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
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
and college professor. He was awarded the
Bollingen Prize in 1965.
Life
A graduate of the
University of Wisconsin in 1923, he was the author of eight books of poems. He translated poems by the Roman poets
Catullus and
Ovid, and wrote biographies of
Whistler and
Amy Lowell.
In 1925, he married poet and editor
Marya Zaturenska
Marya Zaturenska (September 12, 1902 – January 19, 1982) was an American lyric poet, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1938.
Life
She was born in Kyiv and her family emigrated to the United States, when she was eight and lived in ...
(Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry, 1938; 1902–1982). They had two children: Patrick Bolten Gregory and Joanna Elizabeth Zeigler née Gregory.
His collected essays, ''Spirit of Time and Place'', were published in 1973. He wrote book reviews that were published in ''
The New York Times''. His work appeared in ''The New Yorker'', ''Contemporary Poetry'', ''The Wisconsin Literary Magazine'', and ''Poetry Magazine''.
Gregory's poetry has been described as "literary" and as "exhibit
ngan awareness of the lives of working people, sometimes taking the form of the elegiac monologue."
Poet Richard Eberhart said: "The ruthlessness of the city used to be his interest; he used to depict realistic characters and situations within it. Now there is the general serenity, poise and lyrical concern with language." He added: "Gregory is lyrical and straight-forward in these poems."
[Edgar Johnson]
biographer of Charles Dickens and Sir Walter Scott among others, said that "Mr. Gregory is not one of those scholar-critics who write only for other scholar-critics. He is a scholar without pedantry, who concentrates not on exhibitionism but illumination."
Gregory was a professor of English at Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...
for 26 years, from 1934 to 1960, when he became Professor Emeritus. One of his students was future children's poet Myra Cohn Livingston
Myra Cohn Livingston (August 17, 1926 – August 23, 1996) was an American poet, writer, and educator who is primarily known for her books of free verse children's poetry.
Biography
Early life and education
Myra Cohn was born in Omaha, Nebras ...
.[Rochman, Hazel. "Myra Cohn Livingston." ''American Writers for Children Since 1960: Poets, Illustrators, and Nonfiction Authors'', edited by Glenn E. Estes, Gale, 1987. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 61. ''Gale Literature Resource Center''. Accessed 19 May 2023.]
He and Marya Zaturenska attended a 1948 reception at the Gotham Book Mart for Edith Sitwell. During the end of his life, Gregory and his wife were residents of Palisades, Rockland County, New York.
His papers are at Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...
.
Awards
* 1942 Russell Loines Memorial Fund Poetry Award
* 1961 Academy of American Poets Fellowship
Works
Poetry
* ''Chelsea Rooming House'' (Covici, Friede; 1930)
* ''No Retreat'' (Harcourt, Brace & Co.; 1933)
* ''Chorus for Survival'' (Covici, Friede; 1935)
* Fortune for Mirabel, 1941
* ''Poems, 1930-1940'' (Harcourt, Brace & Co.; 1941)
* ''The Triumph of Life: Poems of Consolation for the English-Speaking World, 1943''
* ''The Door in the Desert'' (1951)
* ''Medusa in Gramercy Park'' (Macmillan; 1961)
* ''Collected Poems'' (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964)
* ''Another Look'' (Holt, Rinehart and Winston; 1976)
Criticism
*
*
*
*
*
*
Translations
*
*
*''Love Poems of Ovid'' (1964)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gregory, Horace
1898 births
1982 deaths
American literary critics
20th-century American poets
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
Sarah Lawrence College faculty
Writers from Milwaukee
Bollingen Prize recipients
People from Palisades, New York
20th-century American non-fiction writers