Jack Hirschman (December 13, 1933 – August 22, 2021)
was an American poet and social activist who wrote more than 100 volumes of poetry and essays.
Biography
![Art Pepper, Jack Hirschman, Dexter Gordon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Art_Pepper%2C_Jack_Hirschman%2C_Dexter_Gordon.jpg)
Hirschman was born in New York City to a
Russian Jewish
The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...
family.
He received a
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
from the
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
in 1955 and an
M.A.
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
(1957) and
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
(1961) from
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
*Indiana Universit ...
.
While attending City College, he worked as a copy boy for the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
.
When he was 19, he sent a story to
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
, who responded: "I can't help you, kid. You write better than I did when I was 19. But the hell of it is, you write like me. That is no sin. But you won't get anywhere with it."
Hirschman left a copy of the letter with the Associated Press, and when Hemingway killed himself in 1961, the "Letter to a Young Writer" was distributed by the wire service and published all over the world.
![Beppe Costa con Leonardo Omar Onida, Jack Hirschman e Paul Polansky](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Beppe_Costa_con_Leonardo_Omar_Onida%2C_Jack_Hirschman_e_Paul_Polansky.jpg)
In 1954 Hirschman married
Ruth Epstein,
whom he'd met and dated when they were students at CCNY. Following graduation, Ruth became a program director for
KPFK
KPFK (90.7 FM) is a listener-sponsored radio station based in North Hollywood, California, United States, which serves Southern California, and also streams 24 hours a day via the Internet. It was the second of five stations in the non-commerci ...
and eventually general manager of Santa Monica
public radio
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
station
KCRW
KCRW (89.9 MHz FM) is a National Public Radio member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to programm ...
. The couple had two children, David and Celia.
In the 1950s and 60s, Hirschman taught at
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...
and the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
. During his tenure at UCLA, one of the students enrolled in his class was
Jim Morrison
James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, poet and songwriter who was the lead vocalist of the Rock music, rock band the Doors. Due to his wild personality, poetic lyrics, distinctive voice, unpredicta ...
, later to be a cofounder and lead vocalist of the American band
The Doors
The Doors were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential ro ...
.
The
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, however, put an end to Hirschman's academic career;
he was fired from UCLA after encouraging his students to resist the draft.
His marriage disintegrated, and he moved to San Francisco in 1973.
For a quarter century, Hirschman roamed San Francisco
streets, cafes (including
Caffe Trieste
Caffè Trieste is an internationally known coffeehouse, retail store, and former franchise in San Francisco. The original cafe, opened in 1956, was the first espresso-based coffeehouse on the West Coast of the United States. Caffe Trieste is co ...
,
where he has been a regular patron), and readings, becoming an active street poet and a peripatetic activist. Hirschman was also a painter and collagist.
![Jack and Agneta](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Jack_and_Agneta.jpg)
In June 1999, Hirschman married the Swedish poet, writer and artist Agneta Falk.
Hirschman died at his home in San Francisco on August 22, 2021, at age 87.
Poetry
His first volume of poetry, ''A Correspondence of Americans'', published in 1960 by
Indiana University Press
Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes 140 ...
, included an introduction
by
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 ...
: "What a relief to find a poet who is not afraid of the vulgar or the sentimental, who can burst out laughing or cry his head off in poetry – who can make love to language, or kick it in the pants."
Among his many volumes of poetry are ''A Correspondence of Americans'' (Indiana U. Press, 1960), ''Black Alephs'' (Trigram Press, 1969), ''Lyripol'' (
City Lights
''City Lights'' is a 1931 American silent romantic comedy film written, produced, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. The story follows the misadventures of Chaplin's Tramp as he falls in love with a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) and ...
, 1976), ''The Bottom Line'' (Curbstone, 1988), and ''Endless Threshold'' (Curbstone, 1992).
He also translated over two dozen books into English from languages including Hebrew, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Persian, Russian, Albanian, and Greek.
![Jack Hirschman & Polish American translator Janusz Zalewski](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Jack_Hirschman_%26_Polish_American_translator_Janusz_Zalewski.JPG)
In 2006, Hirschman released his most extensive collection of poems yet, ''The Arcanes.''
Published in
Salerno, Italy
Salerno (, , ; nap, label= Salernitano, Saliernë, ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' in Campania (southwestern Italy) and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after ...
by Multimedia Edizioni, ''The Arcanes'' comprises 126 long poems spanning 34 years.
Additionally, in 2006, Hirschman was appointed
Poet Laureate
A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...
of San Francisco by Mayor
Gavin Newsom
Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California fr ...
.
In his Poet Laureate inaugural address, Hirschman envisioned creating an International Poetry Festival in San Francisco, reprising a great tradition from the City's literary past.
In July 2007, Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, Mayor
Gavin Newsom
Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California fr ...
, Hirschman, and the
San Francisco Public Library
The San Francisco Public Library is the public library system of the city and county of San Francisco. The Main Library is located at Civic Center, at 100 Larkin Street. The library system has won several awards, such as ''Library Journals L ...
presented their first
San Francisco International Poetry Festival.
Hirschman was named Poet-in-Residence with Friends of the San Francisco Public Library in 2009.
Hirschman continued his work supporting the literary community and was the key organizer for the now biennial San Francisco International Poetry Festival.
From 2007 Festival on, Hirschman, in partnership with Friends of the San Francisco Public Library and the San Francisco Public Library, have presented smaller poetry festivals in a variety of languages, including the Latino Poetry Festival, the Vietnamese Poetry Festival, and the Iranian Arts Poetry Festival.
Hirschman curated the Poets 11 Anthology, which collected poetry from each of the City's 11 districts.
Political views
![Jack Hirschman speaks at Book Passage in Marin County](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Jack_Hirschman_speaks_at_Book_Passage_in_Marin_County.jpg)
Hirschman supported the anti-war movement, the
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...
, and advocated for the rights of the unhoused.
According to a 2006 book review, Hirschman was a
Stalinist
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...
.
[Kaufman, Alan]
"Superb landscapes full of horrible glory"
''San Francisco Chronicle'' (November 12, 2006): "A die-hard Stalinist Communist, he is also a virtuoso kabbalah scholar who, as a Yiddish-inflected Jew and artist, would probably have been executed – alongside such figures as Isaac Babel and Osip Mandelstam – in the Soviet Union about which he so fervently rhapsodizes." Hirschman translated the youthful poems of
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
into English
(''Joey: The Poems of Joseph Stalin;'' Deliriodendron Press, 2001). He was an assistant editor at the left-wing literary journal ''Left Curve''
and was a correspondent for ''The People's Tribune''. He was active with the Revolutionary Poets Brigade.
Hirschman is profiled in the 2009 documentary ''Red Poet''
in which he identifies as a
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
-
Leninist
Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishme ...
. He stated in an interview with the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', “The most important thing as a poet is that I worked for the Communist movement for 45 years, and the new class of impoverished and homeless people.”
Selected works
Collections
*''A Correspondence of Americans'' Indiana University Press, 1960.
*(With Franz Kline) ''Kline Sky,'' The Zora Gallery, 1965.
*''Yod,'' Trigram Press, 1966.
*''Black Alephs: Poems, 1960-1968,'' Phoenix Bookshop, 1969.
*''HNYC,'' R. Tamblyn Skyline Press, 1971.
*''The Burning of Los Angeles,'' J'Ose Press, 1971.
*''Endless Threshold,''
Curbstone Press
Curbstone Press was an American publishing company founded in 1975 in Willimantic, Connecticut by Judith Doyle and Alexander “Sandy” Taylor that specialized in fiction, creative nonfiction, memoir, and poetry that promote human rights, social ...
, 1992.
*''Front Lines,''
City Lights Publishers
City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination in San Francisco, California, that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected ti ...
, 2002.
*''Only Dreaming Sky,''
Manic D Press
Manic D Press is an American literary press based in San Francisco, California publishing fiction (novels and short stories), poetry, cultural studies, art, narrative-oriented comix, children's books, and alternative travel trade paperbacks. It wa ...
, 2007.
*''All That's Left,''
City Lights Publishers
City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination in San Francisco, California, that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected ti ...
, 2008.
*''The Ulitsea Arcane,'' Nicola Viviani Edizioni, 2012.
*''Talking Leaves,'' Sore Dove Press, 2013.
*''Passion, Provocation and Prophecy,''
Swimming with Elephants Publications, 2015.
* ''The Arcanes : 2006-2016'' Multimedia Edizioni, 2016.
Editor
*''Revolutionary Poets Brigade (Volume 1)'' Caza de Poesía, 2010.
*''Poets 11 Anthology 2012'' Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, 2016.
*(with Falk, Agneta) ''Heartfire: 2nd Revolutionary Poets Brigade anthology'' Kallatumba Press, 2013.
*(with Curl, John) ''Overthrowing capitalism : a symposium of poets'' Kallatumba Press, 2014.
*(with Curl, John) ''Overthrowing capitalism. Volume two, Beyond endless war, racist police, sexist elites'' Kallatumba Press, 2015.
*(with Curl, John) ''Overthrowing capitalism. Volume three, Reclaiming community'' Kallatumba Press, 2016.
*''Poets 11 Anthology 2016'' Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, 2016.
*(with Curl, John and Falk, Agneta) ''Overthrowing capitalism. Volume four'' Kallatumba Press, 2017.
*(with Curl, John) ''Building Socialism: World Multilingual Poetry from the Revolutionary Poets Brigade'' Homeward Press, 2020.
*(with Curl, John) ''Building Socialism, Volume 2 - Fighting Fascism'' Homeward Press, 2021.
Translator
*Artaud, Antonin ''Antonin Artaud anthology'' City Lights Publishers, 1965.
*Dalton, Roque, ''Poemas Clandestinos Clandestine Poems'' Solidarity Publications, 1984.
*(with Mark Eisner, John Felstiner, Forrest Gander, Robert Hass, Stephen Kessler, Stephen Mitchell, and Alastair Reid) Neruda, Pablo, ''The Essential Neruda'' City Lights Publishers, 2004.
*Pasolini, Pier Pablo, ''In Danger : a Pasolini anthology'' City Lights Publishers, 2010.
*Sénac, Jean, ''Citizens of Beauty : Poems of Jean Sénac'' Michigan State University Press, 2016.
References
External links
Jack Hirschman: A bibliography by Hirschman and
Matt Gonzalez
Matthew Edward Gonzalez (born June 4, 1965) is an American politician, lawyer, and activist. He served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 2001 and 2005 and was president of the Board. In 2003, Gonzalez, running as a member of the Gr ...
, in the May 24, 2002 ''San Francisco Call''.
''Defiant'', A Proclamation by Jack Hirschman and four of Hirschman's poems presented by ''The InstaPLANET Cultural Universe''.
*
San Francisco International Poetry Festival by Nirmala Nataraj, July 23, 2009 ''San Francisco Chronicle''
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirschman, Jack
1933 births
2021 deaths
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American poets
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American poets
Activists from the San Francisco Bay Area
American Book Award winners
American communists
American male poets
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American social activists
City College of New York alumni
Communist poets
Dartmouth College faculty
Indiana University alumni
Jewish American poets
Neo-Stalinists
Outlaw poets
Poets Laureate of San Francisco
University of California, Los Angeles faculty
Writers from New York City
Writers from San Francisco