The Collected Letters of Robinson Jeffers, with Selected Letters of Una Jeffers: Volume One, 1890-1930 by Jeffers, Robinson (2009) Hardcover

The Collected Letters of Robinson Jeffers #1

by Robinson Jeffers

This book is the first volume in what will be a three-volume, fully annotated edition that collects all of Robinson Jeffers' letters and the most important of Una Jeffers' letters. Volume One, comprised of letters written between 1890 and 1930, also contains a substantial introduction to Jeffers' life and work. Readers of Volume One will acquire a completely new understanding of Jeffers' formative years. Topics of special interest include the evolution of Robinson and Una's relationship (which involved the breakup of her first marriage), their move to Carmel, the building of Tor House and Hawk Tower, Jeffers' maturation as a poet, the couple's widening circle of friends, and their first trip together to the British Isles.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Collections of American poet John Robinson Jeffers, who sets many of his works in California, include Tamar and Other Poems (1924).

He knew the central coast and wrote mostly in classic narrative and epic form. Nevertheless, people today know also his short verse and consider him an symbol of the environmental movement.

The Harry Ransom humanities research center at the University of Texas at Austin and the libraries at Occidental College, the University of California, and Yale University collect many manuscripts and materials of Jeffers. Survivors published a collection of his letters posthumously as The Selected Letters of Robinson Jeffers, 1887–1962 (1968). Jeffers wrote other books or criticism and poetry: are: Poetry, Gongorism, and a Thousand Years (1949), Themes in My Poems (1956), Robinson Jeffers: Selected Poems (1965), The Alpine Christ and Other Poems (1974), What Odd Expedients" and Other Poems (1981), and Rock and Hawk: A Selection of Shorter Poems by Robinson Jeffers (1987).

Stanford University Press recently released a five-volume collection of the complete works of Robinson Jeffers. In an article titled, "A Black Sheep Joins the Fold", written upon the release of the collection in 2001, Stanford Magazine ably remarked that due to a number of circumstances, "there was never an authoritative, scholarly edition of California’s premier bard" until Stanford published the complete works.

Biographical studies include George Sterling, Robinson Jeffers: The Man and the Artist (1926); Louis Adamic, Robinson Jeffers (1929); Melba Bennett, Robinson Jeffers and the Sea (1936) and The Stone Mason of Tor House (1966); Edith Greenan, Of Una Jeffers (1939); Mabel Dodge Luhan, Una and Robin (1976; written in 1933); Ward Ritchie, Jeffers: Some Recollections of Robinson Jeffers (1977); and James Karman, Robinson Jeffers: Poet of California (1987). Books about Jeffers's career include L. C. Powell, Robinson Jeffers: The Man and His Work (1940; repr. 1973); William Everson, Robinson Jeffers: Fragments of an Older Fury (1968); Arthur B. Coffin, Robinson Jeffers: Poet of Inhumanism (1971); Bill Hotchkiss, Jeffers: The Sivaistic Vision (1975); James Karman, ed., Critical Essays on Robinson Jeffers (1990); Alex Vardamis The Critical Reputation of Robinson Jeffers (1972); and Robert Zaller, ed., Centennial Essays for Robinson Jeffers (1991). The Robinson Jeffers Newsletter, ed. Robert Brophy, is a valuable scholarly resource.

In a rare recording, Jeffers can be heard reading his "The Day Is A Poem" (September 19, 1939) on Poetry Speaks – Hear Great Poets Read Their Work from Tennyson to Plath, Narrated by Charles Osgood (Sourcebooks, Inc., c2001), Disc 1, #41; including text, with Robert Hass on Robinson Jeffers, pp. 88–95. Jeffers was also on the cover of Time – The Weekly Magazine, April 4, 1932 (pictured on p. 90. Poetry Speaks).

"Jeffers Studies", a journal of research on the poetry of Robinson Jeffers and related topics, is published semi-annually by the Robinson Jeffers Association.

Reviews

[James Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I once spent a night in Carmel, California, the home of Robinson Jeffers. I'd read his poetry and knew of his love for that wild coast and his splendid isolation there where he wrote and built a house and medieval tower out of stone.. There was nothing there during the period of these letters but sea and wind, the scrub around the buildings and the cries of gulls. It's not like that now. The coast's not wild anymore. The town of Carmel is trendy. Jeffers's house and tower are surrounded by many expensive homes. We wanted to visit Hawk Tower and Tor House in which he lived in so many years. We didn't know it's open only a few days of the week. We were in town on the wrong day and had to be content with peering through the fence.

I liked these earliest letters of Jeffers and his wife Una because they partly concern themselves with his first writings on that cold, remote shore. I liked them because many are by Una herself, probably as interesting as Jeffers. It's his letters--though not all--which maintain contact with some of the most interesting literary figures of the early century. Edgar Lee Masters was a correspondent, as were Mark Van Doren and Witter Bynner. Una traded interesting letters with Mabel Dodge Luhan and Bennett Cerf Her letters are more informing of their lives and the work of the poet, however. And they carry more humor. Finally, I suppose I liked these letters because they allowed me to make some of the small connection to Robinson and Una I'd missed the day I went to their house on the wrong day.

[Mills College Library]

811.52 J45L 2009