bPULITZER PRIZE FINALIST - In this magisterial study of the relationship between illness and art, the best-selling author of iAn Unquiet Mind, iKay Redfield Jamison, brings an entirely fresh understanding to the work and life of Robert Lowell 1917-1977, whose intense, complex, and personal verse left a lasting mark on the English language and changed the public discourse about private matters.brbbrIn his poetry, Lowell put his manic-depressive illness now known as bipolar disorder into the public domain, and in the process created a new and arresting language for madness. Here Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison brings her expertise in mood disorders to bear on Lowell's story, illuminating not only the relationships between mania, depression, and creativity but also how Lowell's illness and treatment influenced his work and often became its subject. A bold, sympathetic account of a poet who was--both despite and because of mental illness--a passionate, original observer of the human condition.