Culture

Robert Duncan: The Ambassador From Venus by Lisa Jarnot

Robert Duncan, The Ambassador from Venus: A Biography BY Lisa Jarnot. edited by Michæl Davidson. University of California Press. Hardcover, 560 pages. $39.
Cover of Robert Duncan, The Ambassador from Venus: A Biography

Ever since The Iliad and The Odyssey were ascribed to Homer, the blind poet has served as a metaphor for the ability to catch sight of things beyond mere appearance. Robert Duncan, born in 1919, belonged to this tribe of seers. At the age of 3, he slipped in the snow in Yosemite while wearing sunglasses against the glare; they shattered, and the injury resulted in strabismus—a condition in which the eyes cannot focus on the same object.