And ironic, too: As I recently learned from a caption in the 1963 Glamour photo spread, it was the wheeler-dealer Stephen Spender who "discovered" Gilbert. Spender was a mediocre poet consigned to literary posterity partly because he was always in the right place at the right time. (Among other things, he was a pal of W.H. Auden's). Gilbert is a remarkable poet who may be forgotten precisely because he's a throwback to an older time—and chose to turn away from the pleasurable distractions of (minor) celebrity.