Poet: An Autobiography in Three Parts

Now nearly 75 years old, critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Shapiro here recalls his upbringing in Baltimore and Virginia, his introduction to literature and to sex, his WW II Army service in Australia and the Pacific. He deals perceptively with social relationships and everyday affairs, yet because he always refers to himself in the third person as ``the poet,'' he removes himselfand the readerfrom much of the passion and sharpness that characterize his verse. One strives to identify with Shapiro's feelings, longings, goals, but the cool detachment of his recollections acts like the interposition of an opaque, dreamlike curtain between author and reader. Photos not seen by PW . (October)