David Berman (September 11, 1934 - June 22, 2017) was an American poet and lawyer.[1]
David Berman (1934-2017). Courtesy Peacock Journal.
Life[]
Youth and education[]
Berman was born in New York City, and grew up in Hollywood, Florida, where he attended public school.[1]
He enrolled at the University of Florida where he edited the literary magazine, and received a B.A. with honors in 1955. He then undertook graduate studies in English at Johns Hopkins University, and worked in the Boston area as a technical writer and editor. In Boston in the late 1950s, he took Robert Lowell's poetry seminar at Boston University.[1]
In 1960 he entered Harvard Law School, where he earned a J.D. degree in 1963. As a law student at Harvard he was permitted to take Archibald MacLeish's poetry course, which he called the "high point" of his week, and where he met and befriended the poet Bruce Bennett. While at Harvard, Berman was published in the Harvard Advocate and became "almost a fixture of its pages."[1]
Career[]
Berman was licensed as an attorney in 1963 and clerked at the Supreme Judicial Court for Justice Spiegel. From 1964 to 1967 he was an assistant attorney general under Edward Brooke. From 1967 until his death he had a private practice in the Boston area with an emphasis on business litigation.[1]
His earliest poetic recognition outside "cloistered Harvard" coming in the early 1970s when X.J. Kennedy and his wife Dorothy published 2 of Berman's poems in the premier issue of Counter/Measures, followed by 6 more in the next issue. In 1982 his debut poetry chapbook, Future Imperfect, was published by State Street Press. But according to Berman he didn't really hit his stride as a poet until age 60, when his poems became less "reticent" and began to "blossom."[1]
His 2nd chapbook, Slippage, was published by Robert L. Barth, in 1996. Over the years, he also published poems in literary journals such as The Formalist, Piedmont Literary Review, Sparrow, Orbis, Iambs and Trochees, and Pivot. His favorites of those were collected into a 3rd chapbook, David Berman's Greatest Hits, 1965-2002, published by Pudding House Publications.[1]
Recognition[]
His sonnet "To a Friend Who Has Been Told That He Has Been Given No More Than Six Months to Live" won the 1996 Orbis Shakespearean Sonnet Contest).[1]
His awards and honors included several from the World Order of Narrative and Formalist Poets, which sponsors a yearly national competition.[2]
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- Future Imperfect (chapbook). Pittsford, NY: State Street Press, 1982.[3]
- Slippage (chapbook). Edgewood, KY: Robert L. Barth, 1996.
- Greatest Hits, 1965-2002 (chapbook). Johnstown, OH: Pudding House Publications, 2003.
- Progressions of the Mind. Able Muse Press, 2020.[4]
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[5]
See also[]
References[]
Notes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 David Berman, The Hypertexts. Web, Feb. 18, 2021.
- ↑ David Berman, Newburyport Literary Festival. Web, Feb. 18.
- ↑ Future Imperfect, Google Books. Web, May 5, 2014.
- ↑ Progressions of the Mind, Google Books. Web, Feb. 18, 2021.
- ↑ Search results = au:David Berman 1967, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 18, 2021.
External links[]
- Poems
- David Berman bio & poem ("Future Imperfect") at The Hypertexts
- David Berman at Peacock Journal (3 poems)
- David Berman at Pow Wow River Poets (4 poems)
- About
- David Berman at the Newburyport Literary Festival
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