James Karman Livres

The precipitous cliffs, rolling headlands, and rocky inlets of the California coast come alive in the poetry of John Robinson Jeffers, an icon of the environmental movement. In this concise and accessible biography, Jeffers scholar James Karman reveals deep insights into this passionate and complex figure and establishes Jeffers as a leading American poet of prophetic vision. In a move that would define his life's work, Jeffers' family relocated to California from Pennsylvania in 1903 when he was sixteen. While a graduate student at the University of Southern California he met Una Call Kuster, a student who was the wife of a prominent Los Angeles attorney, and they began a scandalous affair that made the front page of the Los Angeles Times. They eventually married and escaped to Carmel, California, to write poetry; there they would spend the rest of their lives. At the height of his popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, Jeffers became one of the few poets ever featured on the cover of Time magazine, and posthumously put on a U.S. postage stamp. Writing by kerosene lamp in a granite tower that he had built himself, his vivid and descriptive poetry of the coast evoked the difficulty and beauty of the wild, and inspired photographers such as Edward Weston and Ansel Adams. Inspiring later artists from Charles Bukowski to Czeslaw Milosz and even the Beach Boys, Jeffers' contribution to American letters is skillfully brought back out of the shadows of history in this compelling biography.--Adapted from Amazon.com

The best biography available about one of the greatest American poets of the twentieth century. Using Jeffers' poetry and personal writings, as well as extensive interviews with Jeffers' family, Karman paints a stunning and meticulously crafted portrait. Illustrated with 26 rare photographs. Also included is an index and Jeffers bibliography.