John Gould Fletcher

'' John Gould Fletcher (January 3, 1886 - May 10, 1950) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet. He "is considered by many literary scholars to be among the most innovative 20th-century poets."

Life
He was born in Little Rock, Arkansas to a socially prominent family. After attending Phillips Academy, Andover, Fletcher went on to Harvard University from 1903 to 1907, when he dropped out shortly after his father's death.

Fletcher lived in England for a large portion of his life. While in Europe he associated with Amy Lowell, Ezra Pound, and other Imagist poets, enjoying the vibrant social scene.

Fletcher resumed a liaison with Florence Emily 'Daisy' Arbuthnot (née Goold) at her house in Kent. She had been married to Malcolm Arbuthnot and Fletcher's adultery with her was the grounds for the divorce. She and Fletcher married on July 5, 1916. Their marriage produced no children, but Arbuthnot's son and daughter from her previous marriage lived with the couple.

On January 18, 1936, he married a noted author of children's books, Charlie May Simon. The two of them built "Johnswood", a residence on the bluffs of the Arkansas River outside Little Rock. They traveled frequently, however, to New York for the intellectual stimulation and to the American Southwest for the climate, after Fletcher began to suffer from arthritis.

Fletcher suffered from depression and on May 20, 1950 committed suicide by drowning in a pond near his home in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Fletcher is buried at Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock.

Writing
His early works include Irradiations: Sand and Spray (1915), and Goblins and Pagodas (1916). In later poetic works Fletcher returned to more traditional forms. These include The Black Rock (1928) and The Burning Mountain (1946).

Fletcher later returned to his home in Arkansas and reconnected with his roots. The subject of his works turned increasingly towards Southern issues and Traditionalism.

In the late 1920s and 1930s he was active with a group of 11 other Southern writers and poets known as the Southern Agrarians. This group published the classic Agrarian manifesto I'll Take My Stand, a collection of essays rejecting Modernity and Industrialism. In 1937 he wrote his autobiography, Life is My Song, and in 1947 he published Arkansas, a beautifully written history of his home state.

Recognition
Fletcher won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1939 for his Selected Poems (1938).

A branch of the Central Arkansas Library System is named in his honor.

Publications

 * The Book of Nature, Constable (London), 1913.
 * The Dominant City (1911-1912), Goschen (London), 1913.
 * Fire and Wine, Richards (London), 1913.
 * Fool's Gold, Goschen (London), 1913.
 * Visions of the Evening, Macdonald (London), 1913.
 * Irradiations — Sand and Spray, Houghton (Boston and New York City), 1915.
 * Goblins and Pagodas, Houghton (Boston and New York City), 1916.
 * Japanese Prints. Four Seas (Boston), 1918.
 * The Tree of Life, Chatto & Windus (London), 1918, Macmillan (New York City), 1919.
 * Some Contemporary American Poets, Chapbook, Volume 11, 1920.
 * Breakers and Granite, Macmillan (New York City), 1921.
 * Paul Gauguin: His Life and Art, Brown (New York City), 1921.
 * Preludes and Symphonies (includes Irradiations— Sand and Spray and Goblins and Pagodas), Houghton (Boston and New York City), 1922.
 * Parables, Kegan Paul, (London), 1925.
 * Branches of Adam, Faber & Gwyer (London), 1926.
 * The Black Rock, Macmillan (New York City), 1928.
 * John Smith—Also Pocahontas, Brentano's (New York City), 1928.
 * The Crisis of the Film, University of Washington Book Store (Seattle), 1929.
 * The Two Frontiers: A Study in Historical Psychology, Coward-McCann (New York City), 1930, published as Europe's Two Frontiers: A Study of the Historical Forces at Work in Russia and America as They Will Increasingly Affect European Civilization, Eyre & Spottiswoode (London), 1930.
 * (Author of introduction) John Smith, The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine John Smith, Rimington & Hooper (New York City), 1930.
 * XXIV Elegies, Writers' Editions (Santa Fe), 1935.
 * Life Is My Song, An Autobiography of John Gould Fletcher, Farrar & Rinehart (New York City and Toronto), 1937.
 * Selected Poems, Farrar & Rinehart (New York City and Toronto), 1938.
 * South Star, Macmillan (New York City), 1941.
 * The Burning Mountain, Dutton (New York City), 1946.
 * Arkansas, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill), 1947.
 * Posthumous
 * Selected Poems of John Gould Fletcher, University of Arkansas Press (Fayetteville), 1988.
 * Selected Essays of John Gould Fletcher, University of Arkansas Press (Fayetteville), 1989.
 * Selected Letters of John Gould Fletcher, University of Arkansas Press (Fayetteville), 1996.

Translated

 * Elie Faure, The Dance Over Fire and Water, Harper (New York City), 1926.
 * Jean Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of a Solitary, Brentano's (New York City), 1927.
 * (Translator, with others) Yvan Goll, Jean Sans Terre / Landless John, Grabhorn Press (San Francisco), 1944.

Edited
Except where noted bibliographical information courtesty the Poetry Foundation.
 * Edgar Allan Poe, Simon & Schuster (New York City), 1926.