ABSTRACT
During the first weeks of 1958 Berryman was smitten down by what seemed to be a series of infections, yet (bolstered by a fee of 500 dollars) he travelled to give a reading of his own works, under the auspices of the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund, at the Library of Congress in Washington on 24 February. Three weeks later he gave another reading in Chicago for 300 dollars. By Easter week Dr Thomes diagnosed exhaustion and admitted him to the hospital, where Berryman rehearsed events to his mother.
I only had two weeks between quarters, and the first week was Chicago, and the second week I wrote 5 new poems besides doing other things, and I began on Sunday to feel as if I were going to die shortly. I started my courses on Monday, and on Tuesday got me a private room in the Abbott, where I am writing this. I am still very badly under weight but feel considerably better and am going out tomorrow. Nothing to worry about. For some time to come I will be under a heavy drug for part of the day (the teaching part, afternoon, after my own work is done) and he thinks I will get in shape fast. I’ve been suffering alternately from unmanageable irritability and a circulatory disturbance leading to partial syncope.
