Aaron Kramer
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Aaron Kramer (13 December 1921 – 7 April 1997 ) was an American poet, translator, and social activist. A lifelong poet of political commitment, he wrote 26 volumes of poetry, three of prose, and ten of translations between 1938 and (published posthumously) 1998. Kramer taught English at
Dowling College Dowling College was a private college on Long Island, New York. It was established in 1968 and had its main campus located in Oakdale, New York on the site of William K. Vanderbilt's mansion Idle Hour. Dowling also included a campus in Shirle ...
in Oakdale, Long Island, New York.


Biography

Aaron Kramer was born in Brooklyn, New York. He received his B.A. (1941) and M.A. (1951) from
Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...
and Ph.D. (1966) from New York University. Kramer wrote his first protest poems in the mid-1930s when he was barely a teenager, through his pointed critiques of the 1983 war in
Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...
and
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
's 1985 visits to
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
graves in
Bitburg Bitburg (; ; ) is a city in Germany, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate approximately 25 km (16 mi.) northwest of Trier and 50 km (31 mi.) northeast of Luxembourg (city), Luxembourg city. The American Spangdahlem Air Base i ...
. Kramer wrote poems about the
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
for four decades. In the 1930s, He started writing poems about the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
and continued throughout most of his life. He also had an interest on writing in and commitment to testify about
African American history African-American history started with the forced transportation of Africans to North America in the 16th and 17th centuries. The European colonization of the Americas, and the resulting Atlantic slave trade, encompassed a large-scale transpo ...
. His first poems about exploited labor appeared in 1934 and his last were published in 1995. Kramer’s 1937 poem “The Shoe-Shine Boy” published when he was only fifteen years old. He adopted traditional meters—favoring iambic trimeters, tetrameters, and pentameter—in part to install a radical politics within inherited rhythms. His earliest poems about the suppression of freedoms in the United States date from 1938 and continued writing them through the 1980s. Kramer wrote his first
pamphlet A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a Hardcover, hard cover or Bookbinding, binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' ...
in 1938 titled The Alarm Clock, it was funded by a local Communist Party chapter. . Kramer also produced
translations Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
of “ Rilke: Visions of Christ” and “
Der Kaiser von Atlantis ' (''The Emperor of Atlantis or The Disobedience of Death'') is a one-act opera by Viktor Ullmann with a libretto by Peter Kien. They collaborated on the work while interned in the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt concentration camp, The ...
”, the
opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
composed by
Viktor Ullmann Viktor Ullmann (1 January 1898 – 18 October 1944) was a Silesia-born Austrian composer, conductor and pianist. Biography Viktor Ullmann was born on 1 January 1898 in Cieszyn (Teschen), which belonged then to Austrian Silesia in the Austro- ...
in the
Theresienstadt concentration camp Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination c ...
in 1943. Kramer was one of the few
American writers The Lists of American writers include: United States By ethnicity *List of African-American writers *List of Asian American writers, List of Asian-American writers *List of Cuban American writers, List of Cuban-American writers *List of Egypti ...
to produce one a series of poems about
McCarthyism McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a Fear mongering, campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage i ...
, from satiric " The Soul of Martin Dies" (1944) to " Called In" (1980), his poem of outrage against those compelled to testify before the
House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 19 ...
(HUAC). Kramer first gained national prominence with '' Seven Poets in Search of An Answer'' (1944) and '' The Poetry and Prose of Heinrich Heine'' (1948). His masterpiece is his 26 poems compromising the 1952 sequence “
Denmark Vesey Denmark Vesey (also Telemaque) (July 2, 1822) was a Free Negro, free Black man and community leader in Charleston, South Carolina, who was accused and convicted of planning a major Slave rebellion, slave revolt in 1822. Although the alleged pl ...
", about plans for aborted 1822 slave revolt in
Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...
. In addition to poetry, Kramer published collections of translations. These include several works on Heine,
Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as a significant ...
, Yiddish poets, and poems on the
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
. Lifelong pen friend Sohail Adeeb (poet, critic, literary editor) translated some of Kramer's works into Urdu. Kramer was moved by the support he received by writers around the world who rallied to support him in his stand against
McCarthyism McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a Fear mongering, campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage i ...
. Kramer started teaching English at Dowling College in 1961, and became a professor there in 1966; after retiring in 1992 he continued to teach as professor emeritus until 1996.


Private life and death

Kramer married Katherine and had two daughters, Carol and Laura. He died April 7, 1997, age 75 at his home in
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
.


Outook

Kramer's artistic identity took shape in New York City during the late 1930s and early 1940s, where he moved in left-wing literary circles and absorbed many of their attitudes and ideals. Although never affiliated with a party or ideology, Kramer consistently pursued progressive political themes in his poetry. He often wrote passionately about the injustices he perceived. Slavery and abolition were frequent themes of his early work ("Denmark Vesey," "The Ballad of August Biondi"). Racism, war and imperialism, and economic inequality were also repeated motifs in his poetry. On the other hand, Kramer frequently wrote about private, personal experiences. Both sides of his work display an idealism and optimism concerning the human capacity for endurance and compassion.


Published works

Kramer's critical books include '' The Prophetic Tradition in American Poetry'' (1968) and '' Melville’s Poetry'' (1972). Kramer collaborated with artists on '' The Tune of the Calliope: Poems and Drawings of New York'' and edited the 1972 anthology '' On Freedom’s Side: American Poems of Protest''. He wanted to radicalize root and branch the American literary tradition, not abandon it for alternative forms. He translated and edited the work 135 Yiddish poets were published as part of “ A Century of Yiddish Poetry”. Drawing largely from the records of Dowling College and his obituary in the New York Times, Kramer's published works include: Recordings:
Aaron Kramer reading his poems
- Library of Congress (Recording Laboratory, 6 April 1982)
Serenade by Aaron Kramer: Reading His Own and Other Poems by Poets of New York
- (New York: Folkways Records, 1957)
The Poetry of Aaron Kramer
- Dowling College (podcast)
Six Poems by Aaron Kramer
- Dowling College (podcast) Scholarly Works: * The Prose and Poetry of Heinrich Heine (1948) * Emma Lazarus: Her Life and Work (Thesis, Brooklyn College, 1951) * The Prophetic Tradition in American Poetry, 1835-1900 (Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1968) * On Freedom's Side: An Anthology of American Poems of Protest (Macmillan, 1972) * Melville's Poetry: Toward the Enlarged Heart; A Thematic Study of Three Ignored Major Poems (Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1972) * Neglected Aspects of American Poetry: The Greek Independence War and Other Studies (Oakdale, NY: Dowling College Press, 1997) Anthologies: * Seven Poets in Search of an Answer: A Poetic Symposium (with
Maxwell Bodenheim Maxwell "Bogey" Bodenheim (May 26, 1892 – February 6, 1954) was an American poet and novelist. A literary figure in Chicago, he later went to New York where he became known as the King of Greenwich Village Bohemians. His writing brought hi ...
,
Joy Davidman Helen Joy Davidman (18 April 1915 – 13 July 1960) was an American poet and writer. Often referred to as a child prodigy, she earned a master's degree from Columbia University in English literature at age twenty in 1935. For her book of po ...
,
Langston Hughes James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. An early innovator of jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harl ...
,
Alfred Kreymborg Alfred Francis Kreymborg (December 10, 1883 – August 14, 1966) was an American poet, novelist, playwright, literary editor and anthologist. Early life and associations He was born in New York City to Hermann and Louisa Kreymborg (née Nasher) ...
, Martha Millet,
Norman Rosten Norman Rosten (January 1, 1913 – March 7, 1995) was an American poet, playwright, and novelist. Life Rosten was born to a Polish Jewish family in New York City and grew up in Hurleyville, New York. He graduated from Brooklyn College and New Yo ...
) (B. Ackerman, 1944, 1976) * Carousel Parkway and Other Poems (San Diego: A.S. Barnes, 1980) * Long Island Writers: A Special Confrontation Anthology Issue (Greenvale, NY: Confrontation Magazine, C.W. Post College, 1985) * Wicked Times: Selected Poems (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2004) Poetry: * "The Shoeshine Boy" (1937) * "The Death of President Roosevelt" (April 13, 1945) * The Golden Trumpet (New York: International Publishers, 1949) * ''
Denmark Vesey Denmark Vesey (also Telemaque) (July 2, 1822) was a Free Negro, free Black man and community leader in Charleston, South Carolina, who was accused and convicted of planning a major Slave rebellion, slave revolt in 1822. Although the alleged pl ...
and Other Poems'' Including Translations from the Yiddish Poems by
Morris Winchevsky Morris Winchevsky (Yiddish: מאָריס װינטשעװסקי; born as Leopold Benzion Novokhovitch; August 9 1856–March 18 1932), also known as Ben Netz, was a prominent Jewish socialist leader in London and the United States in the late 19th ...
,
Morris Rosenfeld Morris Rosenfeld (Yiddish: מאָריס ראָסענפֿעלד; born as Moshe Yankev Chmielowski; December 28, 1862 in Stare Boksze in Russian Poland, government of Suwałki – June 22, 1923 in New York City) was a Yiddish poet. His work shed ...
, David Edelshtat, Joseph Bovshover (Private printing, 1952) * Roll the Forbidden Drums! (New York: Cameron & Kahn, 1954) * The Tune of the Calliope: Poems and Drawings of New York. Illus. Theodore Fried, et al. (New York: T. Yoseloff, 1958) * Rumshinsky's Hat and House of Buttons: Two Collections of Poetry (New York: T. Yoseloff, 1964) * Henry at the Grating: Poems of Nausea (New York: Folklore Center, 1968) * On the Way to Palermo and Other Poems (South Brunswick: A.S. Barnes, 1973) * Long Night's Journey Back to Light (Oakdale, NY: Dowling College Press, 1973) * O Golden Land! A Travelog in Verse (Oakdale, NY: Dowling College Press, 1976) * Long Night's Journey Back to Light II. Ed. Alex Kramer (Oakdale, NY: Dowling College Press, 1977) * Carousel Parkway (1980) * In Wicked Times. Illus. Barbara Allen. (Arlington, VA: Black Buzzard Press, 1983) * In the Suburbs (Winterville, GA: Ali Baba Press, 1986) * Indigo and Other Poems (New York: Cornwall Books, 1991) Collection: * The Burning Bush: Poems and Other Writings (1940-1980). Ed. Thomas Yoseloff (New York: Cornwall Books, 1983) Essays: * Regrouping: Poems (Northport, NY: Birnham WoodGraphics, 1997) Translations: * Moses: Poems and Translations (New York: O'Hare Books, 1962) * Songs and Ballads: Goethe, Schiller, Heine. Trans. Aaron Kramer (New York: O'Hare Books, 1963) * Rilke, Rainer Maria. Visions of Christ: A Posthumous Cycle of Poems. Ed. Siegfried Mandel. Trans. Aaron Kramer (Boulder, CO: University of Colorado Press, 1967) * Reisen, Abraham. Poems. Trans. Aaron Kramer (Privately printed, 1971) * The Last Lullaby: Poetry from the Holocaust. Ed. and trans. Aaron Kramer. Illus. Saul Lishinsky (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1998) * Zychlinsky, Rajzel. God Hid His Face. Trans. Barnett Zumoff, Aaron Kramer, Marek Kanter, et al. (Santa Rosa, CA: Word & Quill Press, 1997) Edited and translated: * A Century of Yiddish Poetry. Ed. and trans. Aaron Kramer (New York: Cornwall Books, 1989) * Teitelboim, Dora. All My Yesterdays Were Steps: The Selected Poems of Dora Teitelboim. Ed. and trans. Aaron Kramer. Illus. Stan Kaplan (Hoboken, NJ: Dora Teitelboim Foundation, 1995) Editing: "In later years, Kramer co-edited ''West Hills Review: a Whitman Journal'', and edited or co-edited numerous other anthologies."


References


External links


Aaron Kramer
official website

compiled b
Donald M Gilzinger, Jr.

Aaron Kramer (1921-1997)
SUNY Suffolk
Aaron Kramer (1921-1997) Papers
- American Jewish Historical Society (New York, NY)
Aaron Kramer Papers (1937-1996)
- University of Michigan
Biography: Aaron Kramer (1921-1997)
- Library of Congress

- Library of Congress authorities

- Modern American Poetry

- Stony Brook University
PennSound: Aaron Kramer
- PennSound {{DEFAULTSORT:Kramer, Aaron 1921 births 1997 deaths American male poets Brooklyn College alumni 20th-century American male writers American poets Writers from Brooklyn