Melville House Books

Deborah Digges

The poet and memoirist Deborah Digges has died of an apparent suicide leap from the football stadium at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She was 59. A New York Times obituary by Margalit Fox offers no explanation, but it does offer a lovely remembrance of her life and work, noting that her very first book, the collection Vesper Sparrows, won lavish praise from Jorie Graham, among others, for being “beautifully wrought.†Graham described Digges’s “delicate sensibility†as she “asks of nature that it sing along and provide, at every turn, proof of our rightful place among things.†Digges went on to write two well recieved memoirs — Fugitive Spring and The Stardust Lounge — and three more volumes of highly regarded poetry, all of it “known for its penetrating observations and lyrical voice.”

Three more poetry collections followed, all published by Alfred A. Knopf: “Late in the Millennium†(1989), “Rough Music†(1995) and “Trapeze†(2004). Ms. Digges’s memoirs are “Fugitive Spring†(Knopf, 1992), about her coming of age, and “The Stardust Lounge: Stories From a Boy’s Adolescence†(Doubleday, 2001), about her younger son, Stephen

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.