Twenty-First Century Marianne Moore

Book excerpt: This collection represents a new range of critical awareness and marks the burgeoning of what is a twenty-first-century Marianne Moore renaissance. The essays explore Moore’s participation in modernist movements and communities, her impact on subsequent generations of artists, and the dynamics of her largely disregarded post-World War II career. At the same time, they track the intersection of the evolution of her poetics with cultural politics across her career. Drawing on fresh perspectives from previously unknown biographical material and new editions and archives of Moore’s work, the essays offer particularly interesting insights on Moore’s relationships and her late career role as a culture icon.