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contrast between choosing Europe or America. Berenson, starting from
Orthodox Judaism, underwent in his youth a temporary conversion to the
Roman church, his final goal being perhaps no certain faith, with a touch
of esthetic Catholicism. Frost progressed from his mother's "Scotch- Pres–
byterian-Unitarian-Swedenborgianism"
(! )
to atheism, to a home-made
Jamesian-Emersonian belief as the necessary "dare" for living. Both Beren–
son and Frost were shrewd forwarders of their own careers, both not
averse to driving a good bargain, and fundamentally conservative in poli–
tical taste.
It
was the European Jew who became deeply engaged-in his
resistance to fascism- while the American remained "so instinctively
thorough" in mending his fences as to enjoy the friendship of Republicans
out of office and Democrats in. Both were fine specimens of irritable
genius, given to rages on the slightest provocation, both jealous of rivals.
One final instructive contrast: for Frost, a single and enduring, though
difficult love for the girl he met in high school and later married; for
Berenson, a liaison followed by a marriage also sufficiently difficult, but
varied by many loves, some more and some less Platonic.
The two books under review are not quite what we might expect in
relation to their subjects.
1
R obert Frost: The Early Y ears,
the first volume
of an authorized biography, is based on most careful research of every
kind, a typical product of the American academy.
Forty Years with Beren–
son
is the fruit of a long and rich experience, a work of love by a born
writer agreeably unaware of her talents. Nicky Mariano's attitude to her
subject, although sufficiently detached where necessary, is clear and cer–
tain;
it is less easy to say what impulse was dominant in the writing of
the Frost biography.
Although Thompson's tone in his edition of the
S elected L etters of
Robert Frost
was at times harsh, there was always the large presence of
Frost himself in the letters to offset the commentary. (Frost triumphed
similarly over the vanities and inanities of Untermeyer in his collection.)
If
occasionally there was shrewdness, vindictiveness and meanness in
Frost's self-revelation, there was also wit and fun, sensitivity and love,
honesty and the power to endure what few would choose to endure. That
is,
there was greatness and charm, charm sometimes of the sort Frost
admired
in
the Colonial rascal, Stephen Burroughs, "sophisticated wick–
edness, the kind that knows its grounds and can twinkle." As many who
knew Frost can testify, he was a man who could like Berenson make
1. FORTY YEARS WITH BERENSON. By Nicky Mariano. Alfred A. Knopf,
Inc. $6.95.
ROBERT FROST: The Early Years, 1874-1915. By Lawrance Thompson.
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. $12 .50.
