A SPLENDID INTELLIGENCE

A respectfully measured biography of the famed literary critic and fiction writer.

Many readers may wonder why Elizabeth Hardwick (1916-2007) isn’t as recognized or widely read today as some of her equally formidable contemporaries—e.g., Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, and Joan Didion. Though Curtis never fully answers that quandary, treading carefully around some of the messier bits, she offers a sturdy biographical account that relates the key milestones of Hardwick’s personal and professional lives. Through sheer determination and intelligence, Kentucky-born Hardwick swiftly emerged as a highly influential voice in the postwar New York literary scene. She published two early novels, and her short fiction, essays, and reviews appeared in several notable publications. In 1962, she co-founded the New York Review of Books with her husband, poet Robert Lowell, and others. In 1979, she received attention for Sleepless Nights, an experimental and quasi-autobiographical novel, though she is best remembered for her criticism and essays. At the center of her life and this narrative was her turbulent 20-year marriage to Lowell. Throughout his frequent bipolar episodes and extramarital affairs, she remained tirelessly devoted to their marriage, until their final rift began when he included excerpts of Hardwick’s private letters within the sonnets in his 1973 collection The Dolphin. With many of Hardwick’s contemporaries no longer living, Curtis relies heavily on her subject’s published writing and correspondences. It’s not until later chapters, when Hardwick is teaching at Barnard, that we get some firsthand reflections. Prominent writers, including Ann Beattie, Mary Gordon, Susan Minot, and Elizabeth Benedict, recall Hardwick’s sharp intelligence and charismatic style yet also convey her tendency for being cruel and malicious. Indeed, Hardwick had a reputation for being unsparing in her literary criticism. Readers may wish for a less constrained exploration of this complex individual, but Curtis brings to light a cultural fixture deserving of more attention.

An engaging and well-documented yet somewhat anemic portrait of a brilliant and deeply opinionated writer.