SOURCE: "A Life of Poetry and Suffering," in The New Republic, Vol. 183, No. 22, November 29, 1980, pp. 38-40.

Maxwell was an American novelist, short story writer, and editor. In the following review of Journey around My Room, a volume edited by Ruth Limmer, he calls Limmer's work "a labor of love" and comments on Bogan's life and career.

At two different periods in her life Louise Bogan kept a journal, most of which was published in the New Yorker, in the issue of January 30, 1980. Drawing on this, and on her letters, poems, stories, literary criticism, and conversation, Ruth Limmer has made a narrative mosaic that she calls the autobiography of Louise Bogan [Journey Around My Room]. Autobiography presupposes the writer in the driver's seat. It is a handling over, by the writer, of his or her life, and it stands or falls by its candor, which is felt in a...