Perspectives: Uncollected Essays

This hybrid of memoir and essay is a tour de force in breadth as well as depth. DeWitt Henry explores the profound intersection of memory, geography, and personal identity. The author meticulously maps his physical surroundings in Boston and Watertown. Through his daily commutes, he anchors his internal reflections on family loss and professional transitions. Henry examines the fragility of human connection by revisiting his childhood in suburban Philadelphia, his experiences as a young academic at Emerson College, and the founding of the literary magazine Ploughshares. Through vivid anecdotes of past romances to the "displaced persons" of his youth, Henry investigates how art and imagination provide the necessary, albeit imperfect, sense of "wholeness" in an ephemeral world. Ultimately, these essays serve as a meditation on the physicality of the body and the inevitable search for clarifying perspectives in one's life.