Jean Stafford (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991)
At a glance:
- Author: Charlotte Margolis Goodman
- First Published: 1990
- Type of Work: Literary biography
- Time of Work: 1915-1979
- Setting: California, Colorado, New York, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Maine
- Principal Characters: Jean Stafford, John Stafford, Ethel (nee McKillop) Stafford, Robert (Cal) Lowell
- Genres: Criticism, Nonfiction, Biography
- Subjects: Authors or writers, Literature, Marriage, Writing, Alcoholism or alcoholics, Domestic violence, Mental illness, Substance abuse
- Locales: California, New York, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Colorado, Maine
According to Charlotte Margolis Goodman, Jean Stafford grew up feeling like an unwanted child. The last of the four Stafford children, she was born July 1, 1915, in Covina, California, to John and Ethel (nee McKillop) Stafford. Portrayed throughout this biography as misanthropic, misogynistic, and habitually self- pitying, John Stafford is implicated by Goodman as the primary and most profound cause for his daughter’s feeling unwanted, for her eventual estrangement from the family, as well as for the self-destructive choices she made in her personal life, especially where men and...
[The entire page is 1892 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
