
Randall Jarrell was only fifty-one at the time of his death, in 1965, yet he created a body of work that secured his position as one of the century's leading American men of letters. Although he saw himself chiefly as a poet, publishing a number of books of poetry, he also left...

"He always seemed more alive than other people," Elizabeth Bishop once said of Randall Jarrell, "as if constantly tuned up to the concert pitch that most people, including poets, can maintain only for short and fortunate stretches." And in no area of his diverse writing career...