John Hollander

John Hollander (1929-2013). Courtesy NNDB.

John Hollander (born October 28, 1929 - August 17, 2013)) was an American poet and literary critic.

Life

Youth and education

Born to Jewish immigrant parents in New York City , Hollander attended Columbia College of Columbia University, where he studied under Mark Van Doren and Lionel Trilling, and overlapped with Allen Ginsberg. After graduating, he supported himself for a while writing liner notes for classical music albums before returning to obtain a Ph.D. in literature.

Career

Hollander taught at Connecticut College; Hunter College; the Graduate Center, City University of New York; and Yale University.

He also served in the following positions, among others: member of the board, Wesleyan University Press (1959–62); editorial assistant for poetry, Partisan Review (1959–65) and a contributing editor, of Harper's Magazine (1969–71).

Hollander was a resident of Woodbridge, Connecticut from the late 1980s. He served as a judge for several high school recitation contests, and enjoyed working with students on their poetry and teaching it. He stressed the importance of hearing poems out loud: "A good poem satisfies the ear. It creates a story or picture that grabs you, informs you and entertains you."

He was known also for his translations from Yiddish.

Private life

With his ex-wife, Anne Loesser (daughter of pianist Arthur Loesser; married 1953 to 1977), he was the father of writer Martha Hollander. He married Natalie Charkow in 1981.

Hollander died at Branford, Connecticut, on August 17, 2013 at the age of 83.

Writing

Hollander usually wrote on a computer, but if inspiration struck him when away from it, "I've been known to start poems on napkins and scraps of paper, too."

Hollander influenced poet Karl Kirchwey, who studied under Hollander at Yale. Hollander taught him that it was possible to build a life around the task of writing poetry. Kirchwey recalled Hollander's passion:

“

Since he (John Hollander) is a poet himself ... he conveyed a passion for that knowledge as a source of current inspiration.--Karl Kirchwey talking about John Hollander in 2001

”

Recognition

• 2006: Appointed Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut (term ends in 2011)
• 2006: Robert Fitzgerald Prosody Award
• 2002: Philolexian Award for Distinguished Literary Achievement
• 1990: MacArthur Fellowship
• 1983: Bollingen Prize for Powers of Thirteen.
• 1979: elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Department of Literature
• 1958: Yale Series of Younger Poets for his first book of poems, A Crackling of Thorns, chosen by W. H. Auden.

Publications

Poetry

• A Crackling of Thorns. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1958.
• A Beach Vision, privately printed, 1962.
• Movie Going and other poems. New York: Atheneum, 1962.
• Various Owls. New York: Norton, 1963.
• Visions from the Ramble. New York: Atheneum, 1965.
• The Quest of the Gole. New York: Atheneum, 1966.
• Philomel. London: Turret, 1968.
• Types of Shape. New York: Atheneum, 1969
  • expanded edition, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991.
• The Night Mirror. New York: Atheneum, 1971.
• Town and Country Matters. Boston: D.R. Godine, 1972.
• Selected Poems. London: Secker & Warburg, 1972.
• The Head of the Bed. Boston, MA: D.R. Godine, 1974.
• Tales Told of the Fathers. New York: Atheneum, 1975.
• Reflections on Espionage. New York: Atheneum, 1976.
• Spectral Emanations: New and selected poems. New York: Atheneum, 1978.
• In Place. Omaha, NE: Abattoir, 1978.
• Blue Wine and other poems. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979.
• Looking Ahead. New York: Nadja, 1982.
• Powers of Thirteen: Poems. New York: Atheneum, 1983.
• A Hollander Garland. Newton, IA: Tamazunchale Press, 1985.
• In Time and Place. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.
• Harp Lake: Poems. New York: Knopf, 1988.
• Some Fugitives Take Cover. New York: Sea Cliff; New York: Knopf, 1988.
• Selected Poetry. New York: Knopf, 1993.
• Tesserae and other poems. New York: Knopf, 1993.
• Figurehead & other poems. New York: Knopf, 1999.
• Picture Window. New York: Knopf, 2003.
• A Draft of Light. New York: Knopf, 2008.

Non-fiction

• The Untuning of the Sky: Ideas of music in English poetry, 1500-1700. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1961.
  • with new preface, Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1993.
• Images of Voice. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House, 1969.
• The Immense Parade on Supererogation Day. New York: Atheneum, 1972.
• Vision and Resonance: Two senses of poetic form. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975
  • 2nd edition, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985.
• The Figure of Echo: A mode of allusion in Milton and after. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1981.
• Rhyme's Reason: A guide to English verse. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1981.
• Author of text to Saul Steinberg, Dal Vero (portraits). New York: Library Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1983.
• Melodious Guile: Fictive pattern in poetic language. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988
• William Bailey (with Giuliano Briganti). New York: Rizzoli, 1991.
• Introduction to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Essential Rossetti. New York: Ecco Press, 1990.
• The Work of Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
• The Poetry of Everyday Life. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1998.
• Poetry and Music. London: Routledge, 2003.

Edited

• The Wind and the Rain: An anthology of poems for young people (with Harold Bloom). Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1961.
• Selected Poems of Ben Jonson (edited with Harold Bloom). New York: Dell, 1961.
• Jiggery-Pokery: A Compendium of Double Dactyls (edited with Anthony Hecht; illustrated by Milton Glaser). New York: Atheneum, 1966.
• Poems of Our Moment. Indianapolis, IN: Pegasus, 1968.
• American Short Stories Since 1945. New York: Harper, 1968.
• Modern Poetry: Modern essays in criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.
• The Oxford Anthology of English Literature (edited with Frank Kermode). New York: Oxford University Press, 1973.
• I.A. Richards: Essays in his honor. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973.
• Literature as Experience. New York: Harcourt, 1979.
• Harold Bloom, The Poetics of Influence. New Haven, CT: Schwab, 1988.
• Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology, New York: Signet, 1992.
• American Poetry: The nineteenth century. New York: Library of America, 1993.
• American Poetry: The nineteenth century. Volume 1: Philip Freneau to Walt Whitman; Volume 2: Herman Melville to Trumbull Sickney; American Indian Poetry; Folk Songs and Spirituals. New York: Library of America, 1994.
• Animal Poems. New York: Knopf, 1994.
• The Gazer's Spirit: Poems speaking to silent works of art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
• Garden Poems. New York: Knopf, 1996.
• Committed to Memory: One hundred best poems to memorize. New York: Riverhead Books, 1997.
• (Advisory Editor) Encyclopedia of American Poetry. The nineteenth century (advisory editor). Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1998.
• Christmas Poems. New York: Knopf, 1999.
• War Poems. New York: Knopf, 1999.
• American Poetry: The twentieth century (edited with Robert Hass, Carolyn Kizer, Nathaniel Mackey, & Marjorie Perloff). (2 volumes), New York: Library of America, 2000.
• Sonnets: From Dante to the present, Knopf, 2001.
• Words for Images (edite with Joanna Weber). New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery, 2001.
• American Wits: An anthology of light verse. New York: Library of America, 2003.
• Poetry for Young People: American poetry (illustrated by Sally Wern Comport). New York: Sterling, 2004.
• Poems Bewitched and Haunted. New York: Everyman’s Library, 2005.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.

Elliston Shorts John Hollander, "Eskimo Pie"

Plays

• An Entertainment for Elizabeth: Being a masque of the seven motions; or, Terpsichore Unchained (play), produced in New York, 1969.

See also

• List of U.S. poets
• List of literary critics

External links

Poems

• John Hollander profile & 3 poems at the Academy of American Poets
• John Hollander b. 1929 at the Poetry Foundation

Books

• John Hollander at Amazon.com

About

• John Hollander author's profile at Random House
• John Hollander at NNDB
• Biography at Best American Poetry 1998 web page.
• J.D. McClatchy (Fall 1985). "John Hollander, The Art of Poetry No. 35". The Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2866/the-art-of-poetry-no-35-john-hollander. 
• Interview with John Hollander
• Curiosities - Quest of the Gole reviewed by Bud Webster for the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.