Allen R. Grossman (January 7, 1932 – June 27, 2014) was a noted 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 wri ...

, critic and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

Biography

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1932,Bruce Weber (June 29, 2014)
Allen Grossman, A Poet's Poet, and Scholar, dies at 82
The New York Times, Retrieved June 30, 2014 Grossman was educated at

Harvard University 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 high ...

, graduating with an MA in 1956 after several interruptions. He went on to receive a PhD from

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , ...

in 1960, where he remained a professor until 1991. In 1991, he became the

Andrew W. Mellon Andrew William Mellon (; March 24, 1855 – August 26, 1937), sometimes A. W. Mellon, was an American banker, businessman, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector, and politician. From the wealthy Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylv ...

Professor in the Humanities at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

where until 2005 he taught in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Department, primarily focusing on

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

and poetics. He continued to write after his retirement from teaching. Grossman was raised

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. Grossman's first marriage ended in divorce; afterwards he married novelist

Judith Grossman Judith Grossman is an American writer. She earned a scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford, from which she received a First Class degree in English in 1958. She received a Ph.D. from Brandeis University, in 1968. She has taught at Bennington Co ...

, and they stayed married until his death. His children are Jonathan Grossman and Adam Grossman from the first marriage, and

Bathsheba Grossman Bathsheba Grossman (born 1966) is an American artist who creates sculptures using computer-aided design and three-dimensional modeling, with metal printing technology to produce sculpture in bronze and stainless steel. Her bronze sculptures a ...

Austin Grossman Austin Seth Grossman (born June 26, 1969) is an American author and video game designer. He has contributed to '' The New York Times'' and has written for a number of video games, most notably '' Deus Ex'' and '' Dishonored''. Life Grossman w ...

, and

Lev Grossman Lev Grossman (born June 26, 1969) is an American novelist and journalist who wrote ''The Magicians Trilogy'': '' The Magicians'' (2009), ''The Magician King'' (2011), and ''The Magician's Land'' (2014). He was the book critic and lead technology ...

from the second. On November 11, 2006, on the occasion of his retirement, several friends, colleagues, and students of Grossman held a joint reading in his honor. These included

Michael Fried Michael Martin Fried (born April 12, 1939 in New York City) is a modernist art critic and art historian. He studied at Princeton University and Harvard University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Merton College, Oxford. He is the J.R. Herbert Boone Pr ...

Susan Howe Susan Howe (born June 10, 1937) is an American poet, scholar, essayist, and critic, who has been closely associated with the Language poets, among other poetry movements.

Ha Jin Jin Xuefei (; born February 21, 1956) is a Chinese-American poet and novelist using the pen name Ha Jin (). ''Ha'' comes from his favorite city, Harbin. His poetry is associated with the Misty Poetry movement. Early life Ha Jin was born in ...

, Mark Halliday,

Breyten Breytenbach Breyten Breytenbach (; born 16 September 1939) is a South African writer, poet and painter known for his opposition to apartheid, and consequent imprisonment by the South African government. He is informally considered as the national poet lau ...

, Susan Stewart and

Frank Bidart Frank Bidart (born May 27, 1939) is an American academic and poet, and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Biography Bidart is a native of California and considered a career in acting or directing when he was young. In 1957, he began to s ...

. The event culminated with a reading by Grossman of poetry from his latest book of poems, ''Descartes' Loneliness''. Grossman died of complications from Alzheimer's at a nursing home in Chelsea, Mass. on June 27, 2014. He was 82.

Publications

Poetry

''Wash Day'', Descartes' Loneliness, Allen Grossman, Poetry Daily
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20091228080513/http://www.bu.edu/agni/poetry/print/2002/56-grossman.html ''Dust'', Allen Grossman, AGNI Online

Books

*''A Harlot's Hire'', (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Boars Head Press, 1959). *''The Recluse'', (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Pym-Randall Press, 1965). *''And The Dew Lay All Night Upon My Branch'', (Lexington, Mass.: Aleph Press, 1974). *''The Woman on the Bridge over the Chicago River'', (New York: New Directions, 1979). *''Of The Great House'', (New York: New Directions, 1982) *''The Bright Nails Scattered on the Ground'', (New York: New Directions, 1986).
''The Ether Dome and Other Poems New and Selected''
(1979–1990) (New York: New Directions, Fall 1991). *''The Song of the Lord'', (Watershed, 1991). An audiotape where the author reads poems selected from The Ether Dome. *''The Philosopher's Window and Other Poems'' (New York: New Directions, 1995). *''How to Do Things with Tears'', (New York: New Directions, 2001). *''Sweet Youth'', (New York: New Directions, 2002). *''Descartes' Loneliness'', (New York: New Directions, 2007) *''True-Love: Essays on Poetry and Valuing'', (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2009)

Selected Prose

*Poetic Knowledge in the Early Yeats, a study of The Wind Among the Reeds (University of Virginia Press, 1969) *The Sighted Singer Two Works on Poetry (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992) Contains (Part II): "Summa Lyrica: A Primer of the Common Places in Speculative Poetics". *The Long Schoolroom: Lessons in the Bitter Logic of the Poetic Principle (University of Michigan Press, 1997). *"The Passion of Laocoon: Warfare of the Religious Against the Poetic Institution" in Western Humanities Review, Vol LVI Number 2 Fall 2002, pp. 30–80. *"Wordworth's 'The Solitary Reaper': Notes on Poiesis, Pastoral, and Institution", TriQuarterly 116, Summer 2003.

Prizes and awards

* Garrison Award for Poetry (195?) *Prize of the American Academy of Poetry (195?) * A. B. Cohen Award for Teaching (1965) *The Pushcart Prize (1975, 1987, 1990) *

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , ...

Distinguished Service Award (1982) * Guggenheim Fellowship (1982) *

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

Fellowship (1985) * CASE Massachusetts State Professor of the Year (1987) *

Sara Teasdale Sara Teasdale (August 8, 1884January 29, 1933) was an American lyric poet. She was born Sarah Trevor Teasdale in St. Louis, Missouri, and used the name Sara Teasdale Filsinger after her marriage in 1914. In 1918 she won a Pulitzer Prize for he ...

Memorial Prize in Poetry (1987) *Sheaffer-PEN/New England Award for Literary Distinction (1988) *

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

(1989) *

National Book Critics Circle The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is an American nonprofit organization (501(c)(3)) with more than 700 members. It is the professional association of American book review editors and critics, known primarily for the National Book Critics C ...

Award nominee (1992) *

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

Fellow (1993) *

Bollingen Prize The Bollingen Prize for Poetry is a literary honor bestowed on an American poet in recognition of the best book of new verse within the last two years, or for lifetime achievement.

(2009)

Legacy

Ben Lerner Benjamin S. Lerner (born February 4, 1979) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. He has been a Fulbright Scholar, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the National Bo ...

discusses Grossman's impact on poetics at length in ''The Hatred of Poetry'' and references Grossman's death, ostensibly contemporaneously, on p. 78.

Criticism

References

External links

* *https://web.archive.org/web/20081021095307/http://english.jhu.edu/profiles/agrossman.html *http://www.allengrossman.com *http://reginaldshepherd.blogspot.com/2007/02/on-allen-grossman.html
''Poetry readings and lectures at The University of Chicago'', 18 Mar 2005, podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grossman, Allen 1932 births 2014 deaths 20th-century American Jews Jewish poets MacArthur Fellows American male poets Johns Hopkins University faculty Brandeis University alumni Harvard University alumni Brandeis University faculty Writers from Minneapolis Bollingen Prize recipients 20th-century American poets 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American Jews