Regarding Dickey, I had a couple of undergrad classes with his biographer (and eventual poet laureate of Virginia) Henry Hart. Henry is a very polite man -- genteel in the New England sense. He would occasionally tell the class stories about trying to connect with Dickey for the biography, and Dickey would hang-up on him, call him names, or otherwise be incredibly rude. It was quite clear that it was very difficult to get anything other than boorishness out of Dickey. It's a wonder the biography was even finished at all.
He sounds like he was an all-around horrible person. And yet "Falling" is a masterwork, in my view.
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