January 1, 1962
Reply
Mr. Bentley commissioned a translation of Racine. He did not get one. Instead, he received a variation on the theme of Phèdre, a poetic analogue, often brilliant, but rarely concordant […]
January 1, 1962
Comment
George Steiner has borne down hard on Robert Lowell’s translation of Phaedra, and I must take issue with him. Mr. Steiner’s criticism submits “that [Robert Lowell’s Phaedra has an unsteady […]
October 1, 1961
Comment
In your summer issue I find an article by Mr. Hilary Corke on Gertrude Stein which contains the observation that “Mr. Sutherland’s writing seems remarkably to combine the maxima of […]
October 1, 1961
Reply
It is a pity that Mr. Sutherland could not have paid more attention to my argument and less to my style. To all but his last paragraph I can only […]
October 1, 1961
The Closed Mind of Sergei Eisenstein
The great success of the 1925 Moscow film season was not Potemkin, but some undistinguished Hollywood colossus; some thirty-five years later, Eisenstein had his season in New York. His huge […]
July 1, 1961
The Business at Hand
June 20 Dear Sir: The gloomy rains continue, and things feel damp and clammy to the touch. I trust that your efforts to keep your spirits from flagging have met […]
July 1, 1961
St.-John Perse’s Guadeloupe
When I visited Guadeloupe, where St.-John Perse spent his first eleven years, I understood the precision of the French critic’s observation that Perse is “a poet who only says what […]
April 1, 1961
Just an Impression
There sat the diplomat-poet, as cool as water, and four scientists on the carpeted stage of the concert house, in front of the King of Sweden and 2000 guests of […]
April 1, 1961
The Museum
In the high street of my county town, the county museum flanks the Church of St. Michael and All Angels. This church was much restored within—without, it was equipped with […]
April 1, 1961
The Ballad and the Source
In a sense, it hardly matters what one says about The Virgin Spring, or about Bergman. No matter; the latest Bergman is upon us, and, predictably, the college kids will […]