Randall Jarrell

Randall Jarrell (May 06, 1914 – October 14, 1965), was a United States poet, novelist, critic, children's author and essayist.

Life

Jarrell was a native of Nashville, Tennessee and graduated from Vanderbilt University. At Vanderbilt, he was acquainted with poets of the Fugitives group. Jarrell followed critic John Crowe Ransom from Vanderbilt to Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where Jarrell wrote a masters thesis on the poetry of Alfred Edward Housman, and roomed with poet Robert Lowell. He taught at Kenyon College, the University of Texas, the University of Illinois, Sarah Lawrence College, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was married to second wife Mary von Schrader from 1952 until his death.

On October 14, 1965, while walking along a road in Chapel Hill near dusk, Jarrell was struck by a car and killed. The coroner ruled the death accidental, but Jarrell had recently been treated for mental illness and a previous suicide attempt. In 2004, the Metropolitan Nashville Historical Commission approved placement of a historical marker in his honor, to be placed at Hume-Fogg High School, which he attended.

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro has an extensive Randall Jarrell Collection which "includes over two thousand manuscript items and books relating to one of the mid-20th century's most important American poets and critics." [http://www.uncg.edu/lib/arch/jarrell/]

Recently, community activists proposed to name a new elementary school in Greensboro in honor of Jarrell, but some parents protested. The name change was defeated 7-2 by the school board, and the schools was named Northern Elementary instead.

Career

His first collection of poetry, "Blood from a Stranger", which was heavily influenced by W.H. Auden, was published in 1942 – the same year he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps. He spent a brief time working as a pilot, but soon switched to working as an aviation instructor. His second and third books, "Little Friend, Little Friend" (1945) and "Losses" (1948), drew heavily on his Army experiences, dealing with the fears and moral struggles of soldiers. It was in these books that Jarrell broke free of Auden's influence and developed his own style and poetic philosophy which he would later document in his critical essays. "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" is the most famous of Jarrell's war-poems and one that is frequently anthologized. It presents the soldier as innocent and child-like, placing blame for war on "the State."

However, during this period, he earned a reputation primarily as a critic, rather than as a poet. Encouraged by Edmund Wilson, who published Jarrell's criticism in "The New Republic", Jarrell quickly became a fiercely humorous critic of fellow poets. In the post-war period, his criticism began to change, showing a more positive emphasis. His appreciations of Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, and William Carlos Williams helped to establish or resuscitate their reputations as significant American poets. He is also noted for his essays on Robert Frost — whose poetry was a large influence on Jarrell's own — Walt Whitman, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, and others, which were mostly collected in "Poetry and the Age" (1953). Many scholars consider him the most astute poetry critic of his generation. The author and poet Peter Levi gave the advice to young writers in 1979 to, "Take more notice of Randall Jarrell than you do of any academic critic." [ [The Paris Review, The Art of Poetry No. 14 Peter Levi, Interviewed by Jannika Hurwitt Issue 76, Fall 1979] ]

His reputation as a poet was not established until 1960, when his National Book Award-winning collection "The Woman at the Washington Zoo" was published. His final volume, "The Lost World", published in 1966, cemented that reputation; many critics consider it his best work. The book's subject, one of Jarrell's favorites, is childhood. Jarrell also published a satiric novel, "Pictures from an Institution", in 1954 (nominated for 1955 National Book Award) — drawing upon his teaching experiences at Sarah Lawrence College, which served as the model for the fictional Benton College — and several children's stories, among which "The Bat-Poet" (1964) and "The Animal Family" (1965) are considered prominent. He translated poems by Rainer Maria Rilke and others, a play by Anton Chekhov, and several Grimm fairy tales. He served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress — a position today known as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry — from 1956-1958.

Bibliography

*"Poetry and the Age". NY: Knopf, 1953.
*"A Sad Heart at the Supermarket; essays & fables". NY: Atheneum, 1962.
*"The Bat-Poet". Pictures by Maurice Sendak. NY: Macmillan, 1964.
*"The Lost World". NY: Macmillan, 1965.
*"The Animal Family". Decorations by Maurice Sendak. NY: Pantheon Books, 1965. Juv / Fiction J37 a
*"The Third Book of Criticism". NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1969.
*"The Complete Poems". NY: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1969.
*"Fly by Night". Illustrated by Maurice Sendak. NY: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1976.
*"Kipling, Auden & Cofyik.: essays and reviews, 1935-1964". NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1980.
*"Randall Jarrell's letters: an autobiographical and literary selection". edited by Mary Jarrell ; assisted by Stuart Wright. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985.

References

External links

* [http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/9 Jarrell page at Poets.org]
* [http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/jarrell/jarrell.htm Jarrell page at Modern American Poetry site]
* [http://www.uncg.edu/lib/arch/jarrell/ Finding Aid for the Randall Jarrell Papers] at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
*worldcat id|id=lccn-n79-76730
* [http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/08/01/specials/jarrell.html Jarrell on the New York Times Featured Authors site]
* [http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/newspub/bjfTyg?id=14469 News of historical marker]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=541 Randall Jarrell on Find-A-Grave]