Praise from Readers

I've read your book and enjoyed it thoroughly. I love Stevens's poetry and reread it with undiminished pleasure. I also know that the "life" a man leads is a separate element. Still, I found what you brought out—particularly about his marriage—to be of much interest. It seems to me you were fair: warts and all on both sides. Had known nothing about his "muse," or Sybil. The hidden links you found in his poetry were fascinating.

Thomas Benet
Son of Stephen Vincent Benét
Former head, editorial page, San Francisco Chronicle

I have read your Wallace Stevens biography. Well done. The Sybil Gage parts all ring true.

John K. Howat (Sybil Gage's step-grandson)
Former Chairman of the Departments of American Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Your cautious approach to proposing Sybil Gage as muse is justifyingly bold in its evidentiary delineation of “Dolls” and “Odor from a Star.” You’ve got a sound perspective on the poet’s need to displace so much of his social and intellectual energies, and for the young Stevens, inevitable erotic and romantic urges. . . . I found the book from start to finish extremely well researched.

Peter (“Zeke”) Hanchak
Wallace Stevens’s only grandchild

I have finished reading your Wallace Stevens book—an excellent and engaging study. Having previously read several other books about this amazing man, I believe yours is the magnum opus of books about him. While heavily endowed with references to other works, your narrative substance stands alone in the way you present WS as an unusual man—at once at home in the world and in the one through which his special poetry shines. For anyone wanting a one-book account of the life and work of Wallace Stevens, your book undoubtedly will stand alone as the best. It will be a pleasure to the casual explorers of Stevens’ life as well as to those with more scholarly intent.

Wesley Stevens (no relation to Wallace)
Theologian