1950 in poetry

yearbox2
in?=in poetry
in2?=in literature
cp=19th century
c=20th century
cf=21st century

yp1=1947
yp2=1948
yp3=1949
year=1950
ya1=1951
ya2=1952
ya3=1953
dp3=1920s
dp2=1930s
dp1=1940s
d=1950s
da=1960s
dn1=1960s
dn2=1970s
dn3=1980s|

Events

*Charles Olson publishes his seminal essay, "Projective Verse". In this, he called for a poetry of "open field" composition to replace traditional closed poetic forms with an improvised form that should reflect exactly the content of the poem. This form was to be based on the line, and each line was to be a unit of breath and of utterance. The content was to consist of "one perception immediately and directly (leading) to a further perception". This essay was to become a kind of "de facto" manifesto for the Black Mountain poets.
* George Oppen and his wife, Mary, move from the United States to Mexico, where their links to Communism are less problematic.
*In the fall, the Beloit Poetry Journal is founded.

Works published

* W. H. Auden, "Collected Shorter Poems 1930-1944"
* George Barker, "The True Confession of George Barker", Denver: Alan SwallowM. L. Rosenthal, "The New Poets: American and British Poetry Since World War II", New York: Oxford University Press, 1967, "Selected Bibliography: Individual Volumes by Poets Discussed", pp 334-340]
* Basil Bunting, "Poems: 1950"
* Nancy Cato, "The Darkened Window"
* E. E. Cummings, "Xaipe: Seventy-One Poems"
* Leah Bodine Drake, "A Hornbook for Witches"
* Robert Gittings, "Wentworth Place". ["Gittings, Robert William Victor (1911–1992), poet and writer" in "ODNB" [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/51049 online] (subscription required)]
* John Heath-Stubbs and David Wright, editors, "The Forsaken Garden: An Anthology of Poetry 1824-1909"
* Ezra Pound, "Seventy Cantos"
* "Mid-Century American Poets", an anthology including poets who came to prominence in the 1940s, including Robert Lowell, Muriel Rukeyser, Karl Shapiro, Elizabeth Bishop, Theodore Roethke, Randall Jarrell, and John Ciardi
* Richard Wilbur, "Ceremony and Other Poems", New York: Reynal and Hitchcock
* William Carlos Williams, "The Collected Later Poems"

=New Zealand=

* Ursula Bethell, "Collected Poems", Christchurch: Caxton Press (posthumous) [ [http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subjects/nzp/nzlit2/bethell.htm Web page titled "Ursula Bethell / New Zealand Literature File"] at the University of Aukland Library website, accessed April 30, 2008]
* Alistair Campbell, "Mine Eyes Dazzle", Christchurch: Pegasus Press, including "The Return" and "Elegy"
* M. K. Joseph, "Imaginary Islands" [http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/L/LiteraturePoetry/TheContemporaryScene/en Web page titled "The Contemporary Scene"] in "An Encyclopedia of New Zealand, 1966 website, accessed April 21, 2008]
* Kendrick Smithyman, "The Blind Mountain", Caxton
* Hubert Witheford, "The Shadow of the Flame"

=Hebrew=

* Haim Gouri, "Ad A lot Ha-Shahar" ("Till Dawn"), poetry and war diary, Israeli writing in Hebrew [ [http://www.ithl.org.il/author_info.asp?id=101] Web page titled "Haim Gouri" at the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature Web site, accessed October 6, 2007]
* Hillel Omer (who wrote under the name "Ayin Hillel"), "Eretz Ha-Tzohorayim" ("The Noon Country"), Publisher: Sifriat Poalim; Israel

Awards and honors

* Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (later the post would be called "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress"): Conrad Aiken appointed this year.
* Harriet Monroe Prize from Poetry magazine: E.E. Cummings
* National Book Award for Poetry: William Carlos Williams, "Paterson: Book III and Selected Poems"
* Pulitzer Prize for poetry: Gwendolyn Brooks, "Annie Allen"
* Bollingen Prize: Wallace Stevens
* Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: E. E. Cummings

Births

* April 4 — Charles Bernstein, American poet, critic, editor and teacher
* April 28 — Carolyn Forché, American poet, editor, and human rights advocate
* May 9:
** Christopher Dewdney, avant-garde Canadian poet
** Jorie Graham American poet and the editor of numerous volumes of poetry
* June 21 — Anne Carson, Canadian poet, essayist, translator, and academic
* December 24 — Dana Gioia, American poet who retired early from his career as a corporate executive at General Foods to write full time and later became chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts
* date not known:
** Frances Chung
** Theodore Deppe
** Susan L. Helwig
** Edward Hirsch American poet and academic
** Kim Maltman Canadian poet and physicist
** E. Ethelbert Miller
** Wayne Scott Ray
** Stan Rogal
** Kenneth Sherman
** Sandy Shreve
** Arthur Sze
** Chase Twichell, American poet and owner of her own publishing company, Ausable Press
** John Yau, American poet and critic

Deaths

* March 5 — Edgar Lee Masters, American poet, biographer and dramatist
* May 4 — William Rose Benét, American poet, writer, editor, and the older brother of Stephen Vincent Benét
* May 20 — John Gould Fletcher, Pulitzer Prize-winning American, Imagist poet and author
* October 19 — Edna St. Vincent Millay, 58, of a heart attack;
* December 26 — James Stephens, Irish poet and novelist
* date not known — Xavier Villaurrutia, Mexican poet and dramatist

ee also

* Poetry
* List of poetry awards
* List of years in poetry

References