The Force of Desire; A Life of William Bronk
by Lyman Gilmore
Talisman House, 2006.
Paper. 348 pages.

This is a welcome look at the life of William Bronk, a fiercely intelligent poet and writer, from the author of Don’t Touch the Poet, a life of Joel Oppenheimer. Positive points about the book abound: we learn about Bronk’s unusual ability to write “one-offs” of his poems without stopping for revision; we find that he was on a first-name basis with Robert Frost; we see that we was a collector of his friends’ artworks, a grand host, a great cook, and an intriguing letter writer. The photographs, too, ground Bronk in the world he loved so much to describe. On the other hand, Gilmore’s book seems to lack the focus of his biography of Oppenheimer and to eventually break down into a collection of items about Bronk, rather than present a unified whole. Gilmore is at his weakest when he attempts to write about Bronk’s poetry and his homosexuality, both central subjects to any study of Bronk.

In short, the definitive biography of this major American poet has yet to be written. In the meantime, The Force of Desire remains a good introduction for those who are just discovering the work.