Books Podcast: Robert Lowell’s centenary

For this week’s podcast, in celebration of Robert Lowell’s centenary year, I’m joined by the critic and writer Jonathan Raban — who not only knew this titan among American poets of the last century, but lived in his basement, and found himself contributing to literary history when Lowell took to consulting him, on the hoof, as to how to revise his sonnets. Jonathan talks about the rise and fall of Lowell’s reputation, how his madness affected his art, how Lowell caused him a year of non-speakers with Ian Hamilton, and the enduring greatness of the verse. Plus, how it all started with a manic lunch in an Italian restaurant…

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