[Letter from Robert Lowell to Peter Taylor]

On February 13, 1954, Lowell’s mother, Charlotte, died after suffering two strokes while traveling in Italy. Soon after her death, Lowell, who suffered from bipolar disorder, entered a manic episode. He wrote this letter during his recovery, soon after shock treatments at a mental hospital. In February 1955, Lowell’s wife, Elizabeth Hardwick, told Peter Taylor that Lowell was finally “his old self again.”