Dream Song: Life of John Berrym [Paperback]

Paul Mariani (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is not a critical biography of Berryman, and readers not familiar with the pulsations and contortions of his poetry might wish that it were. Here, however, is the man, by turns kind, arrogant and belligerent; obsessed with poetry, women and his father's early suicide; a compulsive alcoholic with a self-destructive streak that drove him to suicide in 1972 at age 58. Berryman lived at the very heart of the Anglo-American literary world, associating with the likes of Mark Van Doren, E. P. Blackmur, Delmore Schwartz, Robert Lowell, Randall Jarrell, T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas and W. H. Auden. He possessed a dynamic if sometimes outrageous presence, and was by all accounts a spellbinding teacher. Although he found his poetic voice late and never quite achieved the resonant Yeatsian simplicity he seems to have been looking for, his poetry earned praise and prizes, particularly his autobiographical epic The Dream Songs. In this hefty, copiously researched book, Mariani, biographer of William Carlos Williams, brings us to a closer understanding of the man behind and within the work. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Clearly, this is another definitive work from the author whose biography of William Carlos Williams was nominated for a National Book Award. From Berryman's myriad letters, journal entries, and marginalia, and accounts from family, students, friends, and contemporaries, a picture of the tortured, self-obsessed, and sometimes kind poet emerges. The biographer refrains from imposing a critical view or value judgment on his subject, and his occasional remarks on the poet's difficult personality are amply supported by psychological evidence. Although it incorporates much of Berryman's writing, Mariani's angle on the poet's development is more personalized. This thorough and highly engaging biography will be welcomed by those who admire Berryman's verse and criticism and by those who wish to better understand his stylized, Modernist approach.
- Jean Keleher, Wally Findlay Galleries Lib., Chicago
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 584 pages
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press; 2nd Revised edition edition (March 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558490175
• ISBN-13: 978-1558490178
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,127,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The oldest of seven children from a working-class background, Paul Mariani was born in New York City in 1940 and grew up there and on Long Island. He earned his bachelor's degree from Manhattan College, a Master's from Colgate University, and a Ph.D. from the City University of New York. He is the author of six poetry collections: Deaths & Transfigurations (Paraclete Press, 2005), The Great Wheel (W. W. Norton, 1996), Salvage Operations: New & Selected Poems (1990), Prime Mover (1985), Crossing Cocytus (1982), and Timing Devices (1979).

He has published numerous books of prose, including Thirty Days: On Retreat with the Exercises of St. Ignatius (Viking, 2002), and God and the Imagination: On Poets, Poetry, and the Ineffable (University of Georgia Press, 2002). Other books include A Usable Past: Essays, 1973-1983 (1984), William Carlos Williams: The Poet and His Critics (1975), and A Commentary on the Complete Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins (1970), as well as five biographies: Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Life (Viking, 2008) The Broken Tower: A Life of Hart Crane (W. W. Norton, 1999); Lost Puritan: A Life of Robert Lowell (1994), all named New York Times Notable Books of the year; Dream Song: The Life of John Berryman (1990); and William Carlos Williams: A New World Naked (1981), which won the New Jersey Writers Award, was short-listed for an American Book Award, and was also named a New York Times Notable Book of the year.

His honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has also been shortlisted for the Tait Award for biography. He was Distinguished University Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he taught from 1968 until 2000, when he was named University Professor of English at Boston College. In 2009 he received the John Ciardi Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry. Mariani and his wife, Eileen, have three grown sons and live in western Massachusetts. He is currently working on a memoir of growing up on the mean streets of Manhattan in the 1940s.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Talent and heartbreak, August 22, 2003

By 

Kenneth Wolman (Sea Bright, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dream Song: Life of John Berrym (Paperback)

His father, cuckolded and bankrupt, shot himself under his son's bedroom window.

His mother, who could maybe spell the word "No," married the paramour.

The paramour adopted the boy. He went from being John Allyn Smith to John Berryman. The kid had his identity taken away before he was in his teens. "John Berryman" was one of the great literary fictions of the 20th century. There WAS no John Berryman--there was someone using that name and forever in search of an identity born in pain and betrayal.

It led him to womanizing...not at all curious given his stepfather's and his mother's histories...to an hysterical disposition...and ultimately--or really for years--into incipient and then full-blown alcoholism.

Berryman jumped off that bridge on January 7, 1972, but he died of drinking. He'd been through detoxes and rehabs but he could never figure out how to stay sober. The compulsion was too strong. Ultimately, I suspect, it was his weapon of choice in a lifelong suicide attempt. The bridge simply ended the quest.

Mariani's book isn't just worth having, it's indispensible to understanding Berryman's work: unless you're one of those New Critical purists (are there any left?) who exclude biography from the study of literary production. There isn't much to say about it except it never bores the reader. Alcoholics are notoriously boring and dull people who repeat the same asininities over and over, but Mariani draws us into Berryman's inner life and shows us as well the effect he had on the people around him. It was not always negative...but when it was, it was appalling.

He also, by the way, shows us a great and difficult poet, not just a horse's ass with a gift for getting into trouble. Mariani's description of how Berryman composed "Homage to Mistress Bradstreet" is worth the price of the ticket.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Biography I Ever Read, January 9, 2002

By 

B. Cirelli (Santa Rosa, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dream Song: Life of John Berrym (Paperback)

I didn't know much about John Berryman despite being an English major in college. However, I ran across a magazine article about Paul Mariani and the series of biogrphies he wrote on American poets. It intrigued me enough to pick up Dream Song. All I can say is "WOW!!"
Mariani brings Berryman to life and what a life Berryman had. Yes, Berryman was self destructive but he was also brilliant. Mariani tells the story in such a poignant way that I found myself looking forward each night to the time I could spend reading this book.
If you like biographies, especially literary biographies, then treat yourself to this book. You might also read Mariani's other books. I read his book about Robert Lowell and that was well done. However, Berryman is my favorite of the two.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars i liked it, March 5, 2001

By 

Thomas I. Brown (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dream Song: Life of John Berrym (Paperback)

A good recount of all the pain (much of it self-induced) Berryman went through to be able to find the voice that emerged in the Dream Songs. His childhood, parents, education, heroes, friends, addictions...all of them given appropriate weight in this biography. If you like his poetry, you'll like this book.