Wallace Stevens

the long version

"Wallace Stevens, one of this century's foremost American poets, has been both praised and blamed for the 'difficulty' of his poems, and has bemused those seeking to reconcile the sobriety of his career as an insurance lawyer with the extravagance of his poetry. Tony Sharpe explores the symbiotic and antagonistic relations between Stevens's literary life and his working life as a senior executive, outlining the personal, historical and publishing contexts which shaped his writing career, and suggesting how awareness of these contexts throws new light on the poems."--BOOK JACKET.