ELIZABETH HARDWICK

by Melissa Turner

Elizabeth Hardwick was a woman who lived a very unfortunate life. Though she was an accomplished literary critic and a novelist she experienced many hardships and disappointments.In the end she managed to turn her life around and become one of the most successful essayists and literary critics of our time. She was born on July 27, 1916. She was one of eleven children of Eugene and Mary Ramsey Hardwick (Kibler, 133). While attending the University of Kentucky, she obtained an A.B. and an M.A. in English Literature (Ward, 380).

Upon graduating college she moved to New York City and began a literary career writing for such magazines as the Partisan Review, The New Yorker, and The Sewanee Review. Hardwick became known as a critical reviewer and an essayist on literary, social, and political matters (Ward, 381). She also helped to establish a new review journal entitled New York Review of Books which became overwhelmingly popular.

On July 28, 1949, Elizabeth Hardwick married one of the era's most important American poets, Robert Lowell. Their marriage proved to be a rocky and unsteady one from the very beginning. Lowell turned out to have many psychological problems which caused Hardwick a lot of unnecessary embarrassment and pain. He had a numerous amount of affairs and publicly lied about Hardwick on several different occasions. Through all the fighting, hurt feelings, and separations, the two truly cared for one another and managed to have one daughter, Harriett Winslow Lowell.

In 1977, on his way to New York where he intended to live once again with Elizabeth Hardwick, Robert Lowell died in a taxi (Showalter, 195). Following Lowell's death, Hardwick did an interview with Richard Locke of the New York Times. She described Lowell as "the most extraordinary per I have ever known, like no one else-- unplaceable, unaccountable."

Elizabeth Hardwick first became noticed as a novelist in 1945 with her first book, The Ghostly Lover. This novel draws its setting from the author's experience of life in the South and in New York City (Kibler, 134). The book, however, was not an overwhelming success and was hardly noticed. Though it was not considered to be very good, it was accepted as a first novel with promise (Ward, 323). Hardwick was very upset by the negative criticism but took it in stride and began concentrating on her second novel hoping to have a best seller.

The Simple Truth, Elizabeth Hardwick's second novel was published in 1955. It's setting was in a courthouse in a small college town pending a murder trial. It had an interesting plot and was very descriptive. This novel gained mixed reviews. Some felt it was boring and dull while others felt it was enticing and well written. Hardwick was better satisfied with the outcome of the book but was still very distraught with the negative criticism.

Sleepless Nights, Elizabeth Hardwick's third and final novel was published in 1979. It is possibly her most inspiring work. This novel is highly autobiographical, based on many of Hardwick's real life experiences. It is set in a nursing home during the month of June, where an old woman who cannot sleep spends many sleepless nights reminiscing about things in her past. Her memory focuses on the unhappy, lonely lives she has seen (Kibler, 136). The people she remembers are very insignificant. They are made significant only because they are remembered (Ward, 383). Many of the people she thinks about are simple, not complex, people, such as a cleaning woman, a bar lady, a homosexual friend, Billie Holiday, and her mother, who bore nine children. Recollections of these people come in the way that memory moves, by free association from place to place and back and forth in time (Ward, 384). The characters in this novel are overwhelmed by the events in their lives and in the end with determination and strong will they persevere and overcome their sorrow. Many but not all of the people mentioned in this novel are courageous. For example, she speaks about the man who took away her virginity and describes their relationship together. The relationship of the man of whom she does not name to her real husband, Robert Lowell, is obvious. Both were very gallant and romantic and loved poetry. Later, she discovers their torrid past after it is too late to walk away.

The man mentioned in this novel was almost fifteen years older than Elizabeth, the narrator of the story. He romances her by using fancy words and buying her things. After taking advantage of her, he leaves without a trace. Elizabeth later finds out that the man fled to Eastern Kentucky and subsequently jumped off a bridge.

Throughout this novel, Elizabeth Hardwick writes about things she has witnessed in her past. Many of these are heart-rending descriptions. For example, she describes her mother as being a person who through all the tragic events in her life did not know who she really was. It seems that her mother's parents died while her mother was very young leaving her mother to be passed around for others to raise. Through years of suffering, trying to raise nine children, her mother overcomes her indifferent past and through many trials in her life, finally conquers her many defeats.

Sleepless Nights gained rave reviews. It was considered to be a wonderful novel with excellent character development. However, after reading this novel I found it to be boring, hard to read, and very confusing. Hardwick jumps from different periods in time without alerting the reader. She was overly descriptive and rambled on far too much about her characters' lives. It is as if she spends more time describing the characters than she does telling the stories. These overly descriptive stories jump around more times than necessary. For example, the author will be describing an event such as going to the laundromat, and then she completely changes her mood. She starts talking about something totally opposite. This causes the reader to have to backtrack, trying to find out what the author is trying to say. Sleepless Nights read very slowly and did not do an adequate job holding my attention. I disagree with the critics; this is not a novel worth reading.

Elizabeth Hardwick received many honors and awards for her life's works: The Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction; George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism; The National Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award in Literature; and The National Book Critics Circle Award Nomination for Sleepless Nights.

Throughout Elizabeth Hardwick's life, she has been through some trying events. From the shaky marriage with Robert Lowell and the failure of two of her novels, she overcame her defeats. Her accomplishments as a literary critic have more than made up for the disappointments of her novels. She has proven herself to be a survivor and a great achiever. When asked how she could accomplish so much coming from such a small place as Lexington, Kentucky, she simply smiles and says, "Kentucky was, is truly home to me, not just a birthplace . . . I have always, since my first breath, been from Kentucky" (Ward, 385).

James, Mertice M. and Dorothy Brown, ed. The Book Review Digest. New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1946.

Kibler, James E., ed. American Novelists Since World War II, Second Series. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1980.

Lesniak, James, ed. Contemporary Authors. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1991.

Mainiero, Lina, ed. American Women Writers. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1980.

Mertice, James M. and Dorothy Brown, ed. The Book Review Digest. New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1956.

Mooney, Martha T., ed. Book Review Digest. New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1980.

Showalter, Elaine, ed. Modern American Women Writers. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1991.

Ward, William S. A Literary History of Kentucky. University of Tennessee Press, 1988.

by Melissa Turner

Novels:

The Ghostly Lover. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1945.

The Simple Truth. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1955.

Sleepless Nights. New York: Random House, 1979.

Nonfiction:

A View of My Own: Essays on Literature and Society. NY: Farrar, Straus, 1962.

Seduction & Betrayal: Women and Literature. New York: Random House, 1974.

Bartleby in Manhattan and Other Essays. New York: Random House, 1983.