Dec 29, 2009
Dream Song | Dream Song
At a glance:
- Author: Paul Mariani
- First Published: 1990
- Type of Work: Literary biography
- Time of Work: 1914-1972
- Setting: McAlester, Oklahoma; Tampa, Florida; New York City; South Kent, Connecticut;
Cambridge, England; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Princeton, New Jersey; Cincinnati, Ohio; Iowa
City, Iowa; and Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Principal Characters: John Berryman (born John Allyn Smith, Jr., John Allyn Smith, Sr., Martha Little Smith (Jill) Berryman, John Angus (Uncle Jack) Berryman, Mark Van Doren, Bhain Robert Campbell, Eileen Mulligan Berryman, Elizabeth Ann Levine Berryman, Kathleen Donahue (Kate) Berryman
- Genres: Nonfiction, Biography
- Subjects: Family or family life, Suicide, Literature, Poetry or poets, Alcoholism or alcoholics, Substance abuse, Death or dying, Drug addiction or addicts, Clocks or watches
- Locales: New York, NY, Connecticut, Cincinnati, OH, Cambridge, MA, Oklahoma, Minneapolis, MN, Cambridge, England, Princeton, NJ, Iowa City, IA, Tampa, FL
John Berryman, the subject of Paul Mariani’s study, sought love and fame throughout
his life with a persistence few possess; nevertheless, his self-destructiveness, best seen in his
irascible personality, his womanizing, and his addictions to alcohol and pills, usually cost him the
prizes he sought soon after successful struggles to obtain them. Numerous love affairs and the
life-style of a drug-taking alcoholic were beyond the endurance of the three angelic women who
married him. Temper tantrums in the classroom and petty feuds with colleagues contributed to his
losing at least two...
[The entire page is 2033 words long]
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