The work and the life …

… The Lives of Lorine Niedecker by Hannah Brooks-Motl. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

 So how important is it to know Niedecker’s biography? Should it matter that Niedecker herself was wary of biographies, expressing dismay to Corman when an editor requested one to accompany her poems: “funny does one need a poet’s life to get at his poetry? Perhaps so, never struck me so, really.” Or should we take Niedecker’s own practice of creating portraits of historical figures such as Jefferson, Darwin, and William Morris—and her use of a citational method that drew on published biographies and correspondence—as proof that her enduring interest in the lives of others might warrant a closer look at the ways in which her own life informs, and even enhances, her work?