THE LETTERS OF SEAMUS HEANEY

The great Irish poet’s letters create a buoyant and complex portrait of a life in art.

Selected by Reid from Heaney’s voluminous correspondence, these letters span his professional and personal relationships. Addressed to editors, close friends, fellow poets (Robert Lowell, Ted Hughes, and Elizabeth Bishop), and others, the work is by turns funny, serious, and considerate; readers will marvel at the consistent compassion and care Heaney showed his varied recipients. In a letter to Hughes about Hughes’ new book, Heaney writes, “I feel the shape of the story was a plough that got deep into the ground of your gift and opened it marvellously. The abundance of the thing from line to line is a blessing.” On another occasion, he writes playfully to a friend, “Suddenly my patter halts. I have fathomed the pit of patter. I grow less fit and fatter. Am I fit to be a father? The farther this fares, the more futile it feels.” Via these lively and kind musings, readers gain a satisfying sense of Heaney’s life, including early financial stress (“at my back I always hear the Bank of Ireland hurrying near,” he wrote in 1977), his literary confidence, and the status of his many works in progress, passages that provide a deeper understanding of his poetry. There’s surprises, as well—e.g., a letter in verse to the editors of “the new Penguin of British verse,” in which he drives home his Irish identity: “But don’t be surprised / if I demure, for, be advised / “My passport’s green. / No glass of ours was ever raised / To toast The Queen.” In these warm, compassionate, and humorous entries, admirers of Heaney will find much to learn and enjoy—even if general readers may get lost in the literary thickets.

An anthology full of insight and delight.