Arthur Davison Ficke



Arthur Davison Ficke (1883–1945) was an American poet and lawyer known for several books of poetry (including Sonnets of a Portrait-Painter) and for his involvement in the literary hoax of Spectrism (under the pen name of "Anne Knish"). He is also known for his relationship with Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Life
Ficke was influenced by Japanese artistic traditions in his work, which he had been familiar with since childhood; his father, an art dealer, imported Japanese art in the last decade of the 19th century, when it was extremely popular. He wrote a book on Japanese art, Chats on Japanese Prints, published in 1915.

Writing
Ficke is often considered a fairly conservative poet, sticking to traditional styles and forms during the time when modernism was dominating the world of literature and writers were using a whirlwind of experimental types of poetry. Ficke was displeased by what he saw as the inaesthetic nature of these experiments, which was the main motivation for the Spectrist hoax, intended as a send-up of these poets. Much of his early work was in traditional meter and rhyme scheme: Sonnets of a Portrait-Painter is an example. After the publication of Spectra, he did experiment in other forms; "Christ in the Desert" was his first more modernistic work., without

Poetry

 * From the Isles: A Series of songs out of Greece. Norwich, England: Samurai Press, 1907.
 * The Happy Princess, and other poems. Boston: Small, Maynard, 1907.
 * The Earth Passion, Boundary, and other poems. Cranleigh, England: Samurai Press, 1908.
 * Some Recent Poems of Note. [Chicago], c. 1910.
 * Sonnets of a Portrait-Painter. New York: Kennerley, 1914
 * abridged version reprinted in Sonnets of a Portrait-Painter, and other Sonnets. Kennerley, 1922.
 * The Man on the Hilltop, and other poems. New York: Kennerley, 1915.
 * Spectra: A book of poetic experiments (as "Anne Knish," with Witter Bynner as "Emanuel Morgan"). Kennerley, 1916.
 * An April Elegy. New York: Kennerley, 1917.
 * Out of Silence, and other poems. New York: Knopf, 1924.
 * Selected Poems. New York: Doran, 1926.
 * Christ in China: A poem. [Moline, IL], 1927.
 * Mountain against Mountain. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1929.
 * The Secret, and other poems. New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1936.
 * Tumultuous Shore, and Other Poems Knopf, 1942.

Plays

 * The Breaking of Bonds: A Drama of the Social Unrest. Boston, MA: Sherman, French, 1910.
 * Mr. Faust (verse play; adapted from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust). New York: Kennerley, 1913.
 * The Road to the Mountain: A Lyrical Pageant in Three Acts (not published), 1930.
 * The Ghost of Sharaku. San Francisco, CA: Grabhorn Press, 1951.

Fiction

 * Mrs. Morton of Mexico (novel; decorations by Gladys Brown). New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1939.

Non-fiction

 * Twelve Japanese Painters. Chicago: Ralph Fletcher Seymour, 1913.
 * Chats on Japanese Prints (criticism and poetry). New York: Stokes, 1915.
 * The Problem of Censorship. Davenport, IA: Contemporary Club, 1922.
 * The Hell of the Good (as "Edouard de Verb"). [Santa Fe, NM], 1930.

Anthologized

 * Prairie Gold (short stories). Chicago: Reilly & Britton, 1917.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation ''. ''