Venanzio Ugo "Vincent" Ferrini (June 24, 1913 – December 24, 2007) was an American writer and poet from

Gloucester, Massachusetts Gloucester () is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It sits on Cape Ann and is a part of Massachusetts's North Shore. The population was 29,729 at the 2020 U.S. Census. An important center of the fishing industry and a ...

Early life

Vincent Ferrini was born in

Saugus, Massachusetts Saugus is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. The population was 28,619 at the 2020 census. Saugus is known as the site of the first integrated iron works in North America. History Native Americans ...

on June 24, 1913. Vincent's parents, John and Rita Ferrini, were Christian anarchists who emigrated from

Raiano Raiano (locally ''Raianë'') is a town and ''comune'' of the province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Geography Raiano is located at above sea level, on the western side of the Valle Peligna, Peligna Valley. In his Naturalis Histori ...

and Bella, Italy in the region of

Abruzzi Abruzzo (, , ; nap, label=Neapolitan language, Abruzzese Neapolitan, Abbrùzze , ''Abbrìzze'' or ''Abbrèzze'' ; nap, label=Sabino dialect, Aquilano, Abbrùzzu; #History, historically Abruzzi) is a Regions of Italy, region of Southern Italy wi ...

to work in the shoe factories of

Lynn, Massachusetts Lynn is the eighth-largest municipality in Massachusetts and the largest city in Essex County. Situated on the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Boston city line at Suffolk Downs, Lynn is part of Greater Boston's urban inner core. Settled by E ...

. Vincent's experience working in the shoe factories would instill a sensitivity for the life of the poor. Ignoring his father's warning that the son of a shoe worker could never become a poet, Vincent published his first volume of poetry, "No Smoke" in 1940. He pursued his education in the Lynn Public Library and when the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

hit, the young bard found work as a teacher in the

WPA WPA may refer to: Computing *Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard *Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing * Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada * Windows Performance An ...

. In 1943,

Mike Gold Michael Gold (April 12, 1894 – May 14, 1967) was the pen-name of Jewish American writer Itzok Isaac Granich. A lifelong communist, Gold was a novelist and literary critic. His semi-autobiographical novel '' Jews Without Money'' (1930) was a bes ...

of the ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were m ...

'' praised "Injunction", a collection of working class vignettes set against the backdrop of World War II. In 1942 he married and left his job at

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

to make a living as a frame maker.

Career

Vincent's move to Gloucester marked a shift in his poetry from the political and social to the personal and cosmic. Over the next 59 years, Gloucester became ''his'' place, where life and poetry combined. In 1949, after seeing a poem in the magazine ''Imagi'',

Charles Olson Charles Olson (27 December 1910 – 10 January 1970) was a second generation modern American poet who was a link between earlier figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, which includes the New York ...

paid Ferrini a visit that Olson would later characterize as a "fan call". Ferrini was the catalyst that brought together Olson and poet

Robert Creeley Robert White Creeley (May 21, 1926 – March 30, 2005) was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school. He was close with Char ...

. Later Olson addressed his first “Maximus Poems” as letters to Vincent. Ferrini's first marriage ended in the 1960s after the death of his daughter. He later married the artist Mary Shore. When his second marriage ended in divorce he moved back to his frame shop at 126 East Main Street. The little shop became a nexus for many artists and writers who came to Gloucester. Vincent's view of the individual, the family, the community, and the nation working together for the common good compelled him to write editorials and letters not only to local Gloucester papers but also to ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'', ''

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 ...

'', and ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

''. At Gloucester City Hall he voiced his concerns at hundreds of council meetings. His focus was always the preservation of his city from what he characterized as "the wildfire greed that will destroy the spirit and originality of his city." Ferrini remained an academic outsider who never made a living solely from his writing. With vigor, creativity, and compassion he kept publishing for over 67 years, producing 31 volumes of poetry, four volumes of plays, and an autobiography. Vincent is the subject of his nephew

Henry Ferrini Henry Ferrini (born 1953, Boston, Massachusetts, United States) is an American non-fiction filmmaker best known for his portraits of Jack Kerouac and Charles Olson. Ferrini attended Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington, MA where he ...

's film ''Poem in Action''. He also is interviewed briefly in Henry's film about Vincent's colleague

entitled ''

Polis is this ''Polis Is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place'' is a 2007 documentary film about the life of the poet Charles Olson produced and directed by independent film-maker, Henry Ferrini. It was called “the best film about an American poet ...

.''

Bibliography

Poetry

*''No Smoke'', 1941 Falmouth Publishing House, Portland Maine *''No Smoke'', available in braille, Injunction, 1943 Sand Piper Press, Lynn, Massachusetts *''Tidal Wave'', 1945 Great Concord Publishers, New York, New York *''Blood of the Tenement'', 1945 Sand Piper Press, Lynn, Massachusetts *''Plow in the Ruins'', 1948 James Decker Press, Prairie City, Illinois *''Sea Sprung'', 1949 Cape Ann Press, Gloucester, Massachusetts *''The Infinite People'', 1950 Great Concord Publishers, New York, New Your *''The House of Time'', 1952 Fortune Press, London, England *''In the Arriving'', 1954 Heron Press, Liverpool England *''Mindscapes'', 1955 Peter Pauper Press, Mt. Vernon, New York *'' Timeo Hominem Unius Mulieris'', 1956 Heron Press, Liverpool, England *''The Garden, 1958 Heuretic Press'', Gloucester, Massachusetts *''The Square Root of In'', 1959 Heuretic Press, Gloucester, Massachusetts *''Book of One'', 1960 Heuretic Press, Gloucester, Massachusetts *''Mirandum'', 1963 Heuretic Press, Gloucester, Massachusetts *''I Have the World'', 1967 Fortune Press, London, England *''The Hiding One'', 1973 Me and Thee Press, Brookline, Massachusetts *''Ten Pound Light'', 1975 The Church Press, Gloucester, Massachusetts *''Selected Poems'', 1976 University of Connecticut Library, Storrs, Connecticut *''Know Fish, Volumes I and II'', 1979 University of Connecticut *''Know Fish, Volume III'', The Navigators 1984 University of Connecticut *''Know Fish, Volumes IV and V'', The Community of Self, 1986 University of Connecticut *''Know Fish, Volumes VI and VII'', This Other Ocean, 1991 University of Connecticut *''A Tale of Psyche'', 1991 Igneus Press, Bedford, New Hampshire *''Magdalene Silences'', 1992 Igneus Press, Bedford, New Hampshire *''Deluxe Daring'', 1994 Drawings by Jane Robbins and poetry of Vincent Ferrini, Bliss Publications, Boston, MA *''The Magi Image'', 1995 Igneus Press, New Hampshire *''Preamble To Divinity'', 1996 Published in cooperative venture by: JUXTA, Charlottesville, VA & 3300 Press, San Francisco CA The singer and keyboard player

Willie Alexander Willie "Loco" Alexander (born January 13, 1943) is an American singer and keyboardist based in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He played with the Lost, the Bagatelle and the Grass Menagerie, before becoming a member of the Velvet Underground in lat ...

recorded a few Ferrini's poems under the title ''Vincent Ferrini's Greatest Hits'' (CD released by Fisheye Records, 2009).

Anthologies

*''American Poets: 1880-1945, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol 48'', 1986 Gale Research Company, Detroit, MI *''Italian American Poets'', 1985 Italian translation: Ferdinand Alfonsi, A. Carello Editore, Catanzaro, Italia *''Poets of Today, Walter Lowenfels'', 1964 International Publishers, NY, NY *''Twentieth Century American Poets'', 1989 Russian translation: Valery Shpak, Ukraine, USSR

Plays

*''The Innermost I land, Best Short Plays'' 1952-53, Dodd Mead & Company NY, NY *''Telling of the North Star Best Short Plays'' 1953-54, Dodd Mead & Company NY, NY *''Five Plays'', 1960 Fortune Press, London, England *''War in Heaven'', 1987 University of Connecticut Library, Storrs, CN *''Undersea Bread'', 1989 University of Connecticut Library, Storrs, CN

Autobiography

*''Hermit of the Clouds'', 1988 Ten Pound Island Book Company, Gloucester, MA *''Hermit of the Clouds'', 1990 Japanese translation: Shingo Tajima. Ten Pound Island Book Company, Gloucester, Massachusetts

References

External links

Vincent's Obituary.Ferrini Productions, Inc."Add-Verse" a poetry-photo-video project Ferrini participated in
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrini, Vincent 1913 births 2007 deaths People from Saugus, Massachusetts People from Gloucester, Massachusetts American male poets 20th-century American poets 20th-century American male writers Writers from Massachusetts