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Holding on Upside Down

the Life and Work of Marianne Moore
ksoles
Feb 01, 2014ksoles rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
As a self-professed Marianne Moore geek (I wrote my Master's thesis on her poetry), I excitedly and impatiently awaited the release of Linda Leavell's new book for months. And, happily, it did not disappoint. Indeed, Leavell's revealing, respectful biography paints an absorbing picture of of a poet whose work H.D. once likened to “light flashed from a very fine steel blade”. From a cache of 35,000 letters, Leavell uncovers the Moore family's unorthodox dynamic: Marianne never knew her father as he left after a breakdown manifesting itself in religious mania. Marianne and her older brother, Warner, were raised by their mother, Mary, and her lesbian partner, who both encouraged Marianne to attend the progressive women’s college Bryn Mawr. When Marianne returned home, she never left again, spending 37 years living with her mother. From puberty onwards, Marianne's family referred to her as “he”. The family also shared their own secret language, naming each other after characters in "The Wind in the Willows." Mary opposed of her children finding partners, perhaps because of her own wretched experience of marriage. She disallowed Marianne from full-time work, believing her too frail. In their Greenwich Village apartment, Mary cooked in the bathroom and the family ate meals sitting on the bathtub. Nevertheless, Marianne always saw her home as the ideal cradle for her creativity. When her mother died, Marianne was nearly 60 yet admitted that she "did not feel grown up enough to look after herself." While editing America’s leading cultural magazine, "The Dial," in the Twenties, she championed Gertrude Stein and Wallace Stevens. She famously took on Elizabeth Bishop as her protégé and both T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound professed their admiration for her. In her sixties (wearing a black cape and tricorne hat), she was trumpeted as America’s greatest living poet and was photographed by Cecil Beaton for "Vogue." She appeared in commercials and on "The Tonight Show." At 80, she threw the first pitch at Yankee stadium. "Holding On Upside Down" amalgamates a wealth of material with great tact and conviction. Leavell gently paints the depth of love and understanding between Marianne and her mother and argues that, though Mary might not have done her motherly duty of helping her daughter make the leap into adulthood, her devoted ministrations enabled Marianne to see the world through words. She insightfully labels Moore's poetry as an act of survival. Ultimately, Moore thrived within her filial constraints, saw self-discipline as freedom and recognized that she was “hindered to succeed”.