Rockland Public Library: Film Showing- World of Wallace Stevens, Sunday, April 26 at 2:00 PM‏

Rockland, Maine - Alison Johnson, author of Wallace Stevens: A Dual Life as Poet and Insurance Executive, has just released a documentary about Stevens’s life and poetry, The World of Wallace Stevens, which will be screened at the Rockland Public Library on Sunday, April 26 at 2:00 PM. Though Wallace Stevens is now considered one of the key American poets of the 20th century, he did not receive major recognition his Collected Poems was published in 1954, just a year before his death. To make this documentary, Johnson, a resident of the Brunswick area, teamed up with cinematographer Richard Startzman of Santa Fe, who films the Santa Fe opera.

Berkeley professor Charles Altieri has this to say about Johnson's documentary:

I love this film.  It offers an intimate presentation of one of our most self-protective poets.  The result for me is that I like the person much better--especially as a father.

Notre Dame professor Jacqueline  Brogan describes Johnson’s film in these words:

Johnson's documentary/interpretive film on Wallace Stevens is nothing short of brilliant. She makes Stevens, arguably the best American poet of the 20th century, come to life as a person and, as both poet and person, one who matters to our lives. In particular, her revelations about Stevens' thwarted love for a young woman named Sybil Gage reveal a very human Stevens, with whom most of us will identify and sympathize. . . . Johnson has produced a deep unfolding of this poet and his poetry that is itself of the highest lyrical quality.

Producer and director Alison Johnson will present the film and will take questions following the screening and sign copies of her DVD and her biography of Stevens. Rockland Public Library is located at 80 Union St. For more information, please call 594-0310. The program is free and open to the public.