Letters To Jane
During the last year of her life, Carruth wrote fellow poet Jane Kenyon (1947-95) frequently enough to fill this slim volume. He didn't e-mail or fax her but printed out, folded, stuffed in envelopes, and posted paper sheets full of personal prose conscientiously composed by the past master he is. Twenty-six years older than Kenyon and, at 73, with plenty of his own medical history, Carruth understood and commiserated with her about the pain and ardors of treatment and hospitalization, and shared with her the mortal humor of being ill and hurting. More often and at greater length, he wrote of his pets, the weather, the season, birds and small mammals, writing and editing, and other quotidian details. He continued corresponding during the many times he was away giving public readings and participating in functions to which he was invited as one of America's greatest living poets--or that his regular publisher induced him to attend. Surely these newsy, unpretentious, intelligent missives lifted Kenyon's spirits; certainly they do ours.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved