Sheri Martinelli, (January 17, 1918 – November 3, 1996) was an American painter, poet, and muse.

Life

Martinelli was born Shirley Burns Brennan in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in 1918. Of Irish ancestry, she was the eldest of four children and began using the name Sherry by the time she was a teenager. Later told that her first name had the wrong numerological value, she modified it to Sheri. The name Martinelli came by way of a brief early marriage to painter

Ezio Martinelli Ezio Martinelli (November 27, 1913–1980) was an American artist who belonged to the New York School Abstract Expressionist artists, a leading art movement of the post-World War II era.Marika Herskovic''Abstract and Figurative Expressionism ...

, by whom she had a daughter Shelley (named after the poet) in 1943. Sheri Martinelli was a protégée of

Anaïs Nin Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell (February 11, 1903 – January 14, 1977; , ) was a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the d ...

and is described at length in Nin's famous Diary; she was the basis for ''Esme'', a major character in William Gaddis’s novel '' The Recognitions'', and then became the long-time muse and mistress of

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

in Washington, D.C. (she appears in various guises in the later

Cantos ''The Cantos'' by Ezra Pound is a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a ''canto''. Most of it was written between 1915 and 1962, although much of the early work was abandoned and the early cantos, as finally published, date ...

);

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

and the members of the

Modern Jazz Quartet The Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) was a jazz combo established in 1952 that played music influenced by classical music, classical, cool jazz, blues and bebop. For most of its history the Quartet consisted of John Lewis (pianist), John Lewis (piano), ...

hung out at her

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

apartment;

Marlon Brando Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academ ...

was an admirer and

Rod Steiger Rodney Stephen Steiger (; April 14, 1925July 9, 2002, aged 77) was an American actor, noted for his portrayal of offbeat, often volatile and crazed characters. Cited as "one of Hollywood's most charismatic and dynamic stars," he is closely assoc ...

collected her art, as did

E. E. Cummings Edward Estlin Cummings, who was also known as E. E. Cummings, e. e. cummings and e e cummings (October 14, 1894 - September 3, 1962), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobi ...

; she knew and was admired by many of the Beats - Ginsberg was an especially close friend and mentions her in one of his poems- and she was known in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

in the late 1950s as Queen of the Beats;

H.D. Hilda Doolittle (September 10, 1886 – September 27, 1961) was an American modernist poet, novelist, and memoirist who wrote under the name H.D. throughout her life. Her career began in 1911 after she moved to London and co-founded the ...

identified with her and wrote about her in ''

End to Torment End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to: End *In mathematics: **End (category theory) **End (topology) **End (graph theory) ** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) **End (endomorphism) *In sports and games **End (gridiron football) ...

''. She wrote unusual prose and poetry, much of it published in her own magazine, the '' Anagogic & Paideumic Review''. She was one of the first to publish

Bukowski Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his adopted ...

, and her magazine was the very first to review his work. In later years, she appeared under the pseudonym "Sheri Donatti" in Anatole Broyard’s ''

Kafka Was the Rage Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typi ...

'', under her own name in

David Markson David Merrill Markson (December 20, 1927 – June 4, 2010)The_Egyptian_Book_of_the_Dead.html" ;"title="'The Egyptian Book of the Dead">'The Egyptian Book of the Dead'' (p. 147) * "A kind of verbal fugue" (p. 170) * "A classic traged ...

’s novel '' Reader’s Block'', as "Lady Carey" in

Larry McMurty Larry Jeff McMurtry (June 3, 1936March 25, 2021) was an American novelist, essayist, bookseller and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas.

's 1995 novel ''

Dead Man's Walk ''Dead Man's Walk'' is a 1995 novel by American writer Larry McMurtry. It is the third book published in the ''Lonesome Dove'' series but the first installment in terms of chronology. McMurtry wrote a fourth segment to the ''Lonesome Dove'' chr ...

'', and she was anthologized in

Richard Peabody Richard Peabody is a poet, editor, and publisher, based in Washington, D.C. Biography A native of the Washington DC metropolitan region, Peabody received a B.A. in English from the University of Maryland in 1973 and a M.A. in Literature from Am ...

’s '' A Different Beat''. When younger, she modeled frequently for ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'' and also appeared in one of

Maya Deren Maya Deren (born Eleonora Derenkowska, uk, Елеоно́ра Деренко́вська, links=no;

’s experimental films. She is perhaps best known as a companion of Ezra Pound during his years of incarceration at St. Elizabeths Hospital, where she is said to have inspired his ''Rock-Drill'' Cantos. Pound wrote the introduction to a book of her paintings, ''La Martinelli'' (1956); reviewing it in ''Gadfly'', Guy Davenport wrote, "Miss Martinelli's painting is a record of evoked images, shapes thoroughly realistic but seen in the imagination only, . . . This little book, unlike the fortieth imitation of somebody's book on Picasso and available everywhere, is a discovery, pictures and commentary moving from an area of the mind now understandably suspect. . . .""They Make Total War," ''Gadfly,'' 1 May 1959, 19-22.

Bibliography

* ''La Martinelli'', Introduction by

. Milan: Vanni Scheiwiller, 1956. * "Duties of a Lady Female." Anagogic & Paideumic Review 1.3 (1959). Rpt. in ''A Different Beat: Writings by Women of the Beat Generation'', Ed. Richard Peabody. London and New York: Serpent’s Tail/High Risk, 1997. 154-58. * “The Tao of Canto 90”, privately printed, 1960. * "The Beggar Girl of Queretaro", '' Anagogic & Paideumic Review'' 1.4 (1960): 26-29. * "Homage to Grandpa", ''Light Year'', Autumn 1961. [2-page letter on

as lover] * "Ruth Gildenberg." ''Measure'' 3 (June 1962): 23-25. * [Letter to the editor.] Paideuma 6.3 (Winter 1977): 415-16. * "Canto CVI", unpublished poem/commentary, dated December 6, 1984. * "For Allen." in ''Best Minds: A Tribute to

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

'', Ed. Bill Morgan and Bob Rosenthal, New York: Lospecchio P, 1986. 190. * "A Memoir", ''Paideuma'' 15.2-3 (Fall-Winter 1986): 151-62. * "Pound as Wuz", unpublished commentary on Laughlin, dated April 11, 1988. * "Goodbye Anaïs", '' Anaïs: An International Journal'' 12 (1994): 77. * "Mexico, His Thrust Renews.�
Gargoyle
no. 44 (December 2001): 9-18. * ''Beerspit Night and Cursing: The Correspondence of Charles Bukowski and Sheri Martinelli'', Ed. Steven Moore. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 2001.

Pound/Martinelli Studies

* Davenport, Guy. “They Make Total War.” ''Gadfly'', 1 May 1959, 19-22. * Kindellan, Michael. “La Martinelli.” In his ''The Late Cantos of Ezra Pound: Composition, Revision, Publication''. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. 102-9. * Marsh, Alec. “Sheri Martinelli: The White Goddess.” In ''The Edinburgh Companion to Ezra Pound and the Arts''. Ed. Roxana Preda. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019. 463-76. * ———. “Sheri Martinelli and the Paradise of Venus” and “Sheri Martinelli: Right-Wing Muse.” In his ''Ezra Pound’s Washington Cantos and the Struggle for Light''. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. 113-34, 135-48. (Appendix B reprints Martinelli’s “Homage to Grandpa.”) * Moody, A. David. "La Martinelli." In his ''Ezra Pound, Poet: A Portrait of the Man and His Work. Volume III: The Tragic Years 1939-1972.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. 311-18. * Moore, Steven. “Sheri Martinelli: A Modernist Muse. ''Gargoyle'' 41 (Summer 1998): 29-54; expanded version in ''My Back Pages: Reviews and Essays'' (Los Angeles: Zerogram Press, 2017), esp. 544-56. * Taylor, Richard. “Sheri Martinelli: Muse to Ezra Pound.” ''Agenda'' 38.1-2 (2001): 98-112. * Vazquez-Amaral, José. “La Martinelli.” ''Rutgers Review'' 4.1 (Spring 1970): 19-21.

References

External links

* Sheri Martinelli discusses her Pound manuscript

gargoylemagazine.com A biography
* hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.martinelli, Sheri Martinelli Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Martinelli, Sheri 1918 births 1996 deaths Artists from Philadelphia American women painters American women poets 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American women artists Writers from Philadelphia