Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and John Ashbery stand out among major American poets - all three shaped the direction and pushed the boundaries of contemporary poetry on an international scale. Drawing on biography, cultural history, and original archival research, MacArthur shows us that these distinctive poets share one surprisingly central trope in their oeuvres: the Romantic scene of the abandoned house. This book scrutinizes the popular notion of Frost as a deeply rooted New Englander, demonstrates that Frost had an underestimated influence on Bishop - whose preoccupation with houses and dwelling is the obverse of her obsession with travel - and questions dominant, anti-biographical readings of Ashbery as an urban-identified poet. As she reads poems that evoke particular landscapes and houses lost and abandoned by these poets, MacArthur also sketches relevant cultural trends, including patterns of rural de-settlement, the transformation of rural economies from agriculture to tourism, and modern American s increasing mobility and rootlessness.

Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and John Ashbery stand out among major American poets - all three shaped the direction and pushed the boundaries of contemporary poetry on an international scale. Drawing on biography, cultural history, and original archival research, MacArthur shows us that these distinctive poets share one surprisingly central trope in their oeuvres: the Romantic scene of the abandoned house. This book scrutinizes the popular notion of Frost as a deeply rooted New Englander, demonstrates that Frost had an underestimated influence on Bishop - whose preoccupation with houses and dwelling is the obverse of her obsession with travel - and questions dominant, anti-biographical readings of Ashbery as an urban-identified poet. As she reads poems that evoke particular landscapes and houses lost and abandoned by these poets, MacArthur also sketches relevant cultural trends, including patterns of rural de-settlement, the transformation of rural economies from agriculture to tourism, and modern American s increasing mobility and rootlessness.

Luise M. Prechtel was born in Bayreuth, Germany, on March 13, 1930. Her biography Luise from Bayreuth relates her memories-from growing up in Nazi Germany and meeting an American soldier, to family life in Waltham, Massachusetts, and her epic struggle against a progressive form of multiple sclerosis. Luise's adolescent years were filled with vivid recollections of life in Germany, including treasured moments from a traditional German Christmas. The occupation of the city by the Americans at the end of World War II led to a fateful meeting with a young American teacher named G. Lorne MacArthur, or Lornie, as she liked to call him. The young couple quickly fell in love and in December of 1954, they were married. After the birth of two daughters, Luise displayed constant flu-like symptoms that never seemed to go away. Years later, she received the devastating diagnosis-she was suffering from multiple sclerosis. Throughout the years, Luise battled and survived breast cancer, but she later succumbed to the complications of MS. Her husband Lornie remained her sole caregiver, and together they demonstrated to all the meaning of true love. determination.