Kay Boyle, Artist and Activist

This first critical assessment of Kay Boyle’s long career is both a portrait of the artist and a perceptive appraisal of her work. Kay Boyle’s writing initially appeared with that of the great experimenters of the 1920s, and through the rest of this century hers has remained a vital, origin­al voice. Spanier examines all of Boyle’s work, tracing central themes and concerns that create a single coherent body out of greatly diversified writing that in­cludes 14 novels, 10 collections of short stories, 5 volumes of poetry, 3 children’s books, and 2 essay collections. Because Boyle’s work always springs directly and immediately from personal experience, this book is necessarily a biography. Boyle herself has provided Spanier with letters, unpublished man­uscripts, and pages of personal comment on this study. While the book definitely remains Spanier’s, Kay Boyle’s coopera­tion and participation make the work special.