Robert Duncan, The Ambassador from Venus: A Biography

Lisa Jarnot

University of California Press, Aug 27, 2012 - Poetry - 526 pages

“This is a book of wonders, beautifully written and brilliantly researched. Lisa Jarnot offers a work of devotion to the truth and spirit of Robert Duncan's life and art, the result of twenty years of study and reflection. A great story as well as a rigorous exploration of the poet's art of the imagination, it will pull readers back into Duncan's poetry at the same time that it recounts his rich, adventurous, and always creative life.”—Robert Adamson, author of The Goldfinches of Baghdad.

"Lisa Jarnot’s biography of Robert Duncan represents an essential contribution to our understanding of this complex, inspirited man, his life and art, and the many circles in which he moved through the years. It is one of those rare works that melds scholarly diligence with poetic comprehension."—Michael Palmer, author of Thread.

"Robert Duncan was a poet of enormous means and complexity, one of the last to pursue a truly cosmological poetics. In that pursuit he was a poet (even a great poet), who created – like Whitman before him – his own life with all its openings & pitfalls as beyond all else a life-of-poetry. Lisa Jarnot's biography now gives us a first, richly detailed depiction of that life, a powerful and necessary complement to Duncan’s poetry itself. A product of the century behind us, it offers up a lasting legacy for the century to come."—Jerome Rothenberg, author of Technicians of the Sacred.

Contents

• The Antediluvian World: 3
• Native Son of the Golden West: 6
• The Architecture: 13
• A Part in the Fabulous: 21
• The Wasteland: 26
• The Fathering Dream: 34
• Toward the Shaman: 41
• The Little Freshman Yes: 43
• A Company of Women: 47
• The Dance: 53
• From Romance to Ritual: 61
• Queen of the Whores: 69
• Enlisted: 77
• Marriage: 82
• Divorce: 88
• The End of the War: 95
• The Round Table: 101
• The First Poetry Festival: 105
• The Venice Poem: 109
• 19: 113
• Indian Tales: 115
• The Song of the Borderguard: 118
• The Way to Shadow Garden: 124
• The Workshop: 131
• Mallorca: 135
• Caesars Gate: 141
• The Opening of the Field: 147
• The Meadow: 149
• New York Interlude: 155
• The San Francisco Scene: 160
• Olson Whitehead and the Magic Workshop: 165
• The Maidens: 171
• Elfmere: 175
• Night Scenes: 180
• H D: 185
• Go East: 192
• Apprehensions: 197
• Part Five The Nasty Aes the ti cian 35 The Will: 203
• The Playhouse: 209
• The Political Machine: 214
• Knight Errant: 221
• The Vancouver Conference: 225
• Bending the Bow: 229
• A Night Song: 234
• Anger: 239
• The Enamord Mage: 241
• The Berkeley Conference: 244
• The Sixties: 249
• Domestic Scenes: 259
• The Household: 261
• The Summer of Love: 266
• Days of Rage: 274
• GroundWork: 280
• Helter Skelter: 285
• Santa Cruz Propositions: 290
• The Torn Cloth: 296
• Despair in Being Tedious: 303
• The Cult of the Gods: 310
• Elm Park Road: 314
• Riverside: 320
• The Heart of Rime: 327
• Troubadour: 337
• An Alternate Life: 339
• Cambridge: 346
• The AvantGarde: 351
• Adam Eve and Jahweh: 355
• San Franciscos Burning: 361
• At Sea: 365
• The Cherubim: 370
• Alaska: 377
• Enthralled: 383
• The Master of Rime: 387
• New College: 389
• Five Songs: 394
• A Paris Visit: 399
• Bard: 404
• The Year of Duncan: 422
• The Circulation of the Blood: 429
• Notes: 435
• Works Cited: 503
• Credits: 511

About the author

Lisa Jarnot is a poet and independent scholar. She has taught at Brooklyn College and the Naropa Institute and is the author of four books of poetry, including Ring of Fire and Night Scenes.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Robert Duncan, The Ambassador from Venus: A Biography
• Author: Lisa Jarnot
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: University of California Press, 2012
• ISBN: 0520234162, 9780520234161
• Length: 526 pages
• Subjects: Poetry / General