Joseph Auslander (October 11, 1897 – June 22, 1965) 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 writte ...

, anthologist, translator of poems, and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

. Auslander was appointed the first

Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress 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 ...

from 1937 and 1941.

Life

Joseph Auslander was born to Louis and Martha (Asyueck) Auslander on October 11, 1897 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Harvard University in 1917, and in 1919 became an instructor in English at Harvard while engaged in graduate studies. From 1921 to 1922 he attended the Sorbonne in Paris on a Parker fellowship. In 1930, Auslander married Svanhild Kreutz, who died in childbirth two years later, leaving a daughter, Svanhild Frances Martha. In 1932 Auslander was married to Pulitzer Prize winning poet,

Audrey Wurdemann Audrey Wurdemann Auslander (January 1, 1911 – May 20, 1960) was an American poet. She was the youngest winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry at the age of 24, for her collection ''Bright Ambush''. Biography Wurdemann was born in Seattle, Wa ...

.; The couple had two children, Louis and Mary. From 1937 to 1941, Auslander was the Poet Laureate Consultant in English Poetry for the Library of Congress. During this time, he and Wurdemann lived at 3117 35th Street

Northwest, Washington, D.C. Northwest (NW or N.W.) is the northwestern quadrant of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and is located north of the National Mall and west of North Capitol Street. It is the largest of the four quadrants of the city (NW, NE, S ...

, in the

Cathedral Heights Cathedral Heights is a small, affluent residential neighborhood located in the upper Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. It is approximately bounded by Woodley Road to the north, Fulton Street to the south, Wisconsin Avenue to the east, and G ...

neighborhood. Auslander's best-known work is "The Unconquerables" (1943), a collection of poems addressed to the German-occupied countries of Europe. He served as the poetry editor for the ''

North American Review The ''North American Review'' (NAR) was the first literary magazine in the United States. It was founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others. It was published continuously until 1940, after which it was inactive until revived a ...

'' and ''The Measure.'' Auslander was honoured with the Robert Frost Prize for Poetry. Joseph Auslander died of a heart attack on June 22, 1965, in Coral Gables, Florida. The papers of Joseph Auslander and Audrey Wurdemann are held at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

. Additional Auslander papers are held by The

Grolier Club The Grolier Club is a private club and society of bibliophiles in New York City. Founded in January 1884, it is the oldest existing bibliophilic club in North America. The club is named after Jean Grolier de Servières, Viscount d'Aguisy, Tre ...

Works

*''Sunrise Trumpets'', Harper, 1924 *''Cyclop's Eye'', Harper & brothers, 1926 *''Historia amoris mea'', Harold Vinal, 1927 *''Letters to Women'', Harper & brothers, 1929 *''Hell in Harness'', Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1929 *''No Traveller Returns: A Book of Poems'', Harper & brothers, 1935 *; Kessinger Publishing, 2004, *''Riders at the Gate'', The Macmillan co., 1938 *''The Unconquerables: Salutes to the Undying Spirit of the Nazi-Occupied Countries'', Saturday Evening Post, 1941
"Four Sonnets on the Eve of Invasion"
''Life'', May 22, 1944. p. 40 *(Joseph Auslander; Audrey Wurdemann) ''My Uncle Jan,: A Novel'', Longmans, Green and Company, 1948 *''The Islanders'', Longmans, Green, 1951

References

Other sources

External links

* 1897 births 1965 deaths 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers Poets from Pennsylvania American Poets Laureate Writers from Coral Gables, Florida American male novelists 20th-century American poets American male poets Novelists from Pennsylvania Novelists from Florida Harvard University alumni Poets from Washington, D.C. {{US-poet-1890s-stub