A Poetry Salon: Kathleen Spivack reads from With Robert Lowell and His Circle: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz and Others

Richard Murphy invites you to the launch of his new poetry salon series with Kathleen Spivack as she presents from With Robert Lowell and His Circle: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz and Others. The launch will take place on Sunday, September 28, 2014, in Marblehead, MA, at 1:30 PM. Please come and share the afternoon with us, including high tea, music, Kathleen’s presentation, and open discussion.

Reading from With Robert Lowell and His Circle: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz and Others, Kathleen will talk about the literary influences of New England on the work on these poets she knew, and transport you to the ambience of the early 60s Boston literary scene. There will be lots of time for discussion. We hope you can make it, and please also bring your friends! This promises to be a lovely afternoon get together for writers and readers of poetry in the area. We look forward to spending the afternoon with you, and with this warm and beautiful gathering of like minds!

Important note: Rich has only 25 places available, so please RSVP to Rich Murphy by Sunday, September 21. 781-789-7093 or richmurphyink@gmail.com.

Below is the program and more information. Also attached is further information about With Robert Lowell and His Circle. We look forward to seeing you there!

All the best,
Kathleen Spivack and Rich Murphy

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A Poetry Salon: Kathleen Spivack reads from With Robert Lowell and His Circle: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz and OthersSunday, September 28, 2014
32 Pinecliff Drive, Marblehead, MA

1:30 PM: Please join us for music and high tea
2:00 PM: Kathleen’s presentation and discussion

Seating limited to 25 guests
RSVP required!Please RSVP by Sunday, September 21, to Rich Murphy, 781-789-7093, richmurphyink@gmail.com

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With Robert Lowell and His Circle: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton,
 Elizabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz, & Others
 by Kathleen Spivack
The book is available through the University Press of New England:
Call toll-free, 1-800-421-1561, email university.press@dartmouth.edu, or visit their website at http://
www.upne.com/1555537883.html. Also available online and at your local bookstores.
A memoir of a famous poetry circle…
In 1959 Kathleen Spivack won a fellowship to study at Boston University with Robert Lowell. Her 
fellow students were Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, among others. Thus began a relationship with the 
famous poet and his circle that would last to the end of his life in 1977 and beyond. Spivack presents a 
lovingly rendered story of her time among some of the most esteemed artists of a generation. Part 
memoir, part loose collection of anecdotes, artistic considerations, and soulful yet clear-eyed 
reminiscences of a lost time and place, hers is an intimate portrait of the often suffering Lowell, the 
great and near great artists he attracted, his teaching methods, his private world, and the significant 
legacy he left to his students. Through the story of a youthful artist finding her poetic voice among 
literary giants, Spivack thoughtfully considers how poets work. She looks at friendships, addiction, 
despair, perseverance and survival, and how social changes altered lives and circumstances. This is a 
beautifully written portrait of friends who loved and lived words, and made great beauty together.
“This book is absorbing and alive, human and compelling . . . the best 
memoir yet about Robert Lowell.”
—Steven Gould Axelrod, University of California, Riverside
“A portrait [of Lowell] that serves to define his role as poet and teacher in 
fresh and significant ways . . . . This is a memoir that will make an impact 
right away and that will be referred to by scholars, readers and 
biographers for many years to come.” —Thomas Travisano, Hartwick 
College
“I devoured your book in one sitting last weekend; it’s extraordinarily 
evocative of the poet and his time, your time. Thank you so much for 
writing it . . .” —Don Share, Senior Editor, Poetry Magazine
“I couldn't put the book down except to eat or sleep... a moving portrait of 
Lowell and a really valuable antidote to Hamilton's view of constant 
breakdown and mania...” —Barrie Goldensohn, Skidmore College
“…Spivack records Lowell’s mix of generosity and obliviousness that 
endeared him to writer friends and students ….. [Her]portrait offers a window on a man,a city, and a method for 
anyone not lucky enough to have taken part in those times.” —Valerie Duff, The Boston Globe
“...a passionate, unpretentious and carefully documented memoir in which the main character is not a poet––
although the book is full of lively sketches of writers...––but the practice of poetry itself. We see the intensity 
and sheer everyday labor,with insight into the particular impact of the period on women writers.” —Elena 

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