Strange Paradise ― Portrait of a Marriage

The romance of Grace Schulman and her husband, Jerome, a distinguished scientist, burgeons in New York’s Greenwich Village amid the cultural revolution of the 1960s. Their bond stays brilliantly alive through various trials, including a decade of living apart. "In my experience, the phrase 'happy marriage' is as oxymoronic as 'friendly fire' or 'famous poet.' My marriage has been a feast of contradiction. . . "

Schulman's passion for poetry leads to adventurous times as Poetry Editor of the Nation and Director of the Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y. The lives of Grace and Jerome are illuminated by friendships with, among others, Marianne Moore, W. S. Merwin, and Richard Yates. In caring for her ailing husband Grace finds her highest calling, and her deepest grief in his loss. Her survival through sorrow will bring solace to all who read about it.

Grace Schulman is an acclaimed poet, most recently recipient of the Frost Medal for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in American Poetry, the highest award of the Poetry Society of America. Among her other honors are the Aiken Taylor Award for poetry, the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, New York University's Distinguished Alumni Award, a Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and four Pushcart Prizes. Schulman is the author of seven collections of poems, including Without a Claim, her most recent, and Days of Wonder: New and Selected Poems, a Library Journal Best Books of the Year. Her prose essays are collected in First Loves and Other Adventures, and she is editor of The Poems of Marianne Moore. Schulman is former director of the Poetry Center, 92nd Street Y, and former poetry editor of the Nation. She is Distinguished Professor of English at Baruch College, CUNY.