Theodore Vernon Enslin (March 25, 1925 – November 21, 2011) was an American
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...
associated with
Cid Corman
Cid (Sidney) Corman (June 29, 1924 – March 12, 2004) was an American poet, translator and editor, most notably of ''Origin'', who was a key figure in the history of American poetry in the second half of the 20th century.
Life
Corman was bor ...
's ''Origin'' and press. He is widely regarded as one of the most musical of American
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretica ...
poets.
Enslin was born in
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
.
His father was a biblical scholar and his mother a
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
scholar. He studied musical composition at
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
. His teacher,
Nadia Boulanger
Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist.
From a ...
, was the first person to recognize his ability as a writer and encouraged him to pursue his interest in poetry. He has said "I like to be considered as a composer who happens to use words instead of notes." His first book, ''The Work Proposed'', was published by Origin in 1958.
Enslin moved to
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...
in 1960 and had lived in
Washington County ever since, working at odd jobs and making and selling handmade walking sticks. The Maine landscape forms an integral part of his poetry, as does its isolation, both geographic and in terms of distance from literary fashion and the academy, on the physical margin of the United States. ''Ranger'' 1978 is one of the key American long poems of the second half of the 20th century. A bibliographical checklist of Enslin's works was prepared by Robert J. Bertholf and published in 2017.
He died in
Milbridge, Maine
Milbridge is a town in Washington County, Maine, United States at the mouth of the Narraguagus River. The population was 1,375 at the 2020 census. The town was incorporated in 1848. It contains the villages of Milbridge and Wyman.
Geography
A ...
on November 21, 2011.
Publications
*''The Work Proposed'' (1958)
*''The Place Where I Am Standing: Poems'' (1964)
*''This Do'' (1966)
*''To Come, To Have Become: Poems 1961-66'' (1966)
*''New Sharon's Prospect & Journals'' (1966/1967)
*''The Four Temperaments'' (1966)
*''Characters in Certain Places'' (1967)
*''The Diabelli Variations, and Other Poems'' (1967)
*''Agreement and Back: Sequences'' (1969)
*''Forms 1-5'' (1970–1974)
*''Views 1-7'' Berkeley, CA: Maya (1970
*''The Country of Our Consciousness'' (1971)
*''Etudes'' (1972)
*''Sitio'' (1973)
*''The Swamp Fox'' (1973)
*''Views'' (1973)
*''With Light Reflected: Poems 1970-1972'' (1973)
*''The Mornings'' (1974)
*''Fever Poems'' (1974)
*''Of East Dennis: The Highlands in Sorrow'' (exact year not known: 197-?)
*''Mahler'' (1975)
*''Ländler'' (1975)
*''The Median Flow: Poems 1943-1973'' (1975)
*''Synthesis 1-24'' (1975)
*''The July Book'' (1976)
*''The Further Regions'' (1976)
*''Carmina'' (1976)
*''Papers'' (1976)
*''Assensions'' (1977)
*''Ranger CXXII & CXXVIII'' (1977)
*''Circles'' (1977)
*''Concentrations'' (1977)
*''Ranger'' (2 vols. 1978 corrected edition 1980)
*''Tailings'' (1978)
*''Occurrence: An Issue of Theodore Enslin'' (1978)
*''16 Blossoms in February'' (1978)
*''May Fault'' (1979)
*''Opus 31, no. 3'' (1979)
*''2 Plus 12'' (1979)
*''The Fifth Direction'' (1980)
*''The Flare of Beginning Is in November'' (1980)
*''Star Anise'' (1980)
*''Two Geese: Two Poems'' (1980)
*''Madrigal'' (ca. 1980)
*''In Duo Concertante'' (1981)
*''Axes 52'' (1981)
*''Markings'' (1981)
*''Processionals'' (1981)
*''September’s Bonfire'' (1981)
*''“F. P.”'' (1982)
*''Meditations on Varied Grounds'' (1982)
*''A Man in Stir'' (1983)
*''Gray Days'' (1984)
*''Songs w/out Words'' (1984)
*''The Weather Within'' (1985)
*''For Mr. Walters: Master Mechanic'' (1985)
*''The Path Between'' (1986)
*''The Waking of the Eye'' (1986)
*''Case Book'' (1987)
*''Six Pavannes'' (1987)
*''Love and Science'' (1990)
*''Little Wandering Flake of Snow'' (1991)
*''Mad Songs'' (1995)
*''Conversations'' (1998)
*''Sequentiae'' (1999)
*''Then and Now: Selected Poems, 1943-1993'' (1999)
*''The Roads Around Jenkins'' (2000)
[Lawrence, KS: A First Intensity Chapbook, 2000.]
*''In Tandem'' (2003)
*''Nine'' (2004)
Archival Collection
The Theordore Enslin Papers are housed in the
Fales Library New York University's Fales Library and Special Collections is located on the third floor of the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library at 70 Washington Square South between LaGuardia Place and the Schwartz Plaza, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhat ...
at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
.
References
External links
The Fales Library guide to the Theodore Enslin PapersInterviewed by
Robert Bertholf Robert J. Bertholf (November 5, 1940 – February 19, 2016) was an author and professor at Kent State University, and the University at Buffalo. He was the Charles D. Abbott Scholar-In-Residence and former curator of The Poetry Collection at Buffalo ...
, this interview was conducted in
Milbridge, ME
Milbridge is a town in Washington County, Maine, United States at the mouth of the Narraguagus River. The population was 1,375 at the 2020 census. The town was incorporated in 1848. It contains the villages of Milbridge and Wyman.
Geography
A ...
, on three occasions: 21 June 1966, 15 August 2006, and 7 November 2006.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enslin, Theodore
1925 births
2011 deaths
American male poets
20th-century American poets
People from Chester, Pennsylvania
Poets from Maine
People from Milbridge, Maine
20th-century American male writers