Randall Jarrell (May 6, 1914 – October 14, 1965) was an American poet, literary critic, children's author, essayist, and novelist. He was the 11th Consultant in Poetry to the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
—a position that now bears the title
Poet Laureate of the United States
The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—commonly referred to as the United States Poet Laureate—serves as the official poet of the United States. During their term, the poet laureate seeks to raise the national cons ...
.
Among other honors, Jarrell was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
for the years 1947–48; a grant from the
National Institute of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...
, in 1951; and the
National Book Award for Poetry
The National Book Award for Poetry is one of five annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize outstanding literary work by US citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers". , in 1961.
Biography
Youth and education
Jarrell was a native of
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...
. He attended
Hume-Fogg High School where he "practiced tennis, starred in some school plays, and began his career as a critic with satirical essays in a school magazine."
[Burt, Stephen. ''Randall Jarrell and His Age''. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.] He received his B.A. from
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...
in 1935. While at Vanderbilt, he edited the student humor magazine ''The Masquerader'', was captain of the tennis team, made
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
and graduated ''
magna cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...
''. He studied there under
Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the liter ...
, who first published Jarrell's criticism;
Allen Tate
John Orley Allen Tate (November 19, 1899 – February 9, 1979), known professionally as Allen Tate, was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and poet laureate from 1943 to 1944.
Life
Early years
Tate was born near Winchester, ...
, who first published Jarrell's poetry; and
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 ...
, who gave Jarrell his first teaching job as a Freshman Composition instructor at
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. It was founded in 1824 by Philander Chase. Kenyon College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
Kenyon has 1,708 undergraduates enrolled. Its 1,000-acre campus is se ...
in
Gambier, Ohio
Gambier is a village in Knox County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,391 at the 2010 census.
Gambier is the home of Kenyon College. A major feature is a gravel path running the length of the village, referred to as "Middle Path". This ...
. Although all of these Vanderbilt teachers were heavily involved with the conservative
Southern Agrarian movement, Jarrell did not become an Agrarian himself. According to
Stephanie Burt, "Jarrell—a devotee of
Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 p ...
and
Auden— embraced his teachers' literary stances while rejecting their politics."
He also completed his master's degree in English at Vanderbilt in 1937, beginning his thesis on
A. E. Housman
Alfred Edward Housman (; 26 March 1859 – 30 April 1936) was an English classical scholar and poet. After an initially poor performance while at university, he took employment as a clerk in London and established his academic reputation by pub ...
(which he completed in 1939).
When Ransom left Vanderbilt for Kenyon College in Ohio that same year, a number of his loyal students, including Jarrell, followed him to Kenyon. Jarrell taught English at Kenyon for two years, coached
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
, and served as the resident faculty member in an undergraduate dormitory that housed future writers
Robie Macauley
Robie Mayhew Macauley (May 31, 1919 – November 20, 1995) was an American editor, novelist and critic whose literary career spanned more than 50 years.
Biography
Early life
Robie Macauley was born on May 31, 1919, in Grand Rapids, Michigan ...
,
Peter Taylor Peter Taylor may refer to:
Arts
* Peter Taylor (writer) (1917–1994), American author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
* Peter Taylor (film editor) (1922–1997), English film editor, winner of an Academy Award for Film Editing
Politi ...
, and poet
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 ...
. Lowell and Jarrell remained good friends and peers until Jarrell's death. According to Lowell biographer
Paul Mariani
Paul Mariani (born 1940 in New York City) is an American poet and is University Professor Emeritus at Boston College.
Life
Paul Mariani is the University Professor Emeritus at Boston College, specializing in Modern American and British Poetry, r ...
, "Jarrell was the first person of
owell'sown generation
hom hegenuinely held in awe" due to Jarrell's brilliance and confidence even at the age of 23.
Career
Jarrell went on to teach at the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
from 1939 to 1942, where he began to publish criticism and where he met his first wife, Mackie Langham. In 1942 he left the university to join the
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
. According to his obituary, he "
tartedas a flying cadet,
hen
Hen commonly refers to a female animal: a female chicken, other gallinaceous bird, any type of bird in general, or a lobster. It is also a slang term for a woman.
Hen or Hens may also refer to:
Places Norway
*Hen, Buskerud, a village in Ringer ...
he later became a celestial navigation tower operator, a job title he considered the most poetic in the Air Force."
["Randall Jarrell, Poet, Killed By Car in Carolina." ''The New York Times'' 15 October 1965.] His early poetry, in particular ''
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
"The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" is a five-line poem by Randall Jarrell published in 1945. The poem is about the death of a gunner in a Sperry ball turret on a World War II American bomber aircraft.
From my mother's sleep I fell into the St ...
'', would principally concern his wartime experiences in the Air Force.
The Jarrell obituary goes on to state that "after being discharged from the service he joined the faculty of
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 ...
in Bronxville, N.Y., for a year. During his time in New York, he also served as the temporary book review editor for
''The Nation'' magazine". Jarrell was uncomfortable living in the city and "claimed to hate New York's crowds, high cost of living, status-conscious sociability, and lack of greenery.".
He soon left the city for the
Woman's College of the University of North Carolina
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG or UNC Greensboro) is a public research university in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. UNCG, like all members of the UNC system, is a stand-al ...
where, as an associate professor of English, he taught modern poetry and "imaginative writing".
Jarrell divorced his first wife and married Mary von Schrader, a young woman whom he met at a summer writer's conference in Colorado, in 1952.
They first lived together while Jarrell was teaching for a term at the
University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...
. Then the couple settled back in
Greensboro
Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, North Car ...
with Mary's daughters from her previous marriage. The couple also moved temporarily to Washington D.C. in 1956 when Jarrell served as the consultant in poetry at the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
(a position that later became titled Poet Laureate) for two years, returning to Greensboro and the University of North Carolina after his term ended.
Depression and death
Towards the end of his life, in 1963, Stephanie Burt notes: "Randall's behavior began to change. Approaching his fiftieth birthday, he seems to have worried deeply about his advancing age. . . After
President Kennedy was shot, Randall spent days in front of the television weeping. Sad to the point of inertia, Randall sought help from a
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
psychiatrist, who prescribed
he antidepressant drugElavil
Amitriptyline, sold under the brand name Elavil among others, is a tricyclic antidepressant primarily used to treat cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS), major depressive disorder and a variety of pain syndromes from neuropathic pain to fibromyalgi ...
."
The drug made him
manic and in 1965, he was hospitalized and taken off Elavil. At this point, he was no longer manic, but he became depressed again. Burt also states that in April ''
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 ...
'' published a "viciously condescending" review by Joseph Bennett of Jarrell's most recent book of poems, ''The Lost World'', which said "his work is thoroughly dated; prodigiousness encouraged by an indulgent and sentimental Mama-ism; its overriding feature is doddering infantilism." Soon afterwards, Jarrell slashed a wrist and returned to the hospital.
After leaving the hospital, he stayed at home that summer under his wife's care and returned to teaching at the University of North Carolina that fall.
Then, near dusk on October 14, 1965, while walking along U.S. highway 15-501 near
Chapel Hill, N.C., where he had gone seeking medical treatment, Jarrell was struck by a car and killed.
In trying to determine the cause of death, "
arrell's wifeMary, the police, the coroner, and ultimately the state of North Carolina judged his death accidental, a verdict made credible by his apparent improvements in health ... and the odd, sidelong manner of the collision; medical professionals judged the injuries consistent with an accident and not with suicide."
Nevertheless, because Jarrell had recently been treated for mental illness and a previous
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
attempt, some of the people closest to him were not entirely convinced that his death was accidental and suspected that he had taken his own life.
In a letter to
Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American people, American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the N ...
about a week after Jarrell's death,
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 ...
wrote, "There's a small chance
hat Jarrell's deathwas an accident. . .
utI think it was suicide, and so does everyone else, who knew him well." Jarrell's death being a suicide has since become accepted practically as fact, even by people who were not personally close to him and perpetuated by some writers.
A. Alvarez
Alfred Alvarez (5 August 1929 – 23 September 2019) was an English poet, novelist, essayist and critic who published under the name A. Alvarez and Al Alvarez.
Background
Alfred Alvarez was born in London, to an Ashkenazic Jewish mother and a ...
, in his book ''The Savage God'', lists Jarrell as a twentieth-century writer who killed himself, and
James Atlas
James Robert Atlas (March 22, 1949 – September 4, 2019) was a writer, especially of biographies, as well as a publisher. He was the president of Atlas & Company and founding editor of the Penguin Lives Series.
Early life and education
Atlas wa ...
refers to Jarrell's "suicide" several times in his biography of
Delmore Schwartz
Delmore Schwartz (December 8, 1913 – July 11, 1966) was an American poet and short story writer.
Early life
Schwartz was born in 1913 in Brooklyn, New York, where he also grew up. His parents, Harry and Rose, both Romanian Jews, separated when ...
. The idea of Jarrell's death being a suicide was always denied by his wife.
Legacy
On February 28, 1966, a memorial service was held in Jarrell's honor at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
, and some of the best-known poets in the country attended and spoke at the event, including
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 ...
,
Richard Wilbur
Richard Purdy Wilbur (March 1, 1921 – October 14, 2017) was an American poet and literary translator. One of the foremost poets of his generation, Wilbur's work, composed primarily in traditional forms, was marked by its wit, charm, and gentle ...
,
John Berryman
John Allyn McAlpin Berryman (born John Allyn Smith, Jr.; October 25, 1914 – January 7, 1972) was an American poet and scholar. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and is considered a key figure in th ...
,
Stanley Kunitz
Stanley Jasspon Kunitz (; July 29, 1905May 14, 2006) was an American poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress twice, first in 1974 and then again in 2000.
Biography
Kunitz was born in Worcester, Massac ...
, and
Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the liter ...
. Reporting on the memorial service, ''
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 ...
'' quoted
Lowell who said that Jarrell was "'the most heartbreaking poet of our time'. . .
ndhad written 'the best poetry in English about the Second World War.'" These memorial tributes formed the basis for the book ''Randall Jarrell 1914-1965'' which
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...
published the following year.
In 2004, the Metropolitan Nashville Historical Commission approved placement of a historical marker in his honor, to be placed at his alma mater,
Hume-Fogg High School. A North Carolina Highway Historical Marker was placed near his burial site in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Writing
Poetry
In terms of the subject matter of Jarrell's work, the scholar
Stephanie Burt observed, "Randall Jarrell's best-known poems are poems about the
Second World War
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 ...
, poems about bookish children and childhood, and poems, such as 'Next Day,' in the voices of aging women."
Burt also succinctly summarizes the essence of Jarrell's poetic style as follows:
Jarrell's stylistic particularities have been hard for critics to hear and describe, both because the poems call readers' attention instead to their characters and because Jarrell's particular powers emerge so often from mimesis of speech. Jarrell's style responds to the alienations it delineates by incorporating or troping speech and conversation, linking emotional events within one person's psyche to speech acts that might take place between persons. . .Jarrell's style pivots on his sense of loneliness and on the intersubjectivity he sought as a response.
Jarrell was first published in 1940 in ''5 Young Poets'', which also included work by John Berryman. His first separate collection of poetry, ''Blood for a Stranger'', which was heavily influenced by
W.H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...
, was published in 1942 – the same year he enlisted in the
United States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...
. His second and third books, ''Little Friend, Little Friend'' (1945) and ''Losses'' (1948), drew heavily on his Army experiences. The short lyric "
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
"The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" is a five-line poem by Randall Jarrell published in 1945. The poem is about the death of a gunner in a Sperry ball turret on a World War II American bomber aircraft.
From my mother's sleep I fell into the St ...
" is Jarrell's most famous war poem and one that is frequently anthologized.
His reputation as a poet was not firmly established until 1960 when his
National Book Award
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 ...
-winning
["National Book Awards – 1961"]
National Book Foundation
The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...
. Retrieved 2012-03-02.
(With acceptance speech by Jarrell and essay by Scott Challener from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)
collection ''The Woman at the Washington Zoo'' was published. Beginning with this book, Jarrell broke free of Auden's influence and the influence of the
New Critics
New Criticism was a formalist movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned ...
and developed a style that mixed Modernist and Romantic influences, incorporating the aesthetics of
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
in order to create more sympathetic character sketches and dramatic monologues.
The scholar
Stephanie Burt notes, "Jarrell took from Wordsworth the idea that poems had to be 'convincing as speech' before they were anything else."
His final volume, ''The Lost World'', published in 1965, continued in the same style and cemented Jarrell's reputation as a poet; many critics consider it to be his best work. Stephanie Burt states that "in the 'Lost World' poems and throughout Jarrell's oeuvre. . .he took care to define and defend the self
nd . .his lonely personae seek intersubjective confirmation and . . .his alienated characters resist the so-called social world."
Burt identifies the chief influences on Jarrell's poetry to be "
Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel '' In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous E ...
,
Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
,
Rilke,
Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...
, and the poets and thinkers of Jarrell's era
articularly_his_close_friend,_Hannah_Arendt.html" ;"title="Hannah_Arendt.html" ;"title="articularly his close friend, Hannah Arendt">articularly his close friend, Hannah Arendt">Hannah_Arendt.html" ;"title="articularly his close friend, Hannah Arendt">articularly his close friend, Hannah Arendt"
Criticism
From the start of his writing career, Jarrell earned a solid reputation as an influential poetry critic. Encouraged by Edmund Wilson, who published Jarrell's criticism in ''The New Republic'', Jarrell developed his style of critique which was often witty and sometimes fiercely critical. However, as he got older, his criticism began to change, showing a more positive emphasis. His appreciations of
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 ...
,
Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American people, American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the N ...
, and
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism.
In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...
helped to establish or resuscitate their reputations as significant American poets, and his poet friends often returned the favor, as when Lowell wrote a review of Jarrell's book of poems ''The Seven League Crutches'' in 1951. Lowell wrote that Jarrell was "the most talented poet under forty, and one whose wit, pathos, and grace remind us more of
Pope
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
or
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the celebrated headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, lite ...
than of any of his contemporaries." In the same review, Lowell calls Jarrell's first book of poems, ''Blood for A Stranger'', "a tour-de-force in the manner of Auden." And in another book review for Jarrell's ''Selected Poems'', a few years later, fellow-poet
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 ...
compared Jarrell to "the great modern
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...
" and stated that the book "should certainly influence our poetry for the better. It should become a point of reference, not only for younger poets, but for all readers of twentieth-century poetry."
Jarrell is known for his essays on
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...
— whose poetry was a large influence on Jarrell's own —
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...
,
Marianne Moore
Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit.
Early life
Moore was born in Kirkwood ...
,
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...
, and others, which were mostly collected in ''Poetry and the Age'' (1953). Many scholars consider him the most astute poetry critic of his generation, and in 1979, the poet and scholar
Peter Levi
Peter Chad Tigar Levi, FSA, FRSL (16 May 1931, in Ruislip – 1 February 2000, in Frampton-on-Severn) was a British poet, archaeologist, Jesuit priest, travel writer, biographer, academic and prolific reviewer and critic. He was Professor of P ...
went so far as to advise younger writers, "Take more notice of Randall Jarrell than you do of any academic critic."
In an introduction to a selection of Jarrell's essays, the poet
Brad Leithauser
Brad E. Leithauser (born February 27, 1953) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and teacher. After serving as the Emily Dickinson Lecturer in the Humanities at Mount Holyoke College and visiting professor at the MFA Program for Poets & Writ ...
wrote the following assessment of Jarrell as a critic:
arrell'smultiple and eclectic virtues —originality, erudition, wit, probity, and an irresistible passion —combined to make him the best American poet-critic since Eliot. Or one could call him, after granting Eliot the English citizenship he so actively embraced, the best poet-critic we have ever had. Whichever side of the Atlantic one chooses to place Eliot, Jarrell was his superior in at least one significant respect. He captured a world that any contemporary poet will recognize as "the poetry scene"; his ''Poetry and the Age'' might even now be retitled ''Poetry and Our Age''.
Fiction, translations, and children's books
In addition to poetry and criticism, Jarrell also published a satiric novel, ''
Pictures from an Institution
''Pictures from an Institution: a Comedy'' is a 1954 novel by American poet Randall Jarrell. It is an academic satire, focusing on the oddities of academic life, in particular the relationships between the fictional character, characters and the ...
'', in 1954, drawing upon his teaching experiences 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 ...
, which served as the model for the fictional Benton College. He also wrote several children's books, among which ''The Bat-Poet'' (1964) and ''
The Animal Family'' (1965) are considered prominent (and feature illustrations by
Maurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak (; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. He became most widely known for his book ''Where the Wild Things Are'', first published in 1963.Turan, Kenneth (October 16, 200 ...
). In 1957 Jarrell began his translation of
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
‘s Faust Part One for Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. It was published in 1976. Jarrell translated poems by
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...
and others, a play by
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...
, and several
Grimm
Grimm may refer to:
People
* Grimm (surname)
* Brothers Grimm, German linguists
** Jacob Grimm (1785–1863), German philologist, jurist and mythologist
** Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859), German author, the younger of the Brothers Grimm
* Christia ...
fairy tales
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cult ...
.
Bibliography
*''Blood for A Stranger''. NY: Harcourt, 1942.
*''Little Friend, Little Friend''. NY: Dial, 1945.
*''Losses''. NY: Harcourt, 1948.
*''The Seven League Crutches''. NY: Harcourt, 1951.
*''Poetry and the Age''. NY: Knopf, 1953.
*''
Pictures from an Institution
''Pictures from an Institution: a Comedy'' is a 1954 novel by American poet Randall Jarrell. It is an academic satire, focusing on the oddities of academic life, in particular the relationships between the fictional character, characters and the ...
: A Comedy.'' New York: Knopf, 1954
*''Selected Poems''. New York: Knopf, 1955.
*''Randall Jarrell's Book of Stories: An Anthology''. Selected and with an introduction by Randall Jarrell. New York: New York Review Books, 1958.
*''The Woman at the Washington Zoo: Poems and Translations''. New York: Atheneum, 1960.
*''A Sad Heart at the Supermarket: Essays & Fables''. NY: Atheneum, 1962.
*''Selected Poems including The Woman at the Washington Zoo''. NY: Macmillan, 1964.
*''The Bat-Poet''. Pictures by
Maurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak (; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. He became most widely known for his book ''Where the Wild Things Are'', first published in 1963.Turan, Kenneth (October 16, 200 ...
. NY: Macmillan, 1964.
* ''The Gingerbread Rabbit''. Illustrated by Garth Williams. NY: Random House, 1965
*''The Lost World''. NY: Macmillan, 1965.
*''
The Animal Family''. Illustrated by Maurice Sendak. NY: Pantheon Books, 1965.
*''Randall Jarrell, 1914-1965''. Edited by Robert Lowell, Peter Taylor, and Robert Penn Warren. NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1968.
*''The Third Book of Criticism''. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1969.
*''The Complete Poems''. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1969.
Helen Vendler, "Randall Jarrell, Child and Mother, Frightened and Consoling," ''New York Times,'' February 2, 1969
/ref>
*''Fly by Night''. Illustrated by Maurice Sendak. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1976.
*"Faust: Part One" by Goethe, (translator). Farrah, Straus & Giroux 1976
*''Kipling, Auden & Co.: Essays and Reviews, 1935-1964''. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979.
*''Randall Jarrell's Letters: An Autobiographical and Literary Selection''. edited by Mary Jarrell and Stuart Wright. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985.
*''Selected Poems''. Edited by William Pritchard. NY: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1990.
*''No Other Book: Selected Essays''. Edited by Brad Leithauser
Brad E. Leithauser (born February 27, 1953) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and teacher. After serving as the Emily Dickinson Lecturer in the Humanities at Mount Holyoke College and visiting professor at the MFA Program for Poets & Writ ...
. NY: HarperCollins, 1995.
References
External links
*
Jarrell page at Poets.org
* ttp://library.uncg.edu/info/depts/scua/collections/manuscripts/ead/Mss009.xml Finding Aid for the Randall Jarrell Papers at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro*
Jarrell on the New York Times Featured Authors site
News of historical marker
Randall Jarrell Papers (#1169-005), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jarrell, Randall
1914 births
1965 deaths
American Poets Laureate
20th-century American poets
Formalist poets
American literary critics
Kenyon College alumni
Kenyon College faculty
National Book Award winners
Newbery Honor winners
Pedestrian road incident deaths
Poets from Tennessee
Road incident deaths in North Carolina
Sarah Lawrence College faculty
United States Army Air Forces officers
United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II
World War II poets
20th-century American male writers
The Nation (U.S. magazine) people
20th-century American non-fiction writers
American male non-fiction writers
American male essayists
American male novelists
Translators of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1965 suicides
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters