Elizabeth Smart : A Fuge Essay on Women and Creativity

Elizabeth Smart, author of By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, has long been seen as a woman determined by 'Romantic' love.

In this suggestive new look at her life, Kim Echlin shows that another -- and powerful -- source of her creativity was rooted in her fearless exploration of the female body and psyche -- as daughter, lover of men and women, and mother of four children.

Elizabeth Smart bucked tradition from the beginning.

She left her bourgeois diplomatic circles in Ottawa to join bohemian artists in England, France, and Mexico.

When she fell in love with a British poet and became pregnant by him, she had her first baby in secret on the west coast of Canada and wrote the book that describes not only a love affair but a searing cycle of betrayal that leads to a woman's new self-assertion.

Through art and having a baby, Elizabeth Smart discovered both her voice and her autonomy -- outside of convention. The daring and pain and elusive moments of joy in this extraordinary life are told through Elizabeth Smart's diaries, poetry, and prose. Echlin brings new material to bear on this reflection, including a hundred interviews with family, friends and work colleagues, as well as never before seen letters in which Smart reflects on birth and female creativity.

She highlights Elizabeth Smart's unwavering commitment to writing in a voice and aesthetic form that reflects authentic female experience.