Amy Lowell

The daughter of a “Boston Brahmin” family, Amy Lowell had two brothers: Lawrence, President of Harvard University, and Percival, the astronomer who observed Mars and also established the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. After early education at home, Amy Lowell was an unruly young student at school. She taught herself much by reading books in her father’s 7,000-volume library and at the Boston Athenaeum’s collection.

She was five feet tall and 240 pounds. Her suitor broke off their engagement suddenly. Nervous prostration was followed by a slow convalescence. After a crisis, she found her vocation: She decided to become a poet. Moreover, she strengthened other poets, such as Robert Frost, in creating a new form of literature described as American Renaissance.

Lowell’s contribution to life was stabilized by her “Boston Marriage” to actress Ada Dwyer Russell, a commitment which lasted until the poet’s death at 51.

Lowell was an outspoken presence in both the United States and Europe. Her personal literary production was fourteen books in thirteen years, including her volumes of poetry plus a major biography of her most admired poet, John Keats. Other works are Six French Poets, Tendencies in American Poetry, and essays published posthumously titled Poets and Poetry.