James Merrill, Ed. by Stephen Yenser and Langdon Hammer
PositiveThe Kenyon ReviewThe letters gathered in A Whole World display...openness. No subject—certainly no erotic subject—is scanted. The notes are vivid and chatty, and sometimes include recipes or cameos by the likes of William Burroughs ... Overall, very little in A Whole World challenges the view of Merrill already on record ... Merrill never stopped falling in love, never stopped believing \'loving is the indispensable condition,\' and the letters in A Whole World show us why ... However eager Merrill might have been to borrow material from his letters and incorporate it into his poetry, this is a register found only in the correspondence. Alongside so much else, A Whole World documents those times the poet was able to honor love, and love in itself, not just for the songs one could make of it.
David Margolick
PositiveThe Chicago TribuneIn his fascinating, elegiac account, Margolick reminds us there was never a relationship in the formal sense. King and Kennedy met only a handful of times, and maintained a minimal correspondence. Yet by the time of their deaths, separated by just nine weeks, they had come to be seen as champions of America’s underclass ... Is there really an equivalence between King’s activism and Kennedy’s stumping, and if so, what about all the other remarks delivered by congressmen on the subject?
