Howard William Bergerson (July 29, 1922 – February 19, 2011) was an American writer and poet, noted for his mastery of

palindrome A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as the words ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date and time ''11/11/11 11:11,'' and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Panam ...

s and other forms of

wordplay Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phone ...

Work

Bergerson's first volume of poetry, '' The Spirit of Adolescence'', was published in 1950, and earned him the state's nomination as Oregon Poet Laureate in 1957. However, he declined the nomination for political reasons, and the position instead went to Ethel R. Fuller. By 1961, Bergerson's interests had shifted to wordplay and

constrained writing Constrained writing is a literary technique in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern. Constraints are very common in poetry, which often requires the writer to use a particular verse form. D ...

. He became fascinated with palindromes and set out to write a coherent, full-length palindromic poem. The result, the 1034-letter "Edna Waterfall", was for some time listed by the ''

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

'' as the longest palindrome in English. In 1969, Bergerson became editor of '' Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics'', though stepped down a year later when

Greenwood Periodicals Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG), also known as ABC-Clio/Greenwood (stylized ABC-CLIO/Greenwood), is an educational and academic publisher (middle school through university level) which is today part of ABC-Clio. Established in 1967 as Gr ...

dropped the publication. However, he continued to contribute material to ''Word Ways'' for several decades, including memorable articles on palindromes,

anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into ''nag a ram'', also the word ...

s, panalphabetic windows,

pangrammatic window A pangrammatic window is a stretch of naturally occurring text that contains all the letters in the alphabet. Shortest examples The shortest known naturally occurring pangrammatic window was discovered in October 2014 through an automated processi ...

s, self-referencing

acrostics An acrostic is a poetry, poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from ...

, and

vocabularyclept poetry A vocabularyclept poem is a poem which is formed by taking the words of an existing poem and rearranging them into a new work of literature. Vocabularyclept poetry was first proposed in 1969 by ''Word Ways'' editor Howard Bergerson. He took his li ...

. He also published games and puzzles in ''

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...

'' and other magazines. His 1973 book ''

Palindromes and Anagrams ''Palindromes and Anagrams'' is a 1973 non-fiction book on wordplay by Howard W. Bergerson. Content Over a third of the book is devoted to the study and collection of anagrams. Of the 1169 anagrams Bergerson lists, most are sourced to the f ...

'' was influential among wordplay enthusiasts, and has been hailed by critics as a "''sine qua non'' for all serious logologists" and the greatest ever book on palindromes. He is often cited, along with

Leigh Mercer Leigh Mercer (1893–1977) was a noted British wordplay and recreational mathematics expert. Career Palindrome Mercer is best known for devising the palindrome " A man, a plan, a canal: Panama!".Published in ''Notes and Queries,'' 13 Nov. 1948, ...

and

J. A. Lindon James Albert Lindon ( – 16 December 1979) was an English puzzle enthusiast and poet specialising in light verse, constrained writing, and children's poetry. Lindon was based in Addlestone and Weybridge. His poems often won weekly newspaper com ...

, as one of the greatest palindromists of all time.

Personal life

Bergerson was born in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

on July 29, 1922. His mother, Margaret Jeske, later married Ludvick Bergerson, who became his adopted father. Bergerson's youth was spent in the mill towns of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

. After serving in the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

in the

Guadalcanal Campaign The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by American forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in th ...

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 ...

, he moved to

Sweet Home, Oregon Sweet Home is a city in Linn County, Oregon, United States, with population 8,925 at the 2010 census. Built near the site of a prehistoric petrified forest, Sweet Home experienced substantial growth during the construction of the Green Peter an ...

, down the road from the mill where he worked as a

shingle weaver A shingle weaver (US) or shingler (UK) is an employee of a wood products mill who engages in the creation of wooden Roof shingle, roofing shingles or the closely related product known as "shake (shingle), shakes." In the Pacific Northwest region ...

for over 50 years. In 1967 he met and married Nellie Wilson (née McLaughlin) and adopted her three youngest children; the marriage lasted until Nellie's death in 1987. His subsequent marriage, to Christine Stamm, lasted three years. In 2010 Bergerson moved from Sweet Home to

Woodinville, Washington Woodinville is a city in King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington, United States. It is a part of the Seattle metropolitan area. There is also a much larger population with Woodinville mailing addresses in adjacent uni ...

. He died the following year in

Kirkland, Washington Kirkland is a city in King County, Washington, United States. A suburb east of Seattle, its population was 92,175 in the 2020 U.S. census which made it the sixth largest city in the county and the twelfth largest in the state. The city's downto ...

Bibliography

*Howard W. Bergerson. '' The Spirit of Adolescence''. Little Press, 1950. *———. ''

''.

Dover Publications Dover Publications, also known as Dover Books, is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward and Blanche Cirker. It primarily reissues books that are out of print from their original publishers. These are often, but not always, books ...

, 1973. . *———. ''Posterity Is You''. 1977. *———. ''The Cosmic Sieve Hypothesis''.

, 1986. *———. ''Earth: The Crossroads of the Cosmos''. 1990.

References

External links

* /www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlKf303yOtDzkNrwQ-cSvjoc2G3uCnZxn Howard Bergerson Interviews – Mathematics and Poetrybr>Text of "Edna Waterfall"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergerson, Howard W. American male poets 1922 births 2011 deaths Word Ways people Writers from Minneapolis Writers from Oregon Poets from Oregon Palindromists Shingle weavers Anagrammatists 20th-century American poets 20th-century American male writers People from Sweet Home, Oregon United States Army personnel of World War II