| James Wright |
An Ecstatic, Troubled Poet Comes to Life in a New Biography
JAMES WRIGHT
A Life in Poetry
By Jonathan Blunk
Illustrated. 496 pp. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $40.
Nov. 22, 2017
James Wright loved to recite poems he knew by heart, and he seemed to know most of them. Friends described his aural memory as “phonographic.” “It’s as if he has a piano roll in his head,” his college roommate said. Donald Hall recalled Wright declaiming German poetry “for 20 minutes to an astonished assembly of mathematicians.” At a crowded party, while reciting Edwin Arlington Robinson, Wright brushed against a lit stove and set his coat on fire. Oblivious, he continued his performance while a friend poured beer down his smoldering backside.