My first cousin once removed
Subtitle: money, madness, and the family of Robert Lowell
By: Sarah Payne Stuart.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 244
Subjects: Lowell, Robert, 1917-1977 -- Family; Winslow family; Lowell family; Poets, American -- 20th century -- Family relationships; Aristocracy (Social class) -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- History; Mental illness -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- History; Family -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- History; Boston (Mass.) -- Economic conditions; Boston (Mass.) -- Biography
Description: Sarah Payne Stuart grew up in a family of aristocratic lineage whose fortune had long ago been lost. (Among the many family documents cited is a Boston Globe article in which Lowell's bankrupt grandfather is quoted in his will as having left his children their good breeding and Boston heritage.) Stuart's upbringing carried with it a heady sense of privilege and entitlement, but without the money to back it up.

This dichotomy - of being both anointed and strapped, of needing to keep up a brave front at all costs, even when members of successive generations of the family (including the author's brother and famous cousin) find themselves locked up in mental wards - forms the heart of this story.

An irreverent and clear-sighted meditation on the claustrophobic yet seductive bonds of family, as well as an intimate portrait of a famous man, My First Cousin Once Removed is a wry and haunting story of survival in the midst of instability and dynastic decline.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-244).