Love Songs: The Lives, Loves, and Poetry of Nine American Women

This fine book from Dizikes (Opera in America: A Cultural History), professor emeritus of American Studies at UC–Santa Cruz, follows the lives and work of nine American women poets who rose to prominence in the first half of the 20th century. Some, such as Amy Lowell, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Dorothy Parker, are still familiar names. Others, such as Léonie Adams, Louise Bogan, and Elinor Wylie, have fallen into obscurity. All, however, gravitated at some point to New York City and contributed to its vibrant literary and cultural scene. Dizikes explores their lives by dividing his book into sections based on historical period, offering a slice of each woman’s life in each section, allowing readers the chance to compare and contrast, or to flip through the book and read any one poet’s life through. Dizikes’s prose is straightforward and easily readable, without critical jargon. His chief strength, however, is his ability to convey the personal cost of art for women in this period: some left husbands and children behind or had abortions, Parker attempted suicide twice, and a few faced a lack of recognition for their work as they aged. This would make an excellent gift book for bibliophiles, easy to dip in and out of, and filled with attention-grabbing and important poems and stories. (BookLife)