Against the Grain: The Literary Life of a Poet

A dear friend years ago was very impressed that I had been taught Modern Poetry by Reed Whittemore. Casual as I was about the excellent education I was privileged to gain at Carleton, I had, until then, taken for granted having a "real" poet teaching poetry. Later, (possibly at my 25th reunion) I learned Mr. Whittemore was living in Washington, had a fatal disease, and was not expected to live. I was saddened. Imagine my surprise to find an autobiography written only last year, news of his death having been premature. I remember Mr. Whittemore as a good and fair teacher. Modern Poetry I remember as being written in code requiring reference books and historical knowledge to decode. We, with the intellectual snobbery that very bright young people have, relished the decoding. Only after college did I revert to my true self, a pragmatic, prosaic, positivist. It was as this latter person I started the autobiography. Why, I wondered all the angst from establishment figures who attended Andover or Yale? Why were these modern poets complaining about teachers of English? The modern poets bent the language to their will, punctuated almost as if the marks were decoration in a graphic, invented new words, and obscured truths into something that needed decoding. I stuck with the book despite my impatience because of my fondness for a teacher. I am glad I did. Just as we all have grown through the years, so has Reed Whittemore with maturing poetry and increasing life experiences. The book itself got better the more I read. I suggest reading the book. He is one of America's best Modern Poets, and he has most of the rest of them as friends.