The Real West Marginal Way: A Poet's Autobiography

Of Richard Hugo's Making Certain It Goes On, David Wagoner has written: "Richard Hugo spared himself (and us) no pains or joys in making the wonderful, vigorous original poems brought together in this single collection. His was and is a very important voice in modern American poetry."

Hugo was also an editor of the Yale Younger Poets series and a distinguished teacher and master of the personal essay. Now many of his essays have been assembled and arranged by Ripley Hugo, the poet's widow and a writer and teacher, and Lois and James Welch, writers and close friends of the poet. Together the essays constitute a compelling autobiographical narrative that takes Hugo from his lonely childhood through the war years and his working and creative life to an interview just before his death in 1982. William Matthews, also a friend of Hugo's, has written an introduction.

Hugo's poetry is about the search for roots, our need to adapt to change so that everywhere is home; his poems embrace the whole American landscape. These loosely assembled, autobiographical and critical essays by the poet take us from his neurotic childhood in Seattle, where he was raised by strict grandparents who beat him, through a stint of teaching and hard drinking in Montana, to his treatment in psychotherapy and his happy, productive second marriage. One piece about his World War II experience as a pilot draws sardonic parallels to Catch-22. The title essay on West Marginal Way, a street in his hometown near Puget Sound, reveals that Hugo (who died in 1982) continually returned to rivers and to nature for inspiration. Also included are occasional pieces on his obsessions, baseball and movies, and an amusing essay explaining how his over-identification with Wallace Stevens enabled him to keep writing.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A distinguished poet and teacher, and editor of the Yale Younger Poets Series, Hugo died of leukemia in 1982. As was Making Certain It Goes On: the collected poems of Richard Hugo (Norton, 1984), the present volume is being issued posthumously. Not a typical autobiography, this collection of personal essays followed by an interview creates a composite picture of the poet's life and art. Hugo's difficult childhood, his love of softball, his service in World War II, his marriages, and his drinking problem are among the topics covered. Hugo comments on his poems throughout, and his explanations of their background provide a rare glimpse into the poet's creative process. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries with strong contemporary poetry collections. William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.