The Idea of Order at Key West (For Further Study)

For Further Study

• Bates, Milton, Sur Plusieurs Beaux Sujects: Wallace Stevens’ Commonplace Book, Stanford University Press, 1989.

  This is a valuable collection of facsimiles and transcriptions of Stevens’ poems and journal entries.

• Filreis, Alan, Wallace Stevens and the Actual World, Princeton University Press, 1991.

  Filreis provides one of the very best books on Stevens. Like Longenbach, Filreis shows how Stevens responds in his poetry to social and political events of his time.

• Fisher, Barbara M., Wallace Stevens: The Intensest Rendezvous, University Press of Virginia, 1990.

  This book maps the erotic and romantic progress of Stevens throughout his poetry, including an interesting reading of the female singer in “The Idea of Order at Key West.”

• Richardson, Joan, Wallace Stevens: The Early Years: 1879 – 1923, William Morrow, 1988.

  Richardson’s work is a wonderful biography of the early phase of Stevens’ life and poetic career.

• — — — , Wallace Stevens: The Later Years: 1923 – 1955, William Morrow, 1988.

  Richardson’s second volume offers an even more compelling reading than the first volume in this series.

• Stevens, Holly, ed., Letters of Wallace Stevens, Alfred A. Knopf, 1966.

  This text edited by Stevens’ daughter, is a very generous collection of his letters to various acquaintances, other writers, and publishers.