Love, Amy: The Selected Letters of Amy Clampitt

Aside from the pleasure this excellent collection of her letters will bring to fans of Amy Clampitt's poetry, real delight is in store for any reader who loves books and taking life seriously but not grimly. Amy Clampitt came late to being recognized as a poet but she always had the integrity of an artist. Unusually modest, unusually interested in the world outside her self, her correspondence tells the classic American story of a bright young woman from the Midwest who moves to New York City. But instead of finding misery and disillusionment, Amy Clampitt found a rich life of the mind, new discoveries to make about the city and its inhabitants, and, at last, the genre she wrote best in and loved--poetry. She was given to finding happiness in her relationships and her work, and when acclaim and the acquaintance of the literary world came to her at the age of 63, she was both too old and too sensible to be anything but observant, grateful, and thrilled. She had lived in New York for years with the strategy that "underdressing" kept one comfortable. As a poet, as a woman, she was anything but underdressed--she was glorious--but in a world of peacocks, her lack of narcissism shines. At the end of the book, you feel as if you've lost a friend. The introduction by editor Willard Spiegelman is informative and graceful, and the selection of letters just right.

Even people with no interest in poetry will be touched by the letters of Amy Clampitt, who lived in New York for forty years before she became an instant celebrity at 63 when Knopf published her first book of poems. Late bloomers: take heart. Clampitt was there before you. She worked as a literary editor and a librarian, and led a quiet, humble, thoughtful life. Her letters are marvels of energy and observation. As a Quaker, she participated in political activism in the 60s, and had a strong sense of social obligation. In addition, she wrote (both prose and poetry) like an angel.