[Rarebooks] FS: Correspondence/Manuscript Notes on THE ODYSSEY: MacLeish and Robert Fitzgerald

[Charles Agvent]

MacLEISH, Archibald and FITZGERALD, Robert. AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT and TWO 
AUTOGRAPH LETTERS SIGNED (ALSs). Hamden, CT, 27 February 1978 and 4 
March 1978. Two handwritten two-page letters on both sides of an 8-1/2" 
x 11" sheet SIGNED "Robert" to MacLeish along with a page of notes 
handwritten in pencil by MacLeish and a small card in pencil and ink 
written by MacLeish. The notes refer to consciousness with MacLeish 
mentioning HAMLET and Beethoven: "Works of art not only suggest 
consciousness in others, they demonstrate it." Fitzgerald's letters are 
about his famous translation of the THE ODYSSEY and MacLeish's reaction 
to it as well as identification of Homer with his hero Odysseus, and in 
context is surely a response to a query by MacLeish regarding one line 
in the poem. In part: "The thing is that in the poem Homer identifies 
himself with Odysseus who famously knew the world.... He endows his hero 
with his own powers. Alkinoös thus observes that these powers belong to 
a man who knows the world.... The dramatic CONTEXT makes my rendering a 
true rendering. I hope this leaves it less obscure. I believe it's true, 
too." Fitzgerald goes into more detail, but this is most pertinent to 
what MacLeish has written on the small card: "Robert Fitzgerald and 'a 
poet -- a man who knows the world.'" In an article by poet Donald Hall 
titled "Visiting the MacLeishes" in THE NEW YORK TIMES on 9 July 1978, a 
few months after Fitzgerald's letters, MacLeish tells Hall how he read 
aloud Robert Fitzgerald's translation of THE ODYSSEY to his wife Ada, 
and how he found a line that he had never seen before, a line translated 
differently by other translators. "In the 11th book, Odysseus tells his 
story to Alkinoös, who answers him saying that Odysseus has told his 
story, 'As a poet would, a man who knows the world.' MacLeish pauses to 
let the line sink in. He shakes his head. 'These are the words that 
needed for years. Who does know the world? Not the businessman. Not the 
scientist. Yes Shakespeare, Homer, Dante. This is what makes greatness 
in a poet: to know the world.'" Near Fine. (#020632)        $350

https://www.charlesagvent.com/pages/books/020632/archibald-macleish-robert-fitzgerald/autograph-manuscript-and-two-autograph-letters-signed-alss

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