Edmund Spenser
Subtitle: a literary life
By: Gary Waller.
Series: Literary lives; Literary lives (New York, N.Y.)
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 211
Subjects: Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599.; Poets, English -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- Biography.
Description: A provocative approach to a famous figure in English poetry and to the relationship of literature to biography - both the poet's and the critic's own. Gary Waller, known for accessibly combining contemporary literary and cultural theory with Renaissance poetry, provides an intriguing overview of the period's most praised poet.

Examining Spenser's career in terms of the material conditions of his poetry's production - factors of race, gender, class, agency - and the 'places' of its production - court, church, nation, colony - he also writes movingly of the 'place' the biographer occupies in the construction of a 'literary life'.

The book includes chapters on Spenser's poetry and career, including an original account of the gender politics of his work and his difficult position between Ireland and England, the 'homes' about which he held increasingly painful feelings.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 206-208) and index.