Wallace Stevens
The poet Wallace Stevens is said to have been baptized a Catholic during his last days suffering from stomach cancer. This account is disputed, particularly by Stevens's daughter, Holly, and critic, Helen Vendler, who, in a letter to James Wm. Chichetto, thought Fr. Arthur Hanley was "forgetful" since "he was interviewed twenty years after Stevens' death." In his response, Chichetto noted that Vendler ignored "the testimony of Dr. Edward Sennett (in charge of the Radiology Dept. at St. Francis Hospital when Stevens was admitted both times) and the Sisters with whom he talked in 1977 (and later) who believed Fr. Hanley's account."
Read more about this topic: Deathbed Conversion, Suggested Deathbed Conversions
Famous quotes by wallace stevens:
“Canaries in the morning, orchestras
In the afternoon, balloons at night. That is
A difference, at least from nightingales,
Jehovah and the great sea-worm.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The imagination is man’s power over nature.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“And the chandeliers are neat . . .
But their mignon, marblish glare!
We are cold, the parrots cried,
In a place so debonair.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“They are not flat surfaces
Having curved outlines.
They are round
Tapering toward the top.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“How full of trifles everything is! It is only one’s thoughts that fill a room with something more than furniture.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)