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William Bronk (February 17, 1918 – February 22, 1999) was an
American poet The poets listed below were either born in the United States or else published much of their poetry while living in that country. A B C D E F G H I–J K L M N O P Q * George Quasha (born 1942) R S T U–V ...
. For his book, ''Life Supports'' (1981), he won the National Book Award for Poetry. He was also a veteran of World War II and a businessman. After teaching at Union College for a brief period, he took over the family business of Bronk Coal and Lumber after his father's early death. He ran it for 30 years in
Hudson Falls, New York Hudson Falls (formerly Sandy Hill) is a village located in Washington County, New York, United States. The village is in the southwest of the town of Kingsbury, on U.S. Route 4. Hudson Falls is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Are ...
.


Life and work

William Bronk was born in 1918 in a house on Lower Main Street in
Fort Edward, New York Fort Edward is a town and the county seat of Washington County, New York, United States. The population was 10,205 at the 2011 census. The municipal center complex is on U.S. Route 4 between the villages of Hudson Falls and Fort Edward.
. He had an older brother, Sherman, who died young, and two older sisters, Jane and Betty. Their mother was a homemaker and their father ran his business, Bronk Coal and Lumber, in Hudson Falls. The children all attended local public schools. Bronk attended
Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...
for higher education, being admitted at age 16. He took graduate classes at
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
for another semester. He said later that he "decided I couldn't take any more of that." Bronk was drafted into the Army soon after the United States entered
World War II 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. After serving as a private, he was admitted to OCS, and was commissioned as an officer after completion of the program. He was honorably discharged from the Army in October 1945. He first taught English at
Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...
,
Schenectady, New York Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Yo ...
. He left Union in June 1946 and returned to Hudson Falls. During the latter half of 1946, he completed work on ''The Brother in Elysium''. In January 1947 Bronk took over management of the Bronk Coal and Lumber Company, which he had inherited in 1941 when his father died unexpectedly. Although he intended this work to be temporary, he ran the business for 30 years, retiring in 1978. Bronk said that the poems emerged in his mind as he went through the business of the day. When one was ready, he put it on paper, working in longhand rather than at a typewriter. As his manuscripts attest, he seldom rewrote or modified a poem once he wrote it on paper. William Bronk died Monday, February 22, 1999.


Selected bibliography

;Poetry *''Light and Dark'', Origin Press, 1956, 2nd edition, Elizabeth Press, 1975. *''The World, the Worldless'', New Directions, 1964. *''The Empty Hands'', Elizabeth Press, 1969. *''That Tantalus'', Elizabeth Press, 1971. *''Utterances: The Loss of Grass, Trees, Water: The Unbecoming of Wanted and Wanter'', Burning Deck, 1972. *''To Praise the Music'', Elizabeth Press, 1972. *''Looking at It'', Sceptre Press, 1973. *''A Partial Glossary: Two Essays'', Elizabeth Press, 1974. *''The Stance'', Graywolf Press, 1975. *''Silence and Metaphor'', Elizabeth Press, 1975. *''Finding Losses'', Elizabeth Press, 1976. *''The Meantime'', Elizabeth Press, 1976. *''My Father Photographed with Friends and Other Pictures'', Elizabeth Press, 1976. *''Twelve Losses Found'', Grosseteste, 1976. *''That Beauty Still'', Burning Deck, 1978. *''Life Supports: New and Collected Poems'',
North Point Press North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...
(San Francisco, CA), 1981. —winner of the National Book Award"National Book Awards – 1982"
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 2012-04-07.
(With essay by Scott Challener from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)
*''Light in a Dark Sky'', William Ewert, 1982. *''Careless Love and Its Apostrophes'', Red Ozier Press, 1985. *''Manifest; And Furthermore'', North Point Press (San Francisco, CA), 1987. *''Death Is the Place (poems)'', North Point Press (San Francisco, CA), 1989. *''Living Instead (poems)'', North Point Press (San Francisco, CA), 1991. *''Some Words (poems)'', Asphodel Press (Mount Kisco, NY), 1992. *''The Mild Day (poems)'', Talisman House (Hoboken, NJ), 1993. *''Our Selves (poems)'', Talisman House (Hoboken, NJ), 1994. *''Selected Poems'', selected by Henry Weinfield,
New Directions Publishing New Directions Publishing Corp. is an independent book publishing company that was founded in 1936 by James Laughlin and incorporated in 1964. Its offices are located at 80 Eighth Avenue in New York City. History New Directions was born in 19 ...
(New York, NY), 1995. *''The Cage of Age (poems)'', Talisman House (Hoboken, NJ), 1996. *''Life Supports (poems)'', Talisman House (Hoboken, NJ), 1997. *''All of What We Loved (poems)'', Talisman House (Hoboken, NJ), 1998. *''Some Words (poems)'', Talisman House (Hoboken, NJ), 1998. *''Metaphor of Trees and Last Poems'', Talisman House (Hoboken, NJ), 1999. *''Estival: The Keepsakes Collection'', Richard A. Carella, Publisher (Hudson Falls, New York), 2011. *''Bursts of Light: The Collected Later Poems'', Talisman House (Hoboken, NJ), 2012. ;Essays *''The New World'', Elizabeth Press, 1974. *''The Brother in Elysium'', Elizabeth Press, 1980. *''Vectors and Smoothable Curves'', North Point Press (San Francisco, CA), 1983, new edition, Talisman House (Hoboken, NJ), 1997.


References


External links


William Bronk Biography




''
Jacket Magazine ''Jacket'' (now published as ''Jacket2'') is an online literary periodical, which was founded by the Australian poet John Tranter. The first issue was in October 1997. Until 2010, each new number of the magazine was posted at the Web site pie ...
'' site
David Clippinger, "Neither Us nor Them: Poetry Anthologies, Canon Building, and the Silencing of William Bronk"
'' The Argotist Online''
"36 Poems read by William Bronk"
audio-files at "PENNsound" site, recorded in Hudson Falls, New York on October 13, 1978.

includes remembrances by
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 ...
and Burt Kimmelman
"William Bronk"
Exhibit at ''Modern American Poets'' website

ArtZar
William Bronk Papers 1908-1999
archived at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

"William Bronk Exhibit"
The Poetry Foundation

English Dept. University of Illinois * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bronk, William 1918 births 1999 deaths American modernist poets National Book Award winners Dartmouth College alumni Harvard University alumni Union College (New York) faculty People from Hudson Falls, New York Poets from New York (state) People from Fort Edward, New York 20th-century American poets United States Army officers United States Army personnel of World War II