The Bollingen Prize for Poetry is a literary honor bestowed on an American
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
in recognition of the best book of new verse within the last two years, or for lifetime achievement.
["The Bollingen Prize for Poetry at Yale,"](_blank)
webpage maintained by Yale University. Retrieved November 9, 2007. It is awarded every two years by the
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library () is the rare book library and literary archive of the Yale University Library in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the largest buildings in the world dedicated to rare books and manuscripts. Es ...
of
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
.
Inception and controversy
The prize was established in 1948 by
Paul Mellon
Paul Mellon (June 11, 1907 – February 1, 1999) was an American philanthropist and an owner/breeder of thoroughbred racehorses. He is one of only five people ever designated an "Exemplar of Racing" by the National Museum of Racing and Hall ...
, and was funded by a
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
10,000
grant
Grant or Grants may refer to:
Places
*Grant County (disambiguation)
Australia
* Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia
United Kingdom
*Castle Grant
United States
* Grant, Alabama
*Grant, Inyo County, C ...
from the
Bollingen Foundation
The Bollingen Foundation was an educational foundation set up along the lines of a university press in 1945. It was named after Bollingen Tower, Carl Jung's country home in Bollingen, Switzerland. Funding was provided by Paul Mellon and his wife ...
to the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
. Both the prize and the foundation are named after the village of
Bollingen Bollingen is a village (''Kirchdorf'') within the municipality of Rapperswil-Jona in the Swiss canton of St. Gallen.
Geography
The village is located along the northern shore of the upper Lake Zürich (''Obersee'') between Jona and Schmerikon. ...
, Switzerland, where
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...
had a country retreat, the
Bollingen Tower
The Bollingen Tower is a structure built by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. In appearance, it is a small castle with four towers. It is located in the village of Bollingen on the shore of the ''Obersee'' (upper lake) basin of Lake Zürich.
Hist ...
. The inaugural prize, chosen by a jury of
Fellows in American Letters of the Library of Congress, was awarded to
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
for his collection of poems ''
The Pisan Cantos
''The Cantos'' by Ezra Pound is a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a ''canto''. Most of it was written between 1915 and 1962, although much of the early work was abandoned and the early cantos, as finally published, date ...
''.
The choice of a work by a man who had been a committed
fascist
Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...
sympathizer and who was then under indictment for treason in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
for his
antisemitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
broadcasts infuriated many. A bitter controversy ensued in the press, and the Library of Congress was requested by a congressional committee to disassociate itself from the award. The unused portion of the grant was returned to the Bollingen Foundation in 1949.
[McGuire, William (1982). ''Bollingen: An Adventure in Collecting the Past'' (Princeton University Press:Bollingen Series, New Jersey).][McGuire, William (1988)]
"Ezra Pound and Bollingen Prize controversy,"
in ''Poetry's Catbird Seat (the consultantship in poetry in the English language at the Library of Congress, 1937–1987)'' (Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.). . Online version retrieved November 10, 2007.
Continuance through the Yale University Library
The Bollingen Foundation decided to continue the program, with the administrative tasks being handled by the
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
Library. The prize was awarded annually from 1948 to 1963. In 1963 the amount of the award was increased to $5,000, and thereafter it was given every other year. After 1968, when the Bollingen Foundation was dissolved, the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitts ...
took over. In 1973 the Mellon Foundation established an endowment of $100,000 to enable the Yale Library to continue awarding the prize in perpetuity.
In 1961 a similar prize was set up by the Bollingen Foundation for best translation and it was won by
Robert Fitzgerald
Robert Stuart Fitzgerald (; 12 October 1910 – 16 January 1985) was an American poet, literary critic and translator whose renderings of the Greek classics "became standard works for a generation of scholars and students".Mitgang, Herbert (Janua ...
for his translation of the ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...
''. It has also been won by
Walter W. Arndt
Walter Werner Arndt (May 4, 1916–February 15, 2011) was a world-renowned scholar and translator of Russian, German and Polish. At the time of his death, he was the Sherman Fairchild Professor of Humanities, Emeritus, of Russian Language and Liter ...
for his translation of ''
Eugene Onegin
''Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Евгений Оне́гин, ромáн в стихáх, p=jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ɐˈnʲeɡʲɪn, r=Yevgeniy Onegin, roman v stikhakh) is a novel in verse written by Ale ...
'', and in 1963 by
Richard Wilbur
Richard Purdy Wilbur (March 1, 1921 – October 14, 2017) was an American poet and literary translator. One of the foremost poets of his generation, Wilbur's work, composed primarily in traditional forms, was marked by its wit, charm, and gentle ...
and
Mona Van Duyn
Mona Jane Van Duyn (May 9, 1921 – December 2, 2004) was an American poet. She was appointed United States Poet Laureate in 1992.
Biography
Early years
Van Duyn was born May 9, 1921 in Waterloo, Iowa."Van Duyn, Mona (1921–2004)." '' Dictio ...
jointly.
Recipients
* 1965 –
Horace Gregory
Horace Gregory (April 10, 1898 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – March 11, 1982 in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts) was a prize-winning American poet, translator of classic poetry, literary critic and college professor. He was awarded the Bollingen P ...
* 1967 –
Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the liter ...
* 1969 –
John Berryman
John Allyn McAlpin Berryman (born John Allyn Smith, Jr.; October 25, 1914 – January 7, 1972) was an American poet and scholar. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and is considered a key figure in th ...
and
Karl Shapiro
Karl Jay Shapiro (November 10, 1913 – May 14, 2000) was an American poet. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1945 for his collection ''V-Letter and Other Poems''. He was appointed the fifth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to th ...
* 1971 –
Richard Wilbur
Richard Purdy Wilbur (March 1, 1921 – October 14, 2017) was an American poet and literary translator. One of the foremost poets of his generation, Wilbur's work, composed primarily in traditional forms, was marked by its wit, charm, and gentle ...
and
Mona Van Duyn
Mona Jane Van Duyn (May 9, 1921 – December 2, 2004) was an American poet. She was appointed United States Poet Laureate in 1992.
Biography
Early years
Van Duyn was born May 9, 1921 in Waterloo, Iowa."Van Duyn, Mona (1921–2004)." '' Dictio ...
* 1973 –
James Merrill
James Ingram Merrill (March 3, 1926 – February 6, 1995) was an American poet. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1977 for ''Divine Comedies.'' His poetry falls into two distinct bodies of work: the polished and formalist lyri ...
* 1975 –
A. R. Ammons
Archibald Randolph Ammons (February 18, 1926 – February 25, 2001) was an American poet who won the annual National Book Award for Poetry in 1973 and 1993.
Poetic themes
Ammons wrote about humanity's relationship to nature in alternately comi ...
* 1977 –
David Ignatow
David Ignatow (February 7, 1914 – November 17, 1997) was an American poet and editor.
Life
David Ignatow was born in Brooklyn on February 7, 1914, and spent most of his life in the New York City area. He died on November 17, 1997, at his ...
* 1979 –
W. S. Merwin
William Stanley Merwin (September 30, 1927 – March 15, 2019) was an American poet who wrote more than fifty books of poetry and prose, and produced many works in translation. During the 1960s anti-war movement, Merwin's unique craft was thema ...
* 1981 –
Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov (March 1, 1920 – July 5, 1991) was an American poet. He was twice Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, from 1963 to 1964 and again from 1988 to 1990. For ''The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov'' (1977 ...
and
May Swenson
Anna Thilda May "May" Swenson (May 28, 1913 – December 4, 1989) was an American poet and playwright. Harold Bloom considered her one of the most important and original poets of the 20th century.
The first child of Margaret and Dan Arthur Sw ...
* 1983 –
Anthony Hecht
Anthony Evan Hecht (January 16, 1923 – October 20, 2004) was an American poet. His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the Second World War, in which he fought, an ...
and
John Hollander
John Hollander (October 28, 1929 – August 17, 2013) was an American poet and literary critic. At the time of his death, he was Sterling Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University, having previously taught at Connecticut College, Hunter C ...
* 1985 –
John Ashbery
John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic.
Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...
and
Fred Chappell
Fred Davis Chappell (born May 28, 1936 in Canton, North Carolina) is an author and poet. He was an English professor for 40 years (1964–2004) at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He was the Poet Laureate of North Carolina from 1 ...
* 1987 –
Stanley Kunitz
Stanley Jasspon Kunitz (; July 29, 1905May 14, 2006) was an American poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress twice, first in 1974 and then again in 2000.
Biography
Kunitz was born in Worcester, Massac ...
* 1989 –
Edgar Bowers
Edgar Bowers (; March 2, 1924 – February 4, 2000) was an American poet who won the Bollingen Prize in Poetry in 1989."E ...
* 1991 –
Laura Riding Jackson and
Donald Justice
Donald Rodney Justice (August 12, 1925 – August 6, 2004) was an American teacher of writing and poet who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1980.
In summing up Justice's career, David Orr wrote, "In most ways, Justice was no different from an ...
* 1993 –
Mark Strand
Mark Strand (April 11, 1934 – November 29, 2014) was a Canadian-born American poet, essayist and translator. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1990 and received the Wallace Stevens Award in 2004 ...
* 1995 –
Kenneth Koch
Kenneth Koch ( ; 27 February 1925 – 6 July 2002) was an American poet, playwright, and professor, active from the 1950s until his death at age 77. He was a prominent poet of the New York School of poetry. This was a loose group of poets includ ...
* 1997 –
Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate of ...
* 1999 –
Robert Creeley
Robert White Creeley (May 21, 1926 – March 30, 2005) was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school. He was close with Char ...
* 2001 –
Louise Glück
Louise Elisabeth Glück ( ; born April 22, 1943) is an American poet and essayist. She won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature, whose judges praised "her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal". He ...
* 2003 –
Adrienne Rich
Adrienne Cecile Rich ( ; May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "th ...
* 2005 –
Jay Wright
* 2007 –
Frank Bidart
Frank Bidart (born May 27, 1939) is an American academic and poet, and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Biography
Bidart is a native of California and considered a career in acting or directing when he was young. In 1957, he began to s ...
* 2009 –
Allen Grossman
Allen R. Grossman (January 7, 1932 – June 27, 2014) was a noted American poet, critic and professor.
Biography
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1932,Bruce Weber (June 29, 2014)Allen Grossman, A Poet's Poet, and Scholar, dies at 82 The N ...
* 2011 –
Susan Howe
Susan Howe (born June 10, 1937) is an American poet, scholar, essayist, and critic, who has been closely associated with the Language poets, among other poetry movements.
* 2013 –
Charles Wright
* 2015 –
Nathaniel Mackey
Nathaniel Mackey is an American poet, novelist, anthologist, literary critic and editor. He is the Reynolds Price Professor of Creative Writing at Duke University and a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets. Mackey is currently teaching a p ...
* 2017 –
Jean Valentine
__NOTOC__
Jean Valentine (April 27, 1934December 29, 2020) was an American poet and the New York State Poet Laureate from 2008 to 2010. Her poetry collection, ''Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965–2003'', was awarded the 2004 Na ...
* 2019 –
Charles Bernstein Charles Bernstein may refer to:
* Charles Bernstein (composer) (born 1943), American composer of film and television scores
* Charles Bernstein (poet)
Charles Bernstein (born April 4, 1950) is an American poet, essayist, editor, and literary sc ...
* 2021 –
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (; born October 5, 1947, in Beijing, China) is a contemporary poet. Winner of two American Book Awards, her work is often associated with the Language poets, Language School, the poetry of the New York School (art), New York ...
When awarded annually
* 1949 –
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
* 1950 –
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...
* 1951 –
John Crowe Ransom
John Crowe Ransom (April 30, 1888 – July 3, 1974) was an American educator, scholar, literary critic, poet, essayist and editor. He is considered to be a founder of the New Criticism school of literary criticism. As a faculty member at Kenyon ...
* 1952 –
Marianne Moore
Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit.
Early life
Moore was born in Kirkwood, ...
* 1953 –
Archibald MacLeish and
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism.
In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...
* 1954 –
W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...
* 1955 –
Léonie Adams
Léonie Fuller Adams (December 9, 1899 – June 27, 1988) was an American poet. She was appointed the seventh Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1948.
Biography
Adams was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in a ...
and
Louise Bogan
Louise Bogan (August 11, 1897 – February 4, 1970) was an American poet. She was appointed the fourth Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress in 1945, and was the first woman to hold this title. Throughout her life she wrote poetry, fiction, ...
* 1956 –
Conrad Aiken
Conrad Potter Aiken (August 5, 1889 – August 17, 1973) was an American writer and poet, honored with a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, and was United States Poet Laureate from 1950 to 1952. His published works include poetry, short st ...
* 1957 –
Allen Tate
John Orley Allen Tate (November 19, 1899 – February 9, 1979), known professionally as Allen Tate, was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and poet laureate from 1943 to 1944.
Life
Early years
Tate was born near Winchester, K ...
* 1958 –
E. E. Cummings
Edward Estlin Cummings, who was also known as E. E. Cummings, e. e. cummings and e e cummings (October 14, 1894 - September 3, 1962), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobi ...
* 1959 –
Theodore Roethke
Theodore Huebner Roethke ( ; May 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963) was an American poet. He is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of his generation, having won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his book ''The Wa ...
* 1960 –
Delmore Schwartz
Delmore Schwartz (December 8, 1913 – July 11, 1966) was an American poet and short story writer.
Early life
Schwartz was born in 1913 in Brooklyn, New York, where he also grew up. His parents, Harry and Rose, both Romanian Jews, separated when ...
and
David Jones
* 1961 –
Yvor Winters
Arthur Yvor Winters (October 17, 1900 – January 25, 1968) was an American poet and literary critic.
Life
Winters was born in Chicago, Illinois and lived there until 1919 except for brief stays in Seattle and in Pasadena, where his grandparen ...
* 1962 –
John Hall Wheelock
John Hall Wheelock (September 9, 1886 – March 22, 1978) was an American poet. He was a descendant of Eleazar Wheelock, founder of Dartmouth College.
The son of William Efner Wheelock and Emily Charlotte Hall,Richard Eberhart
Richard Ghormley Eberhart (April 5, 1904 – June 9, 2005) was an American poet who published more than a dozen books of poetry and approximately twenty works in total. "Richard Eberhart emerged out of the 1930s as a modern stylist with romanti ...
* 1963 –
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...
See also
*
American poetry
American poetry refers to the poetry of the United States. It arose first as efforts by American colonists to add their voices to English poetry in the 17th century, well before the constitutional unification of the Thirteen Colonies (although ...
*
Bollingen Foundation
The Bollingen Foundation was an educational foundation set up along the lines of a university press in 1945. It was named after Bollingen Tower, Carl Jung's country home in Bollingen, Switzerland. Funding was provided by Paul Mellon and his wife ...
*
Bollingen Tower
The Bollingen Tower is a structure built by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. In appearance, it is a small castle with four towers. It is located in the village of Bollingen on the shore of the ''Obersee'' (upper lake) basin of Lake Zürich.
Hist ...
*
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...
Lists
*
List of American literary awards
This list of literary awards from around the world is an index to articles about notable literary awards.
International awards
All nationalities & multiple languages eligible (in chronological order)
* Nobel Prize in Literature – since 1901 ...
*
List of literary awards
This list of literary awards from around the world is an index to articles about notable literary awards.
International awards
All nationalities & multiple languages eligible (in chronological order)
* Nobel Prize in Literature – since 1901 ...
*
List of poetry awards
Major international awards
* Golden Wreath of Struga Poetry Evenings
* Bridges of Struga (for a debuting author at Struga Poetry Evenings)
* Griffin Poetry Prize (The international prize)
* International Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medi ...
*
List of years in literature
This article gives a chronological list of years in literature (descending order), with notable publications listed with their respective years and a small selection of notable events. The time covered in individual years covers Renaissance, Baroq ...
*
List of years in poetry
This article gives a chronological list of years in poetry (descending order). These pages supplement the List of years in literature pages with a focus on events in the history of poetry.
21st century in poetry
2020s
* 2023 in poetry
* 2022 ...
References
{{Jung
American poetry awards
Awards established in 1948
Yale University Library
Awards and prizes of Yale University