Gratitude first and foremost to the memory and the work of Elizabeth Hardwick and Robert Lowell, out of love and respect for which many hands have helped make this edition possible. Harriet Lowell and Sheridan Lowell supported its publication, alongside Evgenia Citkowitz and Ivana Lowell. Harriet Lowell and Evgenia Citkowitz gave generous and particular care to accuracy throughout, with spirit, candor, humor, and sensitivity.
For their generosity of time and knowledge with points of information or other matters large and small, my thanks to Bashir Abu-Manneh, Isabella Alimonti, Hilton Als, Alex Andriesse, Judith Aronson, Thomas Austenfeld, Steven Axelrod, Richard J. Bernstein, Bonnie Costello, Theo Cuffe, Christina Davis, Ronald Dworkin, Neal Earhart, Rachel Eisendrath, James Fenton, Jennifer Formichelli, Phillip Fry, Marilyn Gaull, Grey Gowrie, Neiti Gowrie, Jorie Graham, Eliza Griswold, Beth Gutierrez, Jeffrey Gutierrez, Robert Hass, Philip Horne, Madeline ter Horst-Mees, Michiel ter Horst, Fanny Howe, Janna Israel, Marina Klimova, Jerome Kohn, Jane Kramer, Sophie Lambrechtsen-ter Horst, Katy Lee, Jeremy Lever, Dale Loy, Frank Loy, Ben Mazer, Jim McCue, Anna Meister, Edward Mendelson, Warren Myers, Sophia Niehaus, Diederik Oostdijk, Katie Peterson, Paul Podolsky, Alice Quinn, Melissa Renn, Lloyd Schwartz, Robert Silvers, David Stang, Colm Tóibín, Thomas A. Traill, Thomas Travisano, Alyssa Valles, Allison Vanouse, Margo Viscusi, Dianne Wiest, and Fiona Wilson. Thanks also to Frank Bidart for his help, his friendship, and his devotion to Lowell’s work. Archie Burnett and the faculty, students, and staff of the Editorial Institute at Boston University helped provide the intellectual, textual, and bibliographic framework to address editorial questions raised by the letters. Kay Redfield Jamison lent her illuminating understanding of Lowell’s illness and character. Christina Ellsberg, Emily Kramer, and Madeleine Walker read the letters with special scrutiny and insight.
For their support of the time needed to work on the correspondence, my gratitude to Christopher Baswell, Linda A. Bell, Leslie Cawley, Lisa Gordis, Mary Gordon, Ross Hamilton, LaShawn Keyser, Emma Murdock, Sarah Pasadino, Rio Santisteban-Edwards, Timea Szell, and other colleagues at Barnard; and to Danielle Barry-Alicea, Lowry Bass, Yasmin Begum, Cheyenne Gleason, Sasha Guseynalieva, Katy Lee, and Georgia Stiponias. I am deeply grateful to all of my family, and wish to thank for their specific help with this edition Andrew Hamilton, Claudia Hamilton, Emma Hamilton, John Hamilton, Julia Hamilton, Claar Hugenholtz-Wiarda, Elise Hugenholtz, Paul Hugenholtz, Lycke Kagenaar, Francis O’Neill, Belinda Rathbone, Eliza Rathbone, Arent van Wassenaer, Alexander van Wassenaer, Diederick van Wassenaer, Geertruid van Wassenaer, Louise van Wassenaer-Wiarda, Elise Wiarda, and Just Wiarda. Also, absent friends.
Thanks to the librarians and staff of the Barnard Library and its archives (with particular gratitude to Jennifer Green, Vani Natarajan, and Martha Tenney); the Butler Library, Columbia University; the Catherine Pelton Durrell ’25 Archives and Special Collections at Vassar College (Dean M. Rogers and Ronald D. Patkus); the Cecil Beaton Studio Archive at Sotheby’s (Emma Nichols); the Firestone Library, Princeton University; the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin (Reid Echols and Richard B. Watson); the Houghton Library, Harvard University (Susan Halpert and Leslie A. Morris); the Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library (John Cordovez, Cara Dellatte, Nasima Hasnat, Thomas Lannon, Meredith Mann, Tal Nadan, Victor Ou, David Pedrero, Nikolas Swihart, Ted Teodoro, and Kyle Triplett); and the Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University (Brendan McDermott).
At Farrar, Straus and Giroux, my thanks to Scott Auerbach, Carolina Baizan, Maureen Bishop, David Emcke, Victoria Fox, Robin Gold, Susan Goldfarb, Debra Helfand, Logan Hill, Spenser Lee, Jonathan D. Lippincott, Katie Liptak, Devon Mazzone, Pauline Post, Lauren Roberts, Jeff Seroy, Ian Van Wye, and Molly Walls—and especially to Jonathan Galassi, whose quickness of perception and deep sense of the past in the present guided the book through production with grace, wit, and precision.
The editors of the OED note in their definition of thanks that the feeling of gratitude and its expression pass so naturally into one another that it “is not easy to separate them.” So it is with my gratitude during this editorial work for the exceptional understanding, accompaniment, and brightness of genius given by Catherine Barnett, James Fenton, Paul Keegan, Darryl Pinckney, Christopher Ricks, Claudia Rankine, John Ryle, Meg Tyler, and—most of all—Lucien Hamilton.