Donald Alexander Finkel (October 21, 1929 – November 15, 2008) was an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
poet best known for his unorthodox styles and "curious juxtapositions".
Life
Finkel was born in New York City on October 21, 1929. He grew up in
the Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, and aspired to be a sculptor as a youth. He attended the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
, only to be expelled for smoking marijuana. Finkel attended
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, where he was awarded a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1952. He earned a master's degree in English from Columbia in 1953.
[Fox, Margalit]
"Donald Finkel, 79, Poet of Free-Ranging Styles, Is Dead"
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', November 20, 2008. Accessed November 22, 2008.
He taught at the
Iowa Writers' Workshop
The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Wri ...
at the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...
and at
Bard College
Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic ...
in
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
Annandale-on-Hudson is a hamlet in Dutchess County, New York, United States, located in the Hudson Valley town of Red Hook, across the Hudson River from Kingston. The hamlet consists mainly of the Bard College campus.
Municipal services
Emerge ...
, prior to accepting a faculty position 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 ...
in 1960. He taught at Washington University until 1991, and was poet-in-residence emeritus there until his death. Mr. Finkel’s wife, Constance Urdang, a novelist and poet, died in 1996. In addition to his son, Tom, of St. Louis, he is survived by two daughters, Liza Finkel of Portland, Ore., and Amy Finkel of St. Louis; a half-brother, David Finkel of Manhattan; and two grandchildren.
[
]
Poetry
De Witt Bell, in a 1964 review, called Finkel's work ''Simeon'', "a book of great ''élan'', robust in world view and vigorous in style. Both the poet and the poems seems to be enjoying themselves."[Bell, De Witt]
"Poems Enjoying Themselves; SIMEON. By Donald Finkel. 100 pp. New York: Atheneum. Cloth, $3.95. Paper. $1.95. THE WINDOW. By Vern Rutsala, 80 pp. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press. Cloth, $4. Paper, $1.85. COUNTRY WITHOUT MAPS. By Jean Garrigue. 82 pp. New York: The Macmillan Company. $3.95."
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', December 20, 1964. Accessed November 23, 2008.
Finkel was sent to Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...
in 1968, as part of a scientific expedition sponsored by the National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
to send artists to Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...
. The trip spawned a book-length poem, "Adequate Earth", in 1972, and the subject reappeared in his 1978 book, ''Endurance: An Antarctic Idyll''.[Sorkin, Michael D]
"Donald Finkel, celebrated St. Louis poet"
''St. Louis Post Dispatch
The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, serving the Greater St. Louis, St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpass ...
'', November 18, 2008. Accessed November 23, 2008.
Finkel's wrote his poetry in free verse, juxtaposing different subjects against each other. Some of his poetry was extremely lengthy, with single pieces filling a volume. Finkel strayed from abstraction and used common language in his writing. He would interlace his poetry with sections taken from a wide range of works, including the writings of authors including Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), known professionally as Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which ...
, Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd
Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (October 25, 1888 – March 11, 1957) was an American naval officer and explorer. He was a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the highest honor for valor given by the United States, and was a pioneering American aviator, p ...
, Albert Camus
Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...
and Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...
to create what ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' described as a "multilayered, sculptural bricolage
In the arts, ''bricolage'' ( French for "DIY" or "do-it-yourself projects") is the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available, or a work constructed using mixed media.
The term ''bricolage'' ...
through which Mr. Finkel expanded the reader's sense of what was possible in the genre." Some of Finkel's best-known poems include his 1968 work ''Answer Back'' about Mammoth Cave
Mammoth Cave National Park is an American national park in west-central Kentucky, encompassing portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system known in the world.
Since the 1972 unification of Mammoth Cave with the even-longer system under F ...
, ''Adequate Earth,'' and his 1987 work ''The Wake of the Electron'' which was inspired by the story of sailor Donald Crowhurst
Donald Charles Alfred Crowhurst (1932 – July 1969) was a British businessman and amateur sailor who disappeared while competing in the ''Sunday Times'' Golden Globe Race, a single-handed, round-the-world yacht race. Soon after he started th ...
, who died in 1969 while competing in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race
The ''Sunday Times'' Golden Globe Race was a non-stop, single-handed sailing, single-handed, circumnavigation, round-the-world yacht racing, yacht race, held in 1968–1969, and was the first round-the-world yacht race. The race was controversi ...
.[
The 14 books of poetry and other works he published include ''Simeon'' (1964), ''A Joyful Noise'' (1966), ''The Garbage Wars'' (1970), ''A Mote in Heaven’s Eye'' (1975), ''Endurance: An Antarctic Idyll'' (1978), ''Going Under'' (1978), ''What Manner of Beast'' (1981) and ''Not So the Chairs: Selected and New Poems'' (2003). He translated ''A Splintered Mirror: Chinese Poetry From the Democracy Movement'' with ]Carolyn Kizer
Carolyn Ashley Kizer (December 10, 1925 – October 9, 2014) was an American poet of the Pacific Northwest whose works reflect her feminism. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985.
According to an article at the Center for the Study of the Pacific ...
, which was published in 1991.[
“The Invention of Meaning”
In the beginning was the hand
and the poem of the hand,
a breathless trope, a floating hieroglyph,
seamless as water.
Then the hand spoke, and the hand said
“Let there be meaning,” and the meaning sang:
“Let there be love,” and the hand
shaped itself another hand of clay.
Now, where there had been
but one meaning, there were two.
So the hands wrestled all night
till they saw it was pointless.
So together they shaped themselves
a cunning tongue, to arbitrate.
Now, where there had been two meanings,
there were three.
And the hands wrung one another,
abashed, and the tongue took over.
– Donald Finkel
From: Natural Bridge
]
Sculpture and death
Before his death, Finkel returned to sculpture, creating pieces from buttons, bottles and other found objects, in a process he called "dreckolage".[
He died at age 79 on November 15, 2008 at his home in ]St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
of complications of Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
.[
]
References
External links
The Donald Finkel Papers at Washington University in St. Louis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finkel, Donald
American male poets
Bard College faculty
Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
People from the Bronx
University of Chicago alumni
Washington University in St. Louis faculty
Deaths from dementia in Missouri
Deaths from Alzheimer's disease
1929 births
2008 deaths
20th-century American poets
20th-century American male writers