Bogan, Louise

Related Category: American Literature: Biographies

(bō´gən), 1897–1970, American poet and critic, b. Livermore, Maine. She spent much of her life in New York City and was for many years poetry editor for The New Yorker magazine. Her verse is intense, personal, and yet restrained, revealing a metaphysical awareness of the tragedy of life. Among her volumes of poetry are Body of This Death (1923), Poems and New Poems (1941), Collected Poems (1954), and The Blue Estuaries: Poems 1923–1968 (1968). Her other works include a literary history, Achievement in American Poetry, 1900–1950 (1950); and collections of criticism, Selected Criticism (1958) and A Poet's Alphabet (1970).

See her autobiography, Journey around My Room (1981); collected letters, ed. by R. Limmer (1973); A Poet's Prose: Selected Writings of Louise Bogan, ed. by M. Kinzie (2005); biography by E. Frank (1984); studies by M. Collins, ed. (1984), J. Ridgeway (1984), G. Bowles (1987), and L. Upton (1996).