Mary Jacobus is professor emerita of English at the University of Cambridge and Cornell University, and an Honorary Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford. She has written widely on visual art, Romanticism, feminism, and psychoanalysis. Her recent books include The Poetics of Psychoanalysis and Romantic Things. She lives in Ithaca, New York, and Cambridge, UK.

"Passionate, informed and thorough."---Kenneth Baker, The Art Newspaper --- "Polished and lusciously illustrated. . . . Perhaps the greatest joy when encountering this material for the first time is Jacobus' insights into the messy, paint-splattered ‘Twombly anthology’."---Matthew Holman, Oxford Art Journal --- "[Jacobus'] book is the most rigorous, sustained and challenging investigation of Twombly's engagement with the literary texts of antiquity, the Enlightenment and the Modern Canon. . . . Penetrating and illuminating. . . . By the end of her book, the reader who follows her argument has the tools necessary to engage fully with one of the most complex and challenging artists of the post-war period."---Jon Bird, Cambridge Humanities Review --- "Jacobus successfully opens up new interpretations of many of Twombly's most renowned works."---Peter Gillies, Stride Magazine --- "In the book, erudite and descriptive passages show how poetry became central to Twombly. Jacobus illuminates the import of one medium on another, going beyond drawing an affinity between art and poetry to reveal Twombly as an artist engaged in deep study who sought not just correspondences between the mediums, but unity."---Michael Abatemarco, Santa Fe New Mexican --- "In this erudite book, Jacobus focuses on the poetic and literary allusions and the depth of thinking that went into Twombly's work. . . . The book includes excellent color reproductions, though they are small so do not communicate the impact of Twombly's huge paintings. Jacobus's book will be valuable for those interested in the literary sources for Twombly's art." --- "[D]azzles both visually and intellectually. . . . A fascinating exercise in elucidation."---Bill Marx, Arts Fuse --- "[A] fresh and intricate study of Twombly's citations and overall engagement with verse. . . . [Jacobus] profitably confronts Twombly's work as a literary critic . . . enriching the work with themes of memory, time, concealment, sexuality, translation, and what she describes at one point as, ‘the inexhaustible relation of image and text--distinct, yet propped on one another.'"---James Miller, Hyperallergic --- "A fine example of literary scholarship inspired by art."---Michael Bird, The Telegraph --- "A highly original study." --- "Jacobus' careful reading and broad learning, her understanding of Twombly's art and the poetry he included in it, and her synthetic discussion of literature and art in various periods and genres--her chapter on pastoral is especially breathtaking--all make this a complex, stunningly memorable book."---Elizabeth Greene, Times Higher Education --- "Through unprecedented access to his notebooks and annotated sources--a vast pool encompassing everything from Homer to Pound--Jacobus elegantly illuminates the complex relationship between word and image in an oeuvre that teems with potentiality and impropriety."---Lucy Watson, Financial Times --- "Mary Jacobus . . . carries us on a marvellous voyage through the artist's mind and beyond."---Marina Warner, Observer --- "Jacobus . . . assesses with great acumen what Twombly's aims were, and shows brilliantly how he combines the various poetic motifs in his painting."---Marjorie Perloff, Times Literary Supplement --- "A gripping and revelatory study."---Andrew Motion, Times Literary Supplement --- "One of The Times Literary Supplement’s Books of the Year 2016, chosen by Andrew Motion"