Randall Jarrell

by William H. Pritchard

This elegantly written study concentrates on the complex interaction between Jarrell's life and work, describing and commenting on his most important poems and prose, but also focusing on the significant events and experiences of his life. Pritchard dramatizes the ambiguous character of the man: a worshipper of childhood, deeply at odds with his own early years; a wonderfully commonsensical and humorous critic whose imagination was haunted by darker patterns of story and myth.