Gretchen Cherington - Poetic License

Poetic License is a powerful memoir and a great read. At its core, it covers Cheringtons decades-long search for truth and the shaping of her authentic self. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always clear, empathetic, and entertaining, Cherington writes about coming to terms with trauma brought on by a celebrity father with deep flaws. This, with intimate glimpses into the psyches of celebrated poets, including T.S. Eliot, Allen Ginsberg, Dylan Thomas, Donald Hall, Robert Lowell, and Anne Sexton. Readers will be enraptured.

ERNEST HEBERT, author of the Darby Chronicles series and the award-winning The Old American

Poetic License is a great achievement that will move powerfully into the world. A compelling memoir that uses elegant prose, vivid scenes, and dialogue to describe coming of age in a poetry-infused household. This is a riveting portrait of a once adoring daughter able to reflect as a mature woman on how she searched for her own truth and freed herself from her fathers dominating presence.

ELIZABETH GARBER, poet, memoirist, and author of Implosion: A Memoir of an Architects Daughter

Pulitzer Prizewinning poet Richard Eberhart was a close friend and beloved colleague. I loved his genial personality and admired his unique poetic gift. He was a generous man but, as his daughter shows, a difficult and complex person as well. This is a vivid memoir, flaws and all. Cherington has crafted a narrative worth reading closely.

JAY PARINI, poet, novelist, critic, and international best-selling author of The Last Station: A Novel of Tolstoys Last Year, made into an Academy award-nominated film starring Helen Mirren

I feel personally grateful to Gretchen Cherington for her compelling and courageous account of growing up as the daughter of a charismatic celebrity. She describes in her father the narcissistic self-preoccupation and work obsession that are hallmarks of genius in every field. Her story offers a much-needed correction of the popular belief that a public image is an accurate reflection of what a person is like in his or her most intimate relationships. Her account of personal survival will touch all who read it.

SUE ERIKSON BLOLAND, psychotherapist, and author of In the Shadow of Fame: A Memoir by the Daughter of Erik H. Erikson

Poetic License is a courageous and enlightened memoir of the lifelong impact of sexual molestation. Cherington dives deep into the murky legacy of her fathers life to understand what love between a father and daughter should be, how that ideal can be spoiled, and what she lost. This well-articulated journey gives us the tools we need to take command of our own lives and move into the person we want to become.

LAURA WATERMAN, author of Losing the Garden: The Story of a Marriage

Gretchen Cherington confronts brutal truths about love, family, and betrayal in this lyrical, moving, and ultimately uplifting memoir. With a backdrop of seemingly idyllic summers on the Maine coast and a parade of literary-giant houseguests including Robert Frost, Anne Sexton, and Allen Ginsburg, Cherington deftly explores the trauma of being sexually assaulted by her charismatic, Pulitzer Prizewinning fatherand the hard-won triumph of coming to terms with it.

MEG LUKENS NOONAN, author of The Coat Route

Heartbreaking yet triumphant, Gretchen Cheringtons Poetic License is as familiar as an old flannel blanket on a cool New England dayand a jarring memoir of betrayal from one she loved most. Cant recommend highly enough.

ASHLEY E. SWEENEY, award-winning author of Answer Creek and Eliza Waite

Gretchen Cherington shines with her own voice of truth as she explores multilayered illusions and realities in this stunning memoir. Deft and skillful, beautiful and haunting writing.

LINDA JOY MYERS, President of the National Association of Memoir Writers and author of The Power of Memoir, Dont Call Me Mother, and Song of the Plains

Copyright 2020 Gretchen Cherington

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, digital scanning, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, please address She Writes Press.

Published 2020
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN: 978-1-63152-711-1
ISBN: 978-1-63152-712-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020905666

For information, address:
She Writes Press
1569 Solano Ave #546
Berkeley, CA 94707

Interior design by Tabitha Lahr

She Writes Press is a division of SparkPoint Studio, LLC.

Opulence by Richard Eberhart was used with permission of Oxford University Press and the Richard Eberhart Literary Estate.

All company and/or product names may be trade names, logos, trademarks, and/or registered trademarks and are the property of their respective owners.

Names and identifying characteristics have been changed to protect the privacy of certain individuals.

For Michael
And for Molly and Ben

And if theres one thing I know its that writing comes out of tension, tension between whats inside and whats outside.

RACHEL CUSK, from Outline

Memory is fallible. I have consulted secondary sources when possible, including people, family documents, and personal journals, along with my fathers literary archives at Dartmouth College. With a few exceptions, narration in italics and without quotations is taken directly from his letters, from my mothers letters and journals, and from my own. Some of these have been lightly edited for readability. All people named are real and not composites. A few details of client locations have been changed to protect their privacy.

I am indebted to the staff at Rauner Special Collections Library, and especially to former librarian Philip Cronenwett, former staff member Sarah Hartwell, and current librarian, Jay Satterfield, as well as to the Richard Eberhart Literary Estate for permission to use its source materials. The book Richard Eberhart: The Progress of an American Poet, by Joel Roache, was an additional helpful source, as was my mothers article They Called Dad the Polish King, published in Yankee magazine in 1955.

Portions of this book have been published in other forms: Breath, Body, and Belief (2013) in Crack the Spine literary magazine; Cartwheels and Smoke Rings (2011) and Maine Roustabout (2012) in Bloodroot Literary Magazine; Reflections on my Father (2004) in the Stonefence Review; and Return to Undercliff (1999) in Yankee magazine.

No Regrets

I stood in the wings of a large lecture hall in Chicago in 1958. I was seven years old. My breath quickened against the cinched sash of the smocked dress Gram had bought me for the occasion. I watched my father at the podium. He stood tall and had a broad smile across his face. He turned quickly to find me and I noticed his tie was askew. Earlier, in our hotel room, hed asked me to straighten it. You do it, Gretch, hed said. Now, I thought, I must have jostled it off-center when he leaned over to kiss my cheek before taking the stage.