Carter Curtis Revard (March 25, 1931 – January 3, 2022) was an American poet, scholar, and writer. He was of European American and Osage descent, and grew up on the tribal reservation in Oklahoma. He had his early education in a one-room schoolhouse, before winning a Quiz Bowl scholarship for college, subsequently attending University of Tulsa for his BA. His Osage name, ''Nompehwahthe'', was given to him in 1952 by Josephine Jump, his Osage grandmother. The same year, he won a Rhodes Scholarship for graduate work at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

. After completing a PhD at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, Revard had most of his academic career at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

, where he specialized in medieval British literature and linguistics. Since 1980, Revard had become notable as a Native American poet and writer, and published several books, as well as numerous articles about the literature. He received numerous awards for this work.

Early life and education

Revard was born in

Pawhuska Pawhuska ( osa, 𐓄𐓘𐓢𐓶𐓮𐓤𐓘 / hpahúska, ''meaning: "White Hair"'', iow, Paháhga) is a city in and the county seat of Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. It was named after the 19th-century Osage chief, ''Paw-Hiu-Skah'', ...

, Oklahoma,Transcript of Interview with Megan Brown
, American Lives, Washington University in St. Louis, April 16, 2001 a town within the Osage Indian Reservation on March 25, 1931.
Storytellers: Native American Authors Online, 1997, accessed March 31, 2014 He was of European American and Osage descent, and grew up on the tribal reservation in Oklahoma."Carter Revard"
Storytellers: Native American Authors Online, 1997, accessed March 31, 2014 He grew up in the Buck Creek Valley about 20 miles east, where he and his twin sister were among seven siblings. They were of Osage, Ponca people, French,"American Indian Carter Revard discussed his poems with students in Berlin"
US Embassy in Germany, November 10, 2006

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

, and Scotch-Irish heritage."Carter Revard"
Poetry Foundation, 2014, accessed March 31, 2014 The children were taught up to the eighth grade in a one-room schoolhouse on the Osage reservation. He learned some Osage and Ponca, which are related languages. Revard and his classmates combined schoolwork with farming tasks and odd jobs; Revard also helped train

greyhounds The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurge ...

for racing. He went to Bartlesville College High; Revard credited his teachers with inspiring his interest in literature and science. Winning a radio quiz scholarship, Revard attended the University of Tulsa, where he earned a BA. He was mentored by Professor Franklin Eikenberry, who supported him in applying for a Rhodes Scholarship for study at

, where Revard matriculated at Merton College in 1952, taking a second class English BA degree in 1954. After returning to the United States, he was encouraged by Eikenberry to do further graduate work. Revard earned a PhD in English at

in 1959.

Academic career

Revard first taught at Amherst College. Beginning in 1961, he started teaching at

Washington University Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, where he had his academic career. The traditional territory of the Osage was in the Missouri region before they were removed to a reservation. Revard's major scholarly focus throughout his career was on

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

manuscripts, and their social context. He was a respected voice in this field. He developed classes in language development for study by high school teachers, to engage them in the tremendous work in language that their adolescent students are engaged in. Revard also published scholarly work on

linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...

(specifically on the transition between

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...

and later forms of the language). In 1967, Revard worked on a project in California funded by the military, which related to putting a large dictionary of the English language into computer accessible form, and developing programs to access it; he participated as a "semanticist linguist." It was related to computerizing '' Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.'' In August 1968 he gave a paper on this work in

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...

to the Association for Computational Machinery. He also gave a paper on this work to the

New York Academy of Science The New York Academy of Sciences (originally the Lyceum of Natural History) was founded in January 1817 as the Lyceum of Natural History. It is the fourth oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, nonprofit organization wit ...

, which had a "section on lexicography and with the special section on computers", and later published these. In 1971-1972, Revard went to England on a sabbatical, where he tried to do medieval research at Oxford during a period of student unrest and disruption that damaged important library resources. During this period, he also started writing and sending out poems, which appeared in journals and anthologies, including ''Voices from the Rainbow: Contemporary Poetry by American Indians'' released by

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquir ...

in 1975. His first poetry collection, ''Ponca War Dancers'', was published in 1980 by Point Riders Press out of

Norman, Oklahoma Norman () is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,097 as of 2021. It is the largest city and the county seat of Cleveland County, and the second-largest city in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, b ...

. Many of the poems written about his Oxford period would be collected much later in ''An Eagle Nation'' (1993), particularly "Homework At Oxford," in which the speaker walks the grounds of the university and has a dream vision of his childhood in north central Oklahoma. Revard has also been a visiting professor at the universities of

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

and Oklahoma. In addition, he published several critical articles about

Native American literature Native American literature is literature, both oral and written, produced by Native Americans in what is now the United States (as distinct from First Nations writers in Canada), from pre-Columbian times through to today. Famous authors include ...

, assessing it and placing it in the context of American literatures.

Writing

Revard's early poems published 1975-1980, culminating in ''Ponca War Dances'', revealed him as a new, strongly political voice among Native American poets. Most of his books interweave poetry,

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

essays, and short, sometimes

allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...

stories. His poems have also appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, and his work has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian and Hungarian. An excerpt from "Discovery of the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

": :''The creatures that we met this morning'' :''marveled at our green skins'' :''and scarlet eyes.'' :''They lack antennae'' :''and can't be made to grasp'' :''your lawful proclamation that they are'' :''our lawful food and prey and slaves'' :''nor can they seem to learn'' :''their body-space is needed to materialize'' :''our oxygen absorbers —'' :''which they conceive are breathing'' :''and thinking creatures whom they implore'' :''at first as angels or (later) as devils'' :''when they are being snuffed out'' :''by an absorber swelling'' :''into their space. . . .'' :''We need their space and oxygen'' :''which they do not know how to use,'' :''yet they will not give up their gas unforced,'' :''and we feel sure,'' :''whatever our "agreements" made this morning,'' :''we'll have to cook them all:'' :''the more we cook this orbit,'' :''the fewer next time around.''

Personal life and death

He was married to Stella, a scholar of Milton. They had four children: Stephen, Geoffrey, Vanessa, and Lawrence. Revard died at his residence in University City on January 3, 2022, at the age of 90.

Awards and professional recognition

*2007 - American Indian Festival of Words Author Award *2005 - Lifetime Achievement Award,

Native Writers' Circle of the Americas The Native Writers' Circle of the Americas (NWCA) is an organization of Native American writers, most notable for its literary awards, presented annually to Native American writers in three categories: ''First Book of Poetry'', ''First Book of Prose ...

*2002 - Finalist, Oklahoma Book Award, Nonfiction category, for ''Winning the Dust Bowl'' *2000 - Writer of the Year, Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers *1994 - Oklahoma Book Award, Poetry category, for ''Cowboys and Indians Christmas Shopping'' *The Spring 2003 issue of the journal, '' Studies in American Indian Literatures'' (''SAIL'') was entirely devoted to discussions of Revard's work; it also included pieces by him. Carter Revard was a member of the Modern Language Association (MLA), the Association for Studies in American Indian Literature, the River Styx Literary Organization, the Association of American Rhodes Scholars, the University of Tulsa Board of Visitors, the St. Louis Gourd Dancers and

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

. He served the American Indian Center of St. Louis as board member, Secretary and President.

Books by Carter Revard

*''How the Songs Come Down'', Salt Publications (2005), poetry *''Winning the Dust Bowl'', University of Arizona Press (2001), autobiography *''Family Matters, Tribal Affairs,'' University of Arizona Press (1999), autobiography *''An Eagle Nation'', University of Arizona Press (1997) poetry *''Cowboys and Indians Christmas Shopping'', Point Riders Press (1992), poetry *''Ponca War Dancers'', Point Riders Press (1980), poetry

Books about Carter Revard

*''The Salt Companion to Carter Revard,'' Ellen L. Arnold (Ed.

Notes

References

External links

"Carter Revard"
Storytellers: Native American Authors Online, Official website
''SAIL (Studies in American Indian Literature)'', V. 15, No.1, Spring 2003
contains links to each article online
Carter Revard, "History, Myth and Identity among Osages and Other Peoples"
reprint in ''Nothing But the Truth: An Anthology of Native American Literature'', ed. by John L. Purdy and James Ruppert, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall Publishing, 2001

Salt Publishing includes video and many audio files
"American Indian Carter Revard discussed his poems with students in Berlin"
US Embassy in Germany, November 10, 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Revard, Carter 1931 births 2022 deaths People from Pawhuska, Oklahoma Writers from Oklahoma Native American writers Osage Nation American male poets American autobiographers Washington University in St. Louis faculty American male non-fiction writers Alumni of Merton College, Oxford Yale University alumni