional poetry . For this reason, Life Studies is viewed as one of the first confessional books of poetry, although some poets and poetry critics such as Adam Kirsch and Frank Bidart question the accuracy of
208-465: A scholarship to two writers every year, with a focus on under-represented groups such as writers of colour, disabled writers and LGBTQ + writers. Faber Digital was launched in 2009. It has published a number of book-related apps for the iPhone and the iPad, including Malcolm Tucker: The Missing Phone (which was nominated for a BAFTA award), QI: Quite Interesting , Harry Hill's Joke Book , and The Waste Land for iPad app . The Waste Land for iPad app
234-528: The Alps ," as well as a move away from the traditional, dense, more impersonal style of poetry that characterized Lowell's writing while he was still a practicing Catholic and closely associated with New Critical poets like Allen Tate and John Crowe Ransom . Notably, at a 1963 poetry reading at the Guggenheim Museum , Lowell introduced his reading of "Beyond the Alps" by stating that, "[the poem was]
260-894: The Arts Council in partnership with the BBC – Sixty Years in Sixty Poems took the poems from Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy 's anthology, Jubilee Lines , and interpreted them using actors' recordings, sound-based generative design, and archive film footage. In 2008, Faber launched Faber Academy, a creative writing business offering courses for aspiring writers. Courses include "Writing a Novel", "Advanced Poetry", and "Getting Started: Beginners' Fiction". At times, courses are tutored by famous writers, such as Mike Figgis , Jeanette Winterson , and Tobias Hill . Notable students have included S. J. Watson and Georgian/British singer-songwriter Katie Melua . In 2018, The Faber Academy started offering
286-989: The Second World War, paper shortages resulted in high profits, but much of this profit went to taxation. Notable postwar Faber writers include William Golding (although the company almost rejected his Lord of the Flies ), Lawrence Durrell , Robert Lowell , Ted Hughes , Sylvia Plath , W. S. Graham , Philip Larkin , P. D. James , Tom Stoppard , and John Osborne . The firm increased its investment in contemporary drama, including plays by three Nobel Laureates: Harold Pinter , Samuel Beckett , and T. S. Eliot . Other playwrights subsequently joined Faber, including Alan Ayckbourn , Alan Bennett , Brian Friel , Tony Harrison , David Hare , Frank McGuinness , and Timberlake Wertenbaker . Modern writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro , Peter Carey , Orhan Pamuk , and Barbara Kingsolver also joined Faber. In addition, Faber has published
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#1732780683451312-652: The Services to Independent Publishers Award at the IPG Awards in 2013 and 2015. The firm's original location was its Georgian offices at 24 Russell Square , in Bloomsbury , London. Faber later moved to 3 Queen Square, London , and on 19 January 2009 the firm moved to Bloomsbury House, 74–77 Great Russell Street , London. The company relocated to The Bindery, Hatton Garden , London in 2023. Stanley Kunitz Too Many Requests If you report this error to
338-743: The band Pulp , would be joining as editor-at-large, an appointment similar to one held by Pete Townshend of The Who in the 1980s. In 2008, the imprint Faber Finds was set up to make copyrighted out-of-print books reavailable, using print-on-demand technology. Works republished in the imprint have included items from the Mass-Observation archives, and works by John Betjeman , Angus Wilson , A. J. P. Taylor , H. G. Wells , Joyce Cary , Nina Bawden , Jean Genet , P. H. Newby , Louis MacNeice , John Carey , F. R. Leavis , Jacob Bronowski , Jan Morris , and Brian Aldiss . In 2009, Faber Finds began to release e-books . Faber's American arm
364-580: The board in 1929 included Eliot, Richard de la Mare, Charles Stewart, and Frank Vigor Morley . The firm's art director was Berthold Wolpe . Faber published biographies, memoirs , fiction, poetry, political and religious essays, art and architecture monographs, children's books , and an ecology list. It also published Eliot's literary review, The Criterion . Eliot rejected two books by George Orwell , A Scullion's Diary (the original version of Down and Out in Paris and London ) and Animal Farm . During
390-471: The book contains four poems that are similar in style and tone to the poems of Lowell's previous books, The Mills of the Kavanaughs and Lord Weary's Castle . They are well-polished, formal in their use of meter and rhyme, and fairly impersonal. This first section can be interpreted as a transition section, signaling Lowell's move away from Catholicism , as evidenced by the book's first poem, " Beyond
416-478: The book, also focuses on his parents' marriage as well as young Lowell's relationship with his parents, other relatives, and his childhood peers. Notable characters in the piece include Lowell's great-grandfather Mordecai Myers and his father's Navy buddy, Commander Billy Harkness. "91 Revere Street" also sets the stage for the portraits of his family members in the book's final section. According to Ian Hamilton , one of Lowell's unofficial biographers, this section
442-869: The company was named the KPMG Publisher of the Year. Faber and Faber Inc. , formerly the American branch of the London company, was sold in 1998 to the Holtzbrinck company Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG). Faber and Faber ended the partnership with FSG in 2015 and began distributing its books directly in the United States. Faber and Faber began as a firm in 1929, but originated in the Scientific Press, owned by Sir Maurice and Lady Gwyer . The Scientific Press derived much of its income from
468-409: The confessional label. However, no one questions the book's lasting influence. The prominent poet Stanley Kunitz noted this tremendous influence when he wrote, in a 1985 essay, " Life Studies . . .[was] perhaps the most influential book of modern verse since T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land . " In a 1962 interview with Peter Orr, Sylvia Plath specifically cited Lowell's Life Studies as having had
494-607: The ones that document Lowell's struggle with mental illness and include pieces like " Skunk Hour ", " Home After Three Months Away " and " Waking in the Blue ." However, the majority of the poems in this section revolve around Lowell's family with a particular emphasis on the troubled marriage of his parents (as Lowell established in Part II). Lowell's maternal grandfather, Arthur Winslow, also receives significant attention in poems like "Dunbarton" and "Grandparents." M. L. Rosenthal wrote
520-675: The question of propriety no longer exists. They have made a conquest: what they have won is a major expansion of the territory of poetry." Faber %26 Faber Faber and Faber Limited , commonly known as Faber & Faber or simply Faber , is an independent publishing house in London . Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden , C. S. Lewis , Margaret Storey , William Golding , Samuel Beckett , Philip Larkin , Sylvia Plath , Ted Hughes , Seamus Heaney , Paul Muldoon , Milan Kundera and Kazuo Ishiguro . Founded in 1929, in 2006
546-414: The time that Lowell published these poems, only Schwartz was still alive, and with the exception of Hart Crane, Lowell knew all of them personally and considered them to be mentors at different stages of his career. Part IV contains the majority of the book's poems and is given the subheading of "Life Studies." These poems are the ones that critics refer to as "confessional." These "confessional" poems are
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#1732780683451572-515: The translated work of prominent novelists and poets including Milan Kundera , Thomas Bernhard , Günter Grass , Nikos Kazantzakis , Wisława Szymborska , Mario Vargas Llosa , and Czesław Miłosz . Having published the theatrical works of Samuel Beckett for several years, the company acquired the rights to the remainder of his oeuvre from the publishing house of John Calder in 2007. Faber announced in October 2011 that Jarvis Cocker , lead singer of
598-587: The weekly magazine The Nursing Mirror . The Gwyers' desire to expand into trade publishing led them to Geoffrey Faber , a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford ; they founded Faber and Gwyer in 1925. After four years, The Nursing Mirror was sold and Geoffrey Faber and the Gwyers agreed to go their separate ways. Faber selected the company name of Faber and Faber, although there was no other Faber involved. T. S. Eliot, who had been suggested to Faber by Charles Whibley , had left Lloyds Bank in London to join Faber as
624-685: Was Faber's second collaboration with Touch Press, following the Solar System for iPad , which won the Futurebook Award for Digital innovation at the Book Industry Awards in 2011. In 2013, in partnership with Bloomsbury Publishing plc , Faber Digital launched Drama Online, a subscription-based digital content platform for libraries, educators, students, and researchers. Faber introduced Faber Factory in 2011, an eBook conversion and digitisation service. Faber Factory won
650-563: Was begun as a potentially therapeutic assignment suggested by Lowell's therapist. Lowell also stated that this prose exercise led him to the stylistic breakthrough of the poems in Part IV. The apartment at 91 Revere Street in Beacon Hill still exists and is noted by a Boston historical marker as Lowell's childhood home. Part III contains odes to four writers: Hart Crane , Delmore Schwartz , George Santayana , and Ford Madox Ford . At
676-465: Was sold in 1998 to Farrar, Straus and Giroux ("FSG"), where it remained as an imprint focused on arts, entertainment, media, and popular culture. In February 2015, Faber announced the end of its partnership with FSG. In June 2012, to coincide with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, Faber launched a website – Sixty Years in Sixty Poems . Commissioned for The Space – the new digital arts platform developed by
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