............about a long-forgotten incident involving Robert Lowell - or as she so aptly describes him, the "as yet undiagnosed manic depressive" Robert Lowell - during the years of the Red Scare.
Flannery O'Connor felt deeply embarrassed about her role in the Ames affair at Yaddo. She began by being charmed by Lowell, then became alarmed when he started telling her she was a saint reincarnated, and in the end she simply felt quite sorry for him. He had lost his mind and she knew it. Still, she remained friends with him and Liz Hardwick for years to come.
The late Fred Morgan (ed. of The Hudson Review) knew Lowell and had seen him during some of these bipolar episodes. Fred also told me that "becoming Catholic" was not such an uncommon event after the horrors of WW II. Even Fred did, for awhile, though, like Lowell, he dropped it later.
Flannery O'Connor felt deeply embarrassed about her role in the Ames affair at Yaddo. She began by being charmed by Lowell, then became alarmed when he started telling her she was a saint reincarnated, and in the end she simply felt quite sorry for him. He had lost his mind and she knew it. Still, she remained friends with him and Liz Hardwick for years to come.
ReplyDeleteThe late Fred Morgan (ed. of The Hudson Review) knew Lowell and had seen him during some of these bipolar episodes. Fred also told me that "becoming Catholic" was not such an uncommon event after the horrors of WW II. Even Fred did, for awhile, though, like Lowell, he dropped it later.