Munich: I discovered Amy Lowell's two-volume biography of Keats in a Berkshire home I bought furnished.  Before that the little I knew was that Amy Lowell was an acolyte of Pound's Imagism, (which I later found to be not quite accurate), that she was a famous Lowell, and that she had written the widely anthologized poem, "Patterns" (both of which were true).  Reading the Keats biography was like opening a book on a larger than life character, but the character was Lowell, not Keats.  Wanting to read more, I hunted for more work by Lowell and quickly found out that she was entirely out of print, save a few reprinted poems.  During the course of my search I learned that Lowell was indeed a fascinating character, a cigar smoking lesbian who wrote hundreds of delicate, exquisite lyrics as well as producing innovative modernist verse of many different kinds.  For the next several years I sought a collaborator to work on Lowell projects and finally met the perfect one in a graduate student, Melissa Bradshaw, who eventually became my co-editor, and who is now one of a handful of Lowell experts.

Bradshaw: I first encountered Lowell when Adrienne insisted I read a few of her poems for my doctoral examinations.  Certainly I knew who Amy Lowell was, but I was familiar with her as a literary impresario, not as a poet in her own right.  I dutifully read a few poems and instantly became hooked. These were the most intimate, most achingly gorgeous poems I had ever read.  I decided right then that I would write my dissertation on Lowell and that I would do whatever I could to help reestablish her literary reputation.

Q: Why a book of Lowell poems now?

Bradshaw &
Munich: For several reasons: Recently there has been renewed attention to modernism and many vigorous reassessments of modernism have been published in the last few years.  Lowell's important place in the history of modernism, particularly in the modernist movement which flourished in the United States during the first few decades of the twentieth-century, can be better reassessed with this edition of her poems.  This volume introduces her to a whole new range of scholars who are rewriting the history of modernism.  This is also an important time to reintroduce Amy Lowell because of increased tolerance for, and demand for, works of art that speak to gay and lesbian audiences.  Lowell wrote some of the best, if not the best, lesbian lyrics of her time.

Q: Who is your intended audience?

Bradshaw &
Munich: This volume will appeal to a wide range of readers.  Certainly poetry readers will appreciate this volume, but because the poems are incredibly accessible, passionate, vibrant, and intensely intimate. We have found that even readers who insist they do not like poetry find them appealing.  Those interested in lesbian literature, modernists, Americanists, and women's studies readers, as well as people interested in flamboyant characters and powerful influential women will also treasure this book.

Q: What is Lowell best known for and what should she be best known for?

Bradshaw &
Munich:  She is best known for smoking cigars and feuding with Ezra Pound, but she should be known first of all for her work in a wide range of poetic forms, particularly for her exquisite free verse lyrics. She also should be known for introducing modern poetry to a mainstream audience, and finally, for winning the 1925 Pulitzer Prize.

Q: Who were her influences and who did she influence?

Bradshaw &
Munich: Lowell was strongly influenced by Coleridge, Keats, Poe, and the French symbolists, in fact, she saw herself as a direct descendent of these poets.  Lowell's influences were broad and far-reaching. Contemporaries such as D. H. Lawrence, Robert Frost, e. e. cummings, Carl Sandburg, and H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) all benefited greatly from her work and from her very public support of their work. In her recently published journals, Sylvia Plath speaks of Lowell as an influence, and as the poet she most wanted to emulate. Really, any poet who writes in free verse has been influenced by Lowell's work and as well by her critical writings on modern experimental poetry.

Q: What do you like best about Amy Lowell's poetry?

Munich: Her immense energy directed towards recreating in charged words and rhythms, her sense of being in the world and taking it all in.  She tries to get you to hear the music, see the paintings, smell the flowers she writes about.  She tries to capture the rhythms of life and to fill her poetry to overflowing with the sensory pleasures (and sometimes pains) of it all.

Q: Do you have a favorite anecdote about Lowell?

Bradshaw &
Munich: We have many, many favorite anecdotes about Lowell, as she was quite a character.  Here is one of her favorites, one she liked to tell at dinner parties: One day Lowell's car broke down in the country and had to be repaired in a local garage.  When it came time to pay the bill, she simply stated her name and told the proprietor of the garage to charge it, fully assuming that the Lowell name would speak for itself.  When he asked how he was supposed to verify that her credit was good, she repeated her name, to no avail.  Finally she told him to call her brother, the president of Harvard, if he didn't believe her.  When her brother, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, came to the phone, he asked, "What is she doing now?"  The proprietor answered, "leaning against a stone wall, smoking a cigar."  Lawrence Lowell's response was unhesitating: "Yes, that's my sister."

Q: What is your goal in publishing this book?

Bradshaw &
Munich: Our goal in publishing this book is to get people reading and talking about Lowell again.  We hope that readers will appreciate, even cherish, Lowell's fine poetry, and better understand her importance to the modernist movement and to American poetry, or more specifically, to a modern, uniquely American poetry.