A Day Like Any Other: The Life of James Schuyler

Kernan, a poet and editor of The Diary of James Schuyler, delivers an evenhanded and incisive biography of Schuyler (1923–1991), the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Morning of the Poem and a central figure in the 1950s and ’60s New York poetry scene. Kernan is exhaustive in his approach, tracing Schuyler’s roots to one of America’s founding families and detailing his difficult Depression-era childhood. A transformative friendship with the poet W.H. Auden in the 1940s opened him up to the world of poetry. After moving to New York in the 1950s, he met fellow poets John Ashbery, Barbara Guest, Kenneth Koch, and Frank O’Hara, who together became known as the New York School—a group of close friends whose work shared similar sensibilities, including a conversational tone and engagement with surreal and abstract art. Kernan generously excerpts Schuyler’s poems throughout, drawing poignant connections between his subject’s life and work; for example, he notes how Schuyler’s affinity for the Midwest, where he was born, is reflected in his writing, with “its unfussy diction and sense of expansiveness.” He also addresses Schuyler’s history of mental health issues—he experienced anxiety attacks, mental breakdowns, and delusions—carefully and sensitively, sharing friends’ accounts of the poet’s manic episodes, but noting his hospital records were not preserved so his diagnosis remains unclear. The result is a captivating portrait of a complex individual at the heart of a turning point in American poetry. (Aug.)