In medias res ...

... Patrick Kurp reviews The Keats Brothers: The Life of John and George by Denise Gigante | Quarterly Conversation. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Gigante fixes the Keats family in a world-historical context, in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States, and lesser-known economic booms and busts. Only after George immigrates in 1818 to the United States, where he settles in Kentucky and builds a steam-driven sawmill near Beargrass Creek in Louisville, does John write his finest poetry, almost as though loss and grief spurred his genius. He composed the six great odes in the spring of 1819, after Tom’s death and George’s departure. To George in America, between February 14 and May 3, he wrote the lengthy journal-letter that stands as one of the monuments of English literature.