KARL SHAPIRO - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 03/13/1976 - HFSID 185881

KARL SHAPIRO
Shapiro typed this letter in 1976 on his personalized stationery about how his process of writing poetry
Typed letter signed "Karl Shapiro" in blue ink. 1 page, 7¼x10½, on Shapiro's personalized stationery. Davis, California, March 13, 1976. Addressed to "Mrs. Davis". In full: "Dear Mrs. Davis: I can't write out a poem because I don't actually compose that way. I write a lot of notes and make a lot of changes and corrections in writing a poem but eventually I transfer it all to the typewriter and the handwriting process disappears - a kind of 'lost wax' method. I hope your grandson's affliction is not too great. I have been reading PARADISE LOST for the hundredth time and am more than ever amazed that Milton could compose this vast masterpiece in total blindness. It is beyond my comprehension and I am thinking of writing a poem about it. A few years ago I wrote such a poem on Beethoven's deafness. My best wishes to Alan. Sincerely,". Shapiro (1913-2000) was an American poet who published his first collection, Poems in 1935 and his last, The Wild Card, in 1998. He wrote several volumes of poetry while serving in the United States Army Medical Corps, winning a Pulitzer Prize for Essay on Rime in 1945 while in uniform and serving in the South Pacific. Although he taught for most of his life, he condemned domination of American poetry by tradition-bound academics. Termed "the bourgeois poet" by a hostile critic, he embraced the term, using it as a title for his 1964 book. Before his death Shapiro completed two volumes of a projected 3-volume autobiography. Lightly toned. Page has been folded in six and unfolded. Otherwise in fine condition.