Description
It is in the letters of John Donne (1571/2-1631) that the vulnerable candour underlying the vagaries of the poems is manifest. They are, as it were, the historical and spiritual substructure of his fluent and indefatigable imagination.
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Whether sharing his anxieties about writing, consoling bereaved friends, complaining about the meanness of a patron, or defending himself against malicious gossip, John Donne reveals himself in these letters with a directness that can be found nowhere else in his writings. The 95 included letters, dating from the late 1590s until a short time before Donne's death, constitute approximately half of his surviving correspondence and are addressed to a variety of recipients, revealing his role as not only a poet but as a father, son, husband, friend, suitor, courtier, and pastor. Although what the letters reveal is far from edifying, they corroborate the impression created by Donne's better-known writings that he was one of the most remarkable figures the English Renaissance produced.
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