Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax

by Michael N. McGregor

Overview

An intimate biography of the avant-garde poet and spiritual seeker who abandoned his career to join the circus and live among fishermen in Greece.

Robert Lax inspired Thomas Merton, Jack Kerouac, William Maxwell and many others with his quest to live a true life as both an artist and a spiritual seeker. Known in Europe as a avant-garde poet, Lax worked at The New Yorker, wrote Hollywood screenplays and edited a Paris literary journal—when he wasn’t studying philosophy, serving the poor in Harlem or living in a sanctuary high in the French Alps.

Lax called his approach to life pure act: a way of living in the moment that was both spontaneous and practiced, God-inspired and self-chosen. By devoting himself to simplicity, poverty and prayer, he expanded his capacity for peace, joy and love while producing distinctive poetry of such stark beauty critics called him “one of America’s greatest experimental poets” and “one of the new ‘saints’ of the avant-garde.”

Biographer Michael N. McGregor met Lax in Greece when he was a young seeker himself. He continued to visit him regularly over fifteen years. Pure Act is a tale of adventure, an exploration of friendship, an anthology of wisdom, and a testament to the liberating power of living an uncommon life.

Excellence in Publishing Award, Association of Catholic Publishers

Honorable Mention, Catholic Press Association Book Award

Finalist, Washington State Book Award

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823268023
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	05/20/2021
Series:	Catholic Practice in North America
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	470
Sales rank:	1,001,142
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Michael N. McGregor, a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Portland State University, has lectured at universities, conferences, and community events on both Robert Lax and Thomas Merton and is a member of Biographers International Organization and the International Thomas Merton Society.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Going Back 1
1. A Mutual Wonder-field
2. Ends and Means
3. Portals to a Land of Dusk
4. The Cottage
5. Lo, the sun walks forth!
6. Suicide Notes
7. The Scream
8. Aquinas and the Circus Beckon
9. The Siren Call of Hollywood
10. On the Road with the Cristianis
11. Being a Presence in Post-War Marseilles
12. Entering the Mouth of the Lion
13. Paris, Pax and Kerouac
14. Inspiration in a Greek Diner
15. A New Poetics
16. Original Child Bomb and an Island Home
17. The Sorrow of the Sponge Diver
18. A Saint of the Avant-Garde
19. Alone in the World
20. A Galapagos of the Spirit
21. All Thoughts as They Come
22. The Flaw in the Ideal
23. Hell Hath No Fury
24. Finding a Common Language
25. Pure Act Becomes Pure Love
26. The Peacemaker's Handbook
Epilogue: The Singer and the Song
Source Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements

Editorial Reviews

08/31/2015
Drawing on his friendship with poet Robert Lax (1915–2000) and his close readings of Lax's writings, McGregor eloquently offers the definitive biography of a too often forgotten figure who influenced a number of writers and crafted spirituality out of his deep commitment to love, poverty, and justice. McGregor deftly and briefly chronicles Lax's childhood in Olean, N.Y. His family eventually moved to New York City, but not before the circus came to Olean and mesmerized the young Lax—with its performers who are "portals to the land of dusk"—so deeply that he traveled with a circus through western Canada in 1949 and wrote a cycle of poems that grew out of his experience and love. By the fall of 1943, Lax had converted from Judaism to Catholicism, inspired by his readings of Thomas Aquinas's writings and by his ongoing discussions with Thomas Merton, whom Lax had met at Columbia University. Following his conversion, Lax embraced a life of poverty, combining his lack of desire for things with a passion for nurturing a love for those on the fringes of society. This detailed biography from a friend of subject is best for those already interested in Lax's mission. The book effectively brings to life Lax's "pure act"—naturally living out his God-given abilities without becoming mired in judging others. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Michael McGregor's Pure Act is an outstanding contribution to Lax studies and greatly enriches our understanding of the poet-sage, giving readers much unpublished and little-known material."-S.T. Georgiou, author of In the Beginning Was Love: Contemplative Words of Robert Lax

"A thoroughly researched and compassionate look at the remarkable life of Robert Lax. Those who know him only as a close friend of Thomas Merton will be delighted with the person they find in these pages: an influential poet, a voice for peace, a wanderer and seeker after truth. Many sought Lax out at his Patmos home; McGregor has made his wisdom available to all."-Kathleen Norris, best-selling author of The Cloister Walk and Dakota: A Spiritual Geography

"This grace-filled biography is a book I have for years been hoping someone might write, and now, thanks to Michael McGregor, this has become an answered prayer. With grace and insight McGregor bears witness to the evolution of a great artist who is seamlessly connected to his art."-Jim Forest, author of Loving Our Enemies: Reflections on the Hardest Commandment and Living With Wisdom: a Biography of Thomas Merton

"Tender, thorough, meticulous, an act of fine and generous and wonderfully sharp-eyed sharp-eared witness. The riveting mystic Robert Lax would have been delighted at the care and reverence with which Michael McGregor celebrates and resurrects and delves an extraordinary American's many-layered life."-Brian Doyle, author of Mink River

"[Robert Lax] was invariably hospitable and welcoming, his presence gentle, humorous, and patient. In short, there's never been anyone like him, and Pure Act, in its offering of a detailed recounting of his life and an acute presentation and analysis of his too-neglected poetry, gives him to us: the gift of a human being unlike any other."-C.K. Williams

"In clear but evocative prose, McGregor brings a triangular tale vividly to life: one side tells the story of Robert Lax's searching into religion and poetry, a second side reveals his life-long friendship with Trappist monk and acclaimed author Thomas Merton, and the third is a memoir of McGregor's own development as a writer through his visits with Lax on Patmos. Lax's story alone is as strange and gripping as any by Kafka. Read, and you will never forget Robert Lax."-Ian MacNiven, author of "Literchoor Is My Beat": A Life of James Laughlin, Publisher of New Directions

"Drawing on his friendship with poet Robert Lax (1915-2000) and his close readings of Lax's writings, McGregor eloquently offers the definitive biography of a too often forgotten figure who influenced a number of writers and crafted spirituality out of his deep commitment to love, poverty, and justice . . . The book effectively brings to life Lax's "pure act"-naturally living out his God-given abilities without becoming mired in judging others."-Publishers Weekly

"'Pure Act' is much more than a biography. It's a real and full and personal meditation on life, and on what a life is for."-Karen Fisher, author of "A Sudden Country"

"Michael McGregor's new biography, Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax, shines a welcome light on an under-appreciated figure. McGregor's writing is perceptive, intelligent, and quietly lyrical."-Image

"A fond biography of an unworldly man... vivid and engaging."-New York Times

"It's comforting to know that even with the vast amount of information [to] which we now have access there are still biographies to be written about fascinating individuals most of us have never heard of . . . After reading McGregor's deeply satisfying Pure Act we conclude that Lax lived an admirable life, remaining true to his beliefs to the end, including his strongest thought that life should be lived simply and slowly."-The Oregonian

"McGregor does a wonderful job of fusing his personal narrative of visiting Lax with the poet's correspondence, poems and journals, and carefully corroborated secondhand accounts . . . Pure Act offers a beautiful arc, starting from a familiar place and ending atop the layers of Lax's ironically lush life."-The Portland Mercury

"To read McGregor's book is to learn that Lax was a searcher and a mystic, a poet with a profound love of life and almost instinctive ability to find God in all things . . . I never had the chance to visit Robert Lax on the island of Patmos, but somehow, in reading this book, I feel as if I have . . . There is joy in Lax's life and joy in Lax's work-and that same joy pervades Pure Act."-America Magazine

"Pure Act is a book to own. Beautifully written, there is wisdom within its pages. Everyone's walk is different. Pure Act has a place along everyone's way to be read once, slowly, and referred to again and again."-Bookpleasures.com

"McGregor recreates conversations and scenes that are as vivid as a screenplay . . . Patmos, the island on which John wrote the Book of Revelation, is where McGregor met Lax in 1985. Lax understood the younger man's quest for a genuine way of living, and McGregor in turn was deeply impressed by the poet's quiet simplicity and joy. This biography is a sensitive testimony to their subsequent fifteen years of friendship, and to the "pure act" that Lax knew to be at the heart of life as God intended it."-The Plough

"Lax, an experimental poet, is known in the United States mainly as the best friend of Trappist monk Thomas Merton. But this singular man-whose life as an artist and spiritual seeker took him from the halls of The New Yorker, into the company of a traveling circus, to a remote Greek island-warrants attention in his own right."-Columbia College Today

"A much-acclaimed and wonderful and marvel-filled biography of one of my favorite poets and favorite sages."-Phil Cousineau, New Dimensions Radio

"[Pure Act] is a deeply moving book concerning how one man followed his own golden string to heaven's gate, one tug at a time."-Nicholas Colloff, Golgonooza

"There's something miraculous about everything that happened to Lax and every poem that he managed to write."-Don Share, editor, Poetry

"When Pope Francis, during his historic speech before Congress last month, mentioned writer Thomas Merton, we were all reminded of Merton's connection to Olean and St. Bonaventure University, as well as his close friendship with Olean native and poet Robert Lax . . . It was on the isle of Patmos that Michael N. McGregor, now a professor of English at the Portland State University (Ore.), first met Lax-a meeting that would culminate in a new biography, "Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax"-Olean Times Herald

". . . [McGregor] tells two stories in his new book Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax. One is of his friendship with Lax (1915-2000), whom critic Richard Kostelanetz, in a review of Merton's poems in The New York Times Book Review, called one of 'America's greatest experimental poets, a true minimalist who can weave awesome poems from remarkably few words.' The other story is of Robert Lax's life. As the book progresses, the story gradually shifts from McGregor's story of a friendship to the story of Lax's life."—Open Letters Monthly an Arts and Literature Review

"A monkish naïve character dedicated to God and writing, Lax maintained his gnomic humour throughout. This was a man of more Beatitude than Beat. Invited by Billie Holiday to go to her apartment to smoke dope and listen to jazz records, McGregor tells us, he declined."—Times Literary Supplement

"McGregor wants to see Lax in his own right, and, true to that aim, he has written an intellectual biography that is as full and fair as one could expect." —Commonweal

"This is a biography to which I will return for inspiration."-Rev. Ted Huffman

"Presenting Lax as an embodiment of the "wisdom of simplicity" and himself as a "naïve boy who had washed up on his shores", McGregor becomes both unobtrusive character and reliable narrator in this text, connected to Lax by the author's own need for personal searching."-The Merton Seasonal

"Recommended."—Choice Magazine

"Pure Act is a homage, a love letter, an apologia for a curious poetics, and a well-considered story about an uncommon man and his very uncommon life. For us, it may prove something of a wake-up call as well."—Scott Cairns, The Christian Century

"Pure Act is an admiring biography, one that is well-researched and written with affection...While Lax's strange life—McGregor calls it an "uncommon" life—will not cause readers to emulate it, it will provoke them to ponder what it is to be fully human. This is, of course, one of the principal functions of biography, needed now more than ever."—Dana Greene, National Catholic Reporter

"McGregor, who discovered Lax after reading Merton's classic book The Seven-Storey Mountain as a young man, subtitles his biography The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax. The poet, who spent most of his life living an austere, quiet life in Greece, latterly on the island of Patmos, regarded his dwelling place as 'like living in a church.'"—The Catholic Herald

"[Pure Act] will help re-awaken your idealism."—Ron Rolheiser, OMI

"Biographer Michael McGregor periodically visited [Lax] in Greece starting in 1985; his authorial reflections set the tone and character for his excellent biography, revealing the tug-and-pull of the particular in Lax's life."—American Catholic Studies

"Even a non-Merton fan would enjoy this book, which is written in a novelistic narrative style. It's a man's life, beautifully written, moving and deeply touching in parts, and the research is impeccable. It is the story of highly intelligent man of letters, but also a wanderer, a seeker, a traveler, and above all, someone who truly loved his fellow man, in his own unique and idiosyncratic way."—Kathy Cecala: The Persistent Writer

From the Publisher

One of the achievements of Pure Act is to make us question "major," "success," and other labels and given categories. McGregor's quiet but insistent voice offers an alternative perspective on social and literary history, a dual quest narrative, and an intriguing model for literary biography.

The Writer's Chronicle

. . . [McGregor] tells two stories in his new book Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax. One is of his friendship with Lax (1915-2000), whom critic Richard Kostelanetz, in a review of Merton’s poems in The New York Times Book Review, called one of ‘America’s greatest experimental poets, a true minimalist who can weave awesome poems from remarkably few words.’ The other story is of Robert Lax’s life. As the book progresses, the story gradually shifts from McGregor’s story of a friendship to the story of Lax’s life.

Open Letters Monthly an Arts and Literature Review

A fond biography of an unworldly man…vivid and engaging.

The New York Times Book Review

Lax, an experimental poet, is known in the United States mainly as the best friend of Trappist monk Thomas Merton. But this singular man—whose life as an artist and spiritual seeker took him from the halls of The New Yorker, into the company of a traveling circus, to a remote Greek island—warrants attention in his own right.

Columbia College Today

...read this beautiful book, be inspired to seek out some of Lax's poems, find a quiet place and use them as a sure guide to that pure act that is God.

The Merton Journal

...Pure Act is a beautifully written and captivating work that will no doubt spur on further research into a man whose way of existing and approaching the world continues to have something to say to us today.

The Merton Annual

Biographer Michael McGregor periodically visited [Lax] in Greece starting in 1985; his authorial reflections set the tone and character for his excellent biography, revealing the tug-and-pull of the particular in Lax's life.

American Catholic Studies

Presenting Lax as an embodiment of the 'wisdom of simplicity' and himself as a 'naïve boy who had washed up on his shores', McGregor becomes both unobtrusive character and reliable narrator in this text, connected to Lax by the author’s own need for personal searching.

The Merton Seasonal

Michael N. McGregor, who spent considerable time with Robert Lax, has composed a captivating study of this poet and journal keeper’s pilgrimage through life.

Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality

To read McGregor’s book is to learn that Lax was a searcher and a mystic, a poet with a profound love of life and almost instinctive ability to find God in all things . . . I never had the chance to visit Robert Lax on the island of Patmos, but somehow, in reading this book, I feel as if I have . . . There is joy in Lax’s life and joy in Lax’s work—and that same joy pervades Pure Act.

America Magazine

Pure Act is a book to own. Beautifully written, there is wisdom within its pages. Everyone’s walk is different. Pure Act has a place along everyone’s way to be read once, slowly, and referred to again and again.

Bookpleasures.com

It’s comforting to know that even with the vast amount of information [to] which we now have access there are still biographies to be written about fascinating individuals most of us have never heard of . . . After reading McGregor’s deeply satisfying Pure Act we conclude that Lax lived an admirable life, remaining true to his beliefs to the end, including his strongest thought that life should be lived simply and slowly.

The Oregonian

McGregor, who discovered Lax after reading Merton’s classic book The Seven-Storey Mountain as a young man, subtitles his biography The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax. The poet, who spent most of his life living an austere, quiet life in Greece, latterly on the island of Patmos, regarded his dwelling place as 'like living in a church.'

The Catholic Herald

McGregor does a wonderful job of fusing his personal narrative of visiting Lax with the poet's correspondence, poems and journals, and carefully corroborated secondhand accounts . . . Pure Act offers a beautiful arc, starting from a familiar place and ending atop the layers of Lax's ironically lush life.

The Portland Mercury

When Pope Francis, during his historic speech before Congress last month, mentioned writer Thomas Merton, we were all reminded of Merton’s connection to Olean and St. Bonaventure University, as well as his close friendship with Olean native and poet Robert Lax . . . It was on the isle of Patmos that Michael N. McGregor, now a professor of English at the Portland State University(Ore.), first met Lax—a meeting that would culminate in a new biography, Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax.

The Olean Times Herald

McGregor wants to see Lax in his own right, and, true to that aim, he has written an intellectual biography that is as full and fair as one could expect.

Commonweal Magazine

McGregor recreates conversations and scenes that are as vivid as a screenplay . . . Patmos, the island on which John wrote the Book of Revelation, is where McGregor met Lax in 1985. Lax understood the younger man’s quest for a genuine way of living, and McGregor in turn was deeply impressed by the poet’s quiet simplicity and joy. This biography is a sensitive testimony to their subsequent fifteen years of friendship, and to the 'pure act' that Lax knew to be at the heart of life as God intended it.

Plough

Pure Act is highly recommended for parish libraries, for devotees of Thomas Merton, and for all readers interested in the remarkable saga of this dedicated seeker of truth.

Catholic Library World

A monkish naïve character dedicated to God and writing, Lax maintained his gnomic humour throughout. This was a man of more Beatitude than Beat. Invited by Billie Holiday to go to her apartment to smoke dope and listen to jazz records, McGregor tells us, he declined.

Times Literary Supplement

Michael McGregor's new biography, Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax, shines a welcome light on an under-appreciated figure. McGregor's writing is perceptive, intelligent, and quietly lyrical.

Image

[Robert Lax] was invariably hospitable and welcoming, his presence gentle, humorous, and patient. In short, there’s never been anyone like him, and Pure Act, in its offering of a detailed recounting of his life and an acute presentation and analysis of his too-neglected poetry, gives him to us: the gift of a human being unlike any other.

C.K. Williams

[Pure Act] will help re-awaken your idealism.

Ron Rolheiser

This is a biography to which I will return for inspiration.

Rev. Ted Huffman

A much-acclaimed and wonderful and marvel-filled biography of one of my favorite poets and favorite sages.

New Dimensions Radio - Phil Cousineau

Pure Act is a homage, a love letter, an apologia for a curious poetics, and a well-considered story about an uncommon man and his very uncommon life. For us, it may prove something of a wake-up call as well.

The Christian Century - Scott Cairns

Michael McGregor's new biography, Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax, shines a welcome light on an under-appreciated figure. McGregor's writing is perceptive, intelligent, and quietly lyrical.

Image

In clear, evocative prose, McGregor brings a triangular tale vividly to life: One side tells the story of Robert Lax’s searching into religion and poetry, a second side reveals his lifelong friendship with Trappist monk and acclaimed author Thomas Merton, and the third is a memoir of McGregor’s own development as a writer through his visits with Lax on Patmos. Lax’s story alone is as strange and gripping as any by Kafka. Read, and you will never forget Robert Lax.

"Literchoor Is My Beat": A Life of James Laughlin, Publisher of New Directions - Ian MacNiven

There’s something miraculous about everything that happened to Lax and every poem that he managed to write.

Poetry - Don Share

This grace-filled biography is a book I have for years been hoping someone might write, and now, thanks to Michael McGregor, this has become an answered prayer. With grace and insight McGregor bears witness to the evolution of a great artist who is seamlessly connected to his art.

Loving Our Enemies: Reflections on the Hardest Commandment and Living with Wisdom: A Biography of Thomas Merton - Jim Forest

[ Pure Act ] is a deeply moving book concerning how one man followed his own golden string to heaven's gate, one tug at a time.

Golgonooza - Nicholas Colloff

A thoroughly researched and compassionate look at the remarkable life of Robert Lax. Those who know him only as a close friend of Thomas Merton will be delighted with the person they find in these pages: an influential poet, a voice for peace, a wanderer and seeker after truth. Many sought Lax out at his Patmos home; McGregor has made his wisdom available to all.

The Cloister Walk and Dakota: A Spiritual Geography - Kathleen Norris

" Pure Act is much more than a biography. It's a real and full and personal meditation on life, and on what a life is for.

A Sudden Country - Karen Fisher

Michael McGregor's Pure Act is an outstanding contribution to Lax studies and greatly enriches our understanding of the poet-sage, giving readers much unpublished and little-known material.

In the Beginning Was Love: Contemplative Words of Robert Lax - S.T. Georgiou

Tender, thorough, meticulous, an act of fine and generous and wonderfully sharp-eyed sharp-eared witness. The riveting mystic Robert Lax would have been delighted at the care and reverence with which Michael McGregor celebrates and resurrects and delves an extraordinary American’s many-layered life.

Mink River - Brian Doyle

Pure Act is an admiring biography, one that is well-researched and written with affection...While Lax's strange life—McGregor calls it an "uncommon" life—will not cause readers to emulate it, it will provoke them to ponder what it is to be fully human. This is, of course, one of the principal functions of biography, needed now more than ever.

National Catholic Reporter - Dana Greene

Michael N. McGregor, who spent considerable time with Robert Lax, has composed a captivating study of this poet and journal keeper’s pilgrimage through life.

Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality

"[Pure Act] will help re-awaken your idealism."

OMI Ron Rolheiser