Annotated Bibliography of Bibliographical, Biographical, and Critical Works on Robinson Jeffers

 

This bibliography is adapted and augmented from Robinson Jeffers: Dimensions of a Poet. Ed. Robert Brophy. Bronx, NY: Fordham University Press, 1995.

Bibliographical:
Albert, S.S. A Bibliography of the Works of Robinson Jeffers. New York: Random House, 1933.

Brophy, Robert. “The Prose of Robinson Jeffers.” Robinson Jeffers Newsletter, 46 (September 1976): 14-36.

Kafka, Robert. “Robinson Jeffers’ Published Writings, 1903-1911.” Robinson Jeffers Newsletter, 53 (June 1979): 14-68.

Rodgers, Covington. “A Checklist of Robinson Jeffers’ Poetical Writings Since 1934.” Robinson Jeffers Newsletter, 48 (March 1977): 11-24.

Rodgers, Covington, and Robert Brophy. “Robinson Jeffers” in First Printings of American Authors. Detroit: Gale Research, 1978, 185-196.

Broomfield, Michael. His Place for Story: Robinson Jeffers: A Descriptive Bibliography. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2015.

Biographical:
Adamic, Louis. Robinson Jeffers: A Portrait. Seattle: University of Washington Chapbook, 1933. Impressions by a fellow author. Reprinted by Yolla Bolly Press, Covelo, CA, 1983, with a foreword by Garth Jeffers.

Bennett, Melba. The Stone Mason of Tor House: The Life and Works of Robinson Jeffers. Los Angeles: Ward Ritchie Press, 1996.
Indispensable for early biography but sketchy on Jeffers’ mid-and late-career and marred by errors.

Greenan, Edith. Of Una Jeffers. Edited by James Karman. Brownsville, OR: Story Line Press, 1998.
Uncritical but useful portrait by Edward Kuster’s second wife.

Karman, James. Robinson Jeffers: Poet of California. Brownsville, OR: Story Line Press, 1995.
The most accurate and complete biographical study of Jeffers. Not full biography.

Karman, James. Robinson Jeffers: Poet and Prophet. Stanford University Press, 2015.
An introduction to Jeffers’ life and work.

Luhan, Mabel. Una and Robin. Berkeley, CA: Friends of the Bancroft Library, 1976.
An appreciation of Una especially and of life at Tor House.

Sterling, George. Robinson Jeffers: The Man and the Artist. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1926.
Early sketch by California poet laureate and close friend.

Criticism:
Baird, James, ed. Jeffers Studies, Vol.1-. Long Beach: California State University, 1997–.
Scholarly journal publishing articles, reviews, news & notes on Jeffers and related figures and topics.

Beers, Terry. “…a thousand graceful subtleties.” Rhetoric in the Poetry of Robinson Jeffers. New York: Peter Lang, 1995.
Aristotelian analysis of Jeffers’ poetry with some close reading of poems.

Beilke, Marlan. Shining Clarity: God and Man in the Works of Robinson Jeffers. Amador City, CA: Quintessence Publications, 1977.
Thorough examination of Jeffers’ religious and philosophical themes with some close reading of poems.

Bennett, Melba. Robinson Jeffers and the Sea. San Francisco, Grabhorn, 1936.
Focus on Jeffers’ water imagery with some psychological probing.

Boswell, Jeanetta. Robinson Jeffers and the Critics, 1912-1983: A Bibliography of Secondary Sources with Selective Annotations. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1986.
An alphabetical listing of critics and their work. Not as substantial as Vardamis but more recent entries.

Brophy, Robert. Robinson Jeffers. Boise, ID: Western Writers Series, 1975.
Fifty-page pamphlet. Introduction to Jeffers, the man, his poetry, and his themes.

Brophy, Robert, ed. Robinson Jeffers: Dimensions of a Poet. New York: Fordham University Press, 1995.
A collection of essays on Jeffers’ use of history, epic, narrative, and apocalyptic genres, his life, career, and prosody.

Brophy, Robert. Robinson Jeffers: Myth, Ritual, and Symbol in His Narrative Poems. Cleveland: Case Western Reserve University Press, 1973.
Jeffers’ adaptation of biblical, Greek, Roman, and Norse myth; his use of cyclic, sacrificial and sacramental imagery in “Tamar,” “Roan Stallion,” “Cawdor,” “The Tower Beyond Tragedy,” and Jeffers’ ars poetica lyric “Apology for Bad Dreams.”

Brophy, Robert, ed. Robinson Jeffers Newsletter, Number 1-100. Los Angeles: Occidental College/Long Beach: California State University, 1962-1996.
Begun as a bulletin under Melba Bennett, developed into a full journal with articles and current Jeffersiana.  Number 100, closing the series, features a 60-page index by 53 categories.

Carpenter, Frederic I. Robinson Jeffers. New York: Twayne, 1962.
The basic introduction to Jeffers’ life, genres, themes, aesthetics.

Coffin, Arthur. Robinson Jeffers: Poet of Inhumanism. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1971.
Jeffers’ philosophical influences and themes. Analyses of poems.

Dotson, John. The Enduring Voice: A Tor House Journal. San Luis Obispo, CA: Mariposa Press, 1987.
Thoughts on Jeffers by another poet when he was poet in residence.

Everson, William. The Excesses of God: Robinson Jeffers as a Religious Figure. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988.
Examination of Jeffers according to the categories of Rudolph Otto. Jeffers as mystic, not philosopher.

Everson, William. Archetype West: The Pacific Coast as a Literary Region. Berkeley, CA: Oyez, 1976.
Jeffers as a central figure in study of the Pacific Coast as arousing and exemplifying Western themes.

Everson, William. Robinson Jeffers: Fragments of an Older Fury. Berkeley, CA: Oyez, 1968.
Six essays and the elegy “The Poet is Dead.” Jungian analysis of poems.

Gilbert, Rudolph. Shine Perishing Public: Robinson Jeffers and the Tragic Sense in Modern Poetry. Boston: Humphries, 1936.
An enthusiastic placing of Jeffers among the all-time “Greats.” Based partly on significant correspondence from Jeffers.

Hart, George. Inventing the Language to Tell It: Robinson Jeffers and the Biology of Consciousness. Fordham University Press, 2013.
Combines ecocriticism with religious studies and neuroscience to probe Jeffers’ relationship to nature and his significance for environmental literature.

Hotchkiss, Bill. Jeffers: The Sivaistic Vision. Auburn, CA: Blue Oak, 1975.
Reexamination of Jeffers’ critics and close reading of poems.

Hughey, Richard, and Boon Hughey. Jeffers Country Revisited. Long Beach, CA: Robinson Jeffers Newsletter No. 98-99, 1996.
Identification of poems with the geographical location and history of over 200 place names in Jeffers’ poetry, listing with each of their poems.

Karman, James. Critical Essays on Robinson Jeffers. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1990.
A gathering of key critical commentaries on Jeffers’ works according to each’s publication event. Ends with 13 essays on the poet by later critics. Comprehensive 32-page introduction.

Monjian, Mercedes. Robinson Jeffers: A Study in Inhumanism. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1958.
Brief pioneering comment on Jeffers themes and philosophy.

Nolte, William. Rock and Hawk. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1978.
A reexamination of Jeffers’ romanticism with readings of poems.

Powell, Lawrence Clark. Robinson Jeffers: The Man and His Work. Los Angeles: Primavera Press, 1934; 2nd edition Pasadena: San Pasqual Press, 1940.
First and for a long time the primary introduction to Jeffers’ life, art, themes, and genres. Exhibited the first of the maps of “Jeffers Country,” coached by Una Jeffers.

Shebl, James. In This Wild Water: The Suppressed Poems of Robinson Jeffers. Pasadena: Ward Ritchie Press, 1976.
Exposes the pressures from and editorial interference of Random House with the Double Axe volume.

Squires, Radcliffe. The Loyalties of Robinson Jeffers. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1956. Key work on Jeffers’ relationship to Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Lucretius. etc. A basic work on Jeffers’
philosophic themes.

Thesing, William, ed. Robinson Jeffers and a Galaxy of Writers. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995.
Essays on Jeffers and Merwin, Dickey, Mallarme, Stevens, Yeats, Frost, Snyder, Eliot, Lawrence. Discussions of Jeffers’ syntax, poetics, romanticism, transcendentalism, narrative, myth, etc.

Vardamis, Alexander. The Critical Reputation of Robinson Jeffers. Hamden, CT: Archon Press, 1972. A thorough listing of literary criticism on Jeffers, divided into reviews, articles, and books, each abstracted. 40-page introduction.

White, Kenneth. The Coast Opposite Humanity. Dyfed, England: Unicorn, 1975.
Short essay on Jeffers’ poetics and philosophy by an English poet.

Zaller, Robert. Centennial Essays for Robinson Jeffers. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1991. Twelve critical essays, mostly first-time appearances, on Jeffers poetics, critical reputation, politics, individual poems, etc.

Zaller, Robert. The Cliffs of Solitude: A Reading of Robinson Jeffers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Analysis of Jeffers in a Freudian mode with close readings of many poems, mostly narratives.

Zaller, Robert. Robinson Jeffers and the American Sublime. Stanford University Press, 2012.
Argues for Jeffers’ place in a distinctively American tradition of the sublime.

Zaller, Robert. The Atom To Be Split: New and Selected Essays on Robinson Jeffers. Carmel, CA: Tor House Press, 2019.