tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759055.post115755511984736165..comments2024-01-21T11:10:06.779-06:00Comments on Michael Allyn Wells: Another Ashbery QuestionMichael A. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06015233939646285069noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759055.post-1157998723194088842006-09-11T13:18:00.000-05:002006-09-11T13:18:00.000-05:00The article was indeed interesting on several poin...The article was indeed interesting on several points. Like you, Ashbery's inconclusive response seems hard to imagine. Still, it was some fifty years ago. Perhaps there are some things that one tries not to tax their mind on after a while.Michael A. Wellshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06015233939646285069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759055.post-1157992790530763892006-09-11T11:39:00.000-05:002006-09-11T11:39:00.000-05:00First of all, thanks for linking to my article! A ...First of all, thanks for linking to <A HREF="http://www.valleyadvocate.com/gbase/News/content.html?oid=oid%3A153060" REL="nofollow">my article</A>! A small point, though. As I understand it, <I>Some Trees</I> was not initially rejected by Auden -- it didn't make it through the slush pile. Auden was unhappy with the short list of manuscripts the press had sent him and then asked Ashbery and O'Hara to send him their manuscripts. He then chose Ashbery's manuscript.<BR/><BR/>I asked Ashbery if winning the Yale was what changed everything for him and he said that it might have been the Fulbright that sent him to France that made more of a difference. That surprised me. But it was interesting to me that he really didn't know if he would keep writing poetry at that point, because his poetry was so out-of-step with the <I>Kenyon Review</I>, <I>Poetry Magazine</I> asthetic of the time.Andrew Varnonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17191932390715836888noreply@blogger.com