John Anderson Thompson, Jr. (June 14, 1918 – June 24, 2002) was an American professor, poet, literary critic and writer whose literary career spanned sixty years, from 1938 to 1998.

Early life

Thompson was born and raised in

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

, Michigan. His father, John Anderson Thompson, owned and operated a typewriter store there. His mother, Grace George, was active in promoting early childhood education. She died when he was five years old, a devastating loss and the subject of his posthumously published novel ''Things to Put Away''. Thompson attended Sigsbee School (1924–1930) and Ottawa Hills High School (Michigan) (1930–1936), where he wrote and produced ''Paul Bunyon'', a verse play with music from

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

under the tutelage of his beloved teacher Mary Baloyan.

Education

Thompson attended

Grand Rapids Junior College Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) is a public community college in Grand Rapids, Michigan. History Grand Rapids Junior College was established on September 21, 1914, after University of Michigan faculty passed a resolution encouraging the ...

for two years and was then admitted on full scholarship to Kenyon College to be a student of

John Crowe Ransom John Crowe Ransom (April 30, 1888 – July 3, 1974) was an American educator, scholar, literary critic, poet, essayist and editor. He is considered to be a founder of the New Criticism school of literary criticism. As a faculty member at Kenyon ...

. There he lived at Douglass House, the writer's house, with

Robert Lowell Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the ''Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects i ...

Peter Taylor (writer) Matthew Hillsman Taylor, Jr. (January 8, 1917 – November 2, 1994), known professionally as Peter Taylor, was an American novelist, short story writer, and playwright. Born and raised in Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri, he wrote frequently abou ...

, Robie Macauley, and Randall Jarrell. Saunders p. 240. He graduated magna cum laude in 1940. He was admitted to Columbia University for graduate studies but deferred for military service from 1941 to 1945. At Columbia, Thompson studied poetry and literature and received his Ph.D. in 1957 under the mentorship of

Lionel Trilling Lionel Mordecai Trilling (July 4, 1905 – November 5, 1975) was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. He was one of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century who analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, ...

. He taught as an English instructor at Bard College (1946–1947),

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 ...

(1947–1949), as well as at Columbia University (1949–1956) while doing graduate studies. His dissertation, an analysis of the origins of poetic metre, was published in 1961 as ''The Founding of English Metre'' by Columbia University Press (New York) and Routledge and Kegan Paul (London). It was reprinted in 1966 by Columbia with an introduction by John Hollander.

Career

As early as 1952 Thompson began publishing scholarly articles in '' Partisan Review'' and ''

Hudson Review ''The Hudson Review'' is a quarterly journal of literature and the arts. History It was founded in 1947 in New York, by William Arrowsmith, Joseph Deericks Bennett, and George Frederick Morgan. The first issue was introduced in the spring of 1 ...

'' which brought him to the attention of the New York literary circle. (Saunders p. 241). Thompson was hired as Executive Director of the Farfield Foundation, a CIA-funded organization which gave small grants to third world writers and intellectuals. He worked there from 1956 until 1965, frequently traveling to Africa (Saunders p. 137-138). He continued publishing literary criticism and essays and stories during this time and throughout his life in numerous journals including ''

Poetry Magazine ''Poetry'' (founded as ''Poetry: A Magazine of Verse'') has been published in Chicago since 1912. It is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. Founded by Harriet Monroe, it is now published by the Poetry Foundat ...

'', '' The Kenyon Review'', '' The New York Review of Books'', '' Commentary'', '' Harper's'', '' The New York Times Book Review'', '' Parnassus'', '' Shenandoah (magazine)'', and '' The American Scholar (magazine)''. (See Bibliography.) After leaving Farfield, Thompson was hired as full Professor of English Literature at

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

in 1965. He retired in 1983.

Personal life

Thompson met his first wife, Helen Louise Keeler (Dilly), when he was home on furlough in 1944. She was a

native, and a recent graduate in the first graduating class of Bennington College who was teaching at Grand Rapids Art School. They married in June 1944, three months after they met. After the war, they moved to New York so that Thompson could do his graduate work at Columbia. They had three children, Louise Steketee Thompson, Keeler George Thompson, and Peter Spaulding Thompson, who was named after his close friend,

. Peter died in a car accident at nineteen in 1972. Thompson and his wife were divorced in 1962. Thompson married Susan Otis in 1963. Susan Otis Thompson later studied at Columbia University School of Library Service where she obtained her Ph.D. and taught until her retirement. Her dissertation, ''American Book Design and William Morris'', was published in 1977 by R.R. Bowker. Thompson died in New York at his home in Manhattan on June 24, 2002 at the age of eighty-three.

Awards and honors

Thompson was a finalist for the

National Book Awards The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

in 1969 for his volume of poetry, ''The Talking Girl and Other Poems'', Pym-Randall Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1968.

Publications

Collected poetry

''The Talking Girl and Other Poems'', Pym-Randall Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1968.

Poems

Thompson's poems were published in '' The Kenyon Review'', '' Partisan Review'', '' The New York Review of Books'', ''Soundings'', and ''

''.

Short stories

His short fiction appeared in '' The Kenyon Review'', '' Harper's'', '' Shenandoah (magazine)'', and '' Partisan Review''.

Novel

Thompson's only novel, ''Things to Put Away'', was published posthumously in 2018.

Nonfiction

Thompson published various essays and articles in '' The Kenyon Review'', '' The New York Review of Books'', '' Commentary'', and '' Harper's''. Between 1939 and 1981 he also published scores of book reviews in ''

'', ''The Kenyon Review'', ''The New York Review of Books'', ''Commentary'', ''Harper's'', '' The New York Times Book Review'', '' Parnassus'', '' Shenandoah (magazine)'', '' Partisan Review'', ''

'', and '' The American Scholar (magazine)''.

Collected work

Two volumes of Thompson's collected work, including essays, stories, book reviews, as well as poems not appearing in ''The Talking Girl and Other Poems'', were published posthumously in 2018 as ''Straws in the Wind: Collected Work, Volume I: 1938-1967'' and ''Straws in the Wind: Collected Work, Volume II: 1968-1995''.

References

Saunders, Frances Stonor Frances Hélène Jeanne Stonor Saunders Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL (born 14 April 1966) is a British journalist and historian. Early life Frances Stonor Saunders is the daughter of Julia Camoys Stonor and Donald Robin Slomni ...

, ''Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War''. London: Granta Books, 1999. pp. 137–138, 240, 241, 244, 352, 405. (Also published in the US as ''The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters'', New York: The New Press, April, 1999.) ''The New York Times'' obituary of John Thompson, July 6, 2002. p. A14. https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/06/arts/john-thompson-84-a-professor-and-poet.html William Stafford (poet). "Books that Look Out, Books that Look In." Review of six books including ''The Talking Girl and Other Poems'', by John Thompson.

. 113.6 (March 1969) pp. 424–425. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=113&issue=6&page=56

William Dickey (poet) William Hobart Dickey (December 15, 1928 – May 3, 1994) was an American poet and professor of English and creative writing at San Francisco State University. He wrote 15 books of poetry over a career that lasted over 30 years. Early life an ...

. "A Place in the Country." Multiple review, including review of ''The Talking Girl and Other Poems'', by John Thompson. ''

''. XXII, No. 2. (Summer 1969): pp. 359–360. Thompson, John, Jr.. "A Love for Patsy." ''A Little Treasury of Modern Poetry: English & American''. ed.

Oscar Williams Oscar Williams may refer to: * Oscar Williams (poet), American anthologist and poet * Oscar Williams (filmmaker), film actor, screenwriter and film director * Oscar Williams (cricketer), Antiguan cricketer See also * Oscar Randal-Williams Oscar ...

. Charles Scribner's Sons: New York, 1952. pp. 707–708. "

: A Mania for Phrases." ''Voices and Visions'' (12th episode). Producer Lawrence Pikethli. Appearance by John Thompson. PBS. WNET, New York. 14 April 1988. {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, John 1918 births 2002 deaths American literary critics 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American poets American male poets Writers from Grand Rapids, Michigan Kenyon College alumni Columbia University alumni Columbia University faculty Bard College faculty Sarah Lawrence College faculty Stony Brook University faculty