Maxine Kumin Rocks Forward

Forward's Julia M. Klein delves into Maxine Kumin's posthumous memoir, The Pawnbroker's Daughter, and characterizes Kumin as a poet who "would triumph over her terror and produce distinctive conversational verse drawn from everyday experience." Klein describes Kumin's childhood in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, her early experiences in school and acceptance to Radcliffe College where she met her husband, her first attempts at writing poetry and publishing, and more:

In her poem “Sonnets Uncorseted,” Maxine Kumin bemoans the sexist attitudes that constrained 20th-century American women poets. Immersed in motherhood and domesticity, she confesses to having been “Terrified of writing domestic poems,/… anathema to the prevailing clique of male pooh-bahs[.]”

In her case at least, the pooh-bahs did not have the last word. Kumin, who died in 2014 at the age of 89, would triumph over her terror and produce distinctive conversational verse drawn from everyday experience. A 1973 Pulitzer Prize confirmed her achievement, and many other awards would follow.

In plainspoken prose, “The Pawnbroker’s Daughter,” her posthumous memoir, describes Kumin’s career arc and helps contextualize her poetry. It is a slight book — five overlapping biographical essays rather than a fully realized memoir — but it is nevertheless a useful introduction to the poet and her work.

We learn that the Pulitzer brought Kumin teaching and lecture gigs, enabling her success in what she calls “the poetry business.” That success supported the renovation of Pobiz Farm, the ramshackle New Hampshire retreat that in 1976 became her fulltime home. And the rural landscape, with its foliage, animals (both wild and domestic) and small neighborhood dramas, would in turn inspire much of her poetry.

Learn more at Forward.