Amy Lowell, Diva Poet

Book excerpt: Bradshaw uses theories of the diva and female celebrity to account for Lowell's extraordinary literary influence in the early twentieth century and the dismissal of her work after her death. Drawing on a rich array of letters, memoirs, newspapers and periodicals, but eschewing the biographical interpretations of her poetry that have often characterized criticism on Lowell, Bradshaw restores Lowell to her rightful place as a powerful writer and impresario of modernist verse.