- Joel Oppenheimer
Joel Lester Oppenheimer (Jacob Hammer) (
February 18 ,1930 –October 11 ,1988 ) was anAmerican poet associated with both theBlack Mountain poets and theNew York School . Though a poet, Oppenheimer was perhaps better known for his columns in theVillage Voice from 1969 to 1984.Life and Work
Oppenheimer was born in
Yonkers, New York , attendedCornell University for one year in 1948, spent less than one semester at theUniversity of Chicago , and in 1950 enrolled atBlack Mountain College in North Carolina. At Black Mountain, he studied withPaul Goodman and poetCharles Olson , became friends withFielding Dawson andEd Dorn , and worked in the school's print shop.In his earliest poetry, Oppenheimer shows clearly the influence of
William Carlos Williams , but he soon developed his own style. While at Black Mountain, Oppenheimer met and married his first wife, Rena Furlong. He left the school in January 1953 without taking a degree, eventually settling in New York and working in a print shop while continuing to write poetry.His poetry has been collected in the following volumes: Robert J. Bertholf , ed. "Collected Later Poems of Joel Oppenheimer" ed. and intro. with eleven drawings by John Dobbs, The Poetry Collection, 1997; and "Names & Local Habitations (Selected Earlier Poems 1951-1972)" ed. Jonathan Williams, The Jargon Society, 1988.
He also published two nonfiction works, "The Wrong Season," Bobbs-Merrill 1973, about the New York Mets, and "Marilyn Lives," Delilah, 1984, on Marilyn Monroe. "Drawing from Life", posthumously published in 1997, gathered 92 columns written for the "Village Voice".
Library Journal wrote that "Drawing from Life" "emphasizes several favorite themes: baseball, politics, and the role of the changing seasons in our lives".A biography by Lyman Gilmore, "Don’t Touch the Poet: The Life and Times of Joel Oppenheimer" was published by Talisman Press in 1988.
ources
* [http://www.bookrags.com/Joel_(Lester)_Oppenheimer "Book Rags"]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEEDD1239F930A25753C1A96E948260 New York Times obituary]External links
* [http://www.lib.uconn.edu/online/research/speclib/ASC/findaids/Oppenheimer/MSS19900056.html Joel Oppenheimer Papers at the University of Connecticut]
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