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), who ran a small cigar store, and he spent most of his life there and in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. He was an active figure in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

and frequented the Liberal Club. He was the first literary figure to be included in

Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz (; January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was k ...

291 __NOTOC__ Year 291 ( CCXCI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in Rome as the Year of the Consulship of Tiberianus and Dio (or, less frequently, year 1044 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomin ...

circle, and was briefly associated with the Ferrer Center where

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American naturalized French visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, ...

was studying under

Robert Henri Robert Henri (; June 24, 1865 – July 12, 1929) was an American painter and teacher. As a young man, he studied in Paris, where he identified strongly with the Impressionists, and determined to lead an even more dramatic revolt against A ...

. From

1913 Events January * January – Joseph Stalin travels to Vienna to research his ''Marxism and the National Question''. This means that, during this month, Stalin, Hitler, Trotsky and Tito are all living in the city. * January 3 &ndash ...

1914 This year saw the beginning of what became known as the First World War, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip ...

, Kreymborg and Man Ray worked together to bring out ten issues of the first of Kreymborg's prominent

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

magazines: ''

The Glebe The Glebe is a neighbourhood in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located just south of Downtown Ottawa in the Capital Ward. As of 2016, the neighbourhood had a population of 13,055. The Glebe is bounded on the north by the Queensway, on the e ...

''.

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

– who had heard about ''The Glebe'' from Kreymborg's friend

John Cournos John Cournos, born Ivan Grigorievich Korshun () (6 March 1881 – 27 August 1966), was an American writer and translator. Biography Cournos was born into a Russian Jewish family in Zhytomyr, Russian Empire (now in Ukraine). His first language wa ...

– sent Kreymborg the manuscript of '' Des Imagistes'' in the summer of 1913 and this famous first anthology of

Imagism Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized modernist literary movement in the English language. Imagism has been termed "a successi ...

was published as the fifth issue of ''

'' In 1913 Man Ray and

Samuel Halpert Samuel Halpert (1884 in Białystok, Russia – 1930 in Detroit, Michigan) was an American painter. Early days Halpert's family migrated to New York City in 1890. His father's preoccupation with religious devotion necessitated that Halpert s ...

, another of Henri's students, started an artist's colony in

Ridgefield, New Jersey } Ridgefield is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 11,501, an increase of 469 (+4.3%) from the 2010 Unite ...

. This colony was often also referred to as ' Grantwood' and comprised a number of clapboard shacks on a bluff on the

Hudson Palisades The Palisades, also called the New Jersey Palisades or the Hudson River Palisades, are a line of steep cliffs along the west side of the lower Hudson River in Northeastern New Jersey and Southeastern New York in the United States. The cliffs s ...

opposite Grants Tomb, across the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

in Manhattan. Kreymborg moved to Ridgefield and launched '' Others: A Magazine of the New Verse'' with Skipwith Cannell,

Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...

, and

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. His '' Spring and All'' (1923) was written in the wake of T. S. Eliot's '' The Waste Land'' (1922). ...

in 1915. Pound had, along with the ''Des Imagistes'' poems, written to Kreymborg suggesting that he contact 'old Bull' Williams, that is

. Williams did not live far from Ridgefield, and he became involved in the magazine. Soon there was a group of artists associated with the magazine.

Marianne Moore Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American Modernism, modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for its formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. In 1968 Nobel Prize in Li ...

came to Ridgefield for picnics, and from 1915

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

occasionally visited. Regarding

, when asked whether Kreymborg was her American discoverer, she replied, "It could be said, perhaps; he did all he could to promote me. Miss Monroe and the Aldingtons had asked me simultaneously to contribute to ''Poetry'' and ''The Egoist'' in 1915. Alfred Kreymborg was not inhibited. I was a little different from the others. He thought that I might pass as a novelty, I guess." 1915 also saw the publication of a story in part based on a personal experience. The story was titled 'Edna' and published as ''Edna: The Girl of the Street;'' by the Greenwich Village entrepreneur Guido Bruno; the subtitle was Bruno's idea, added without the consent of the author.Kreymborg, ''Troubador'', Chapter 12, page 79. John S. Sumner of the

New York Society for the Suppression of Vice The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (NYSSV or SSV) was an organization dedicated to supervising the morality of the public, founded in 1873. Its specific mission was to monitor compliance with state laws and work with the courts and d ...

raised a stir; there was a court case which led to Bruno's imprisonment. The attendant morals row drew in

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

and

Frank Harris Frank Harris (14 February 1856 – 26 August 1931) was an Irish-American editor, novelist, short story writer, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day. Born in Ireland, he emigrated to the United State ...

: Harris made an impassioned statement in court defending the publisher. Kreymborg was lifelong friends with

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg w ...

, each independently choosing to write in

free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry which does not use a prescribed or regular meter or rhyme and tends to follow the rhythm of natural or irregular speech. Free verse encompasses a large range of poetic form, and the distinction between free ...

. Kreymborg's poems, or 'mushrooms', had seldom made it into print, but in 1916, soon after his move to Ridgefield they were brought out in book form by

John Marshall John Marshall (September 24, 1755July 6, 1835) was an American statesman, jurist, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fourth chief justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. He remai ...

as 'Mushrooms: A Book of Free Forms' and Williams praised them as a "triumph for America". Kreymborg spent a year touring the United States, mostly visiting universities, reading his poetry — including at The Sunwise Turn in New York, an early supporter of his work — while accompanying himself on a

mandolute The Weymann Mandolute was one of the products sold under Weymann, the Philadelphia-based brand of Weymann and Sons, established 1864. The 'mandolutes' were actually mandolins with eight strings and tuned exactly the same. The scale length is als ...

1920s

Kreymborg continued to edit ''Others'' somewhat erratically until 1919; he then in June 1921 sailed to Europe to act as co-editor of ''Broom, An International Magazine of the Arts'' (along with

Harold Loeb Harold Albert Loeb (October 18, 1891 – January 20, 1974) was an American writer, notable as an important American figure in the arts among expatriates in Paris in the 1920s. In 1921 he was the founding editor of ''Broom,'' an international liter ...

).Periodicals
Contributors included

Malcolm Cowley Malcolm Cowley (August 24, 1898 – March 27, 1989) was an American writer, editor, historian, poet, and literary critic. His best known works include his first book of poetry, ''Blue Juniata'' (1929), and his memoir, ''Exile's Return'' ( ...

E. E. Cummings Edward Estlin Cummings (October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962), commonly known as e e cummings or E. E. Cummings, was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. During World War I, he worked as an ambulance driver and was ...

Amy Lowell Amy Lawrence Lowell (February 9, 1874 – May 12, 1925) was an American poet of the imagist school. She posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926. Life Amy Lowell was born on February 9, 1874, in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughte ...

and

Walter de la Mare Walter John de la Mare (; 25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was an English poet, short story writer and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for his psychological horror short fi ...

. The magazine lost money. Kreymborg soon resigned and the magazine ceased publication in 1924. An ironic anecdote on the status of modernism: Kreymborg arranged for an aspiring artist

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

to create the artwork for the cover of volume 2, number 4 of ''Broom''. When ''Broom'' ceased publication, the original painting was left behind for its next tenants. Original works by Léger from that time period have sold for several million dollars. Kreymborg's poems appeared in ''

The Dial ''The Dial'' was an American magazine published intermittently from 1840 to 1929. In its first form, from 1840 to 1844, it served as the chief publication of the Transcendentalists. From the 1880s to 1919 it was revived as a political review an ...

'' in 1923. In the summer of 1925, Kreymborg was staying in Lake George Village, and happened to meet Paul Rosenfeld who was staying with Stieglitz. In one late night discussion Kreymborg and Rosenfeld lamented the disappearance of various literary magazines, including ''Broom.'' Another neighbor,

Samuel Ornitz Samuel Badisch Ornitz (November 15, 1890 – March 10, 1957) was an American screenwriter and novelist from New York City; he was one of the "Hollywood Ten"Obituary '' Variety'', March 13, 1957, page 63. who were blacklisted from the 1950s on by ...

appeared and offered financial backing for an annual book of new writing. Thus Kreymborg and Rosenfeld founded ''American Caravan'', which was to be edited by

Lewis Mumford Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a ...

and

Van Wyck Brooks Van Wyck Brooks (February 16, 1886 – May 2, 1963) was an American literary critic, biographer, and historian. Biography Brooks was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1886 and graduated from Harvard University in 1908. As a student he publi ...

. ''The Second American Caravan'', was edited by Kreymborg, Mumford, and Rosenfeld; it was reviewed th
December 1928 issue of ''The Dial''
1925 also saw the publication of his autobiography ''Troubadour'', in which he refers to himself in the third person by the nicknames "Ollie" and "Krimmie". Among other things, the book narrate Kreymborg's courtship of and marriage to Gertrude Lord ("Christine") and their amicable separation one year later on account of Gertrude's attachment to the American artist

Carl Schmitt Carl Schmitt (11 July 1888 – 7 April 1985) was a German jurist, author, and political theorist. Schmitt wrote extensively about the effective wielding of political power. An authoritarian conservative theorist, he was noted as a critic of ...

("Charles"). (His play "The Silent Waiter," loosely based on his first marriage, was performed by NYC's Metropolitan Playhouse in a virtual livestreamed production on March 13, 2021, with commentary.) It also tells of his second marriage to Dorothy ("Dot") Bloom. In 1929,

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

chose him to be one of the poets to appear in ''The Poetry Quartos'', proposed by Paul Johnston. Kreymborg contributed the poem, "Body and Stone." He also contributed a short story to ''The Prose Quartos'', published by Random House in 1930.

1930s and later

In 1938 Kreymborg's verse drama for radio '' The Planets: A Modern Allegory'' was broadcast by

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

and received such an enthusiastic response from the public that it was repeated a few weeks later. Kreymborg maintained a long-term connection with

primarily because of Kreymborg's relationship with Hugo Knudsen, who invented some of the early photo-printing processes that Stieglitz utilized. Knudsen and Kreymborg married sisters Beatrice (Bea) and Dot Bloom (respectively).

Other interests

He also wrote puppet plays (his most famous being ''Manikin Minikin'' and ''Lima Beans''), which he performed with his wife, Dot, while touring the United States. Puppeteer Olive Blackham of Roel Puppets made the mannequins for ''Lima Beans''. Kreymborg played chess at a near-professional level; he was recognized as a National Master standard player in his youth. O
two occasions
he played and lost to

José Capablanca José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...

, including a defeat in 1910 due to a mix-up in his endgame He dre
one game
with the U.S. Champion Frank Marshall in the 1911 Masters Tournament, but shortly afterward left the chess world after a stunning defeat by Oscar Chajes, returning to the sport roughly 23 years later. He wrote the article 'Chess Reclaims a Devotee', which is semi-autobiographical and also based on

Charles Jaffe Charles Jaffé (Jaffe) (, Dubroŭna, Russian Empire – 12 July 1941, Brooklyn, USA) was a chess master and chess author born in the Russian Empire. Early life Jaffé was born in the small town of Dubroŭna (now in Vitebsk Region, Belarus), ...

; the story is well known in chess circles. Kreymborg was very close with sculptor Alexander "Sandy" Calder. Due to his knack of "discovering" and publishing some of the most important poets during his time, Kreymborg later became president of the

Poetry Society of America Poetry (from the Greek word '' poiesis'', "making") is a form of literary art that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, literal or surface-level meanings. Any partic ...

Critical views

Kreymborg later became a relatively conservative poet, but – according to

Julian Symons Julian Gustave Symons (originally Gustave Julian Symons, pronounced ''SIMM-ons''; 30 May 1912 – 19 November 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature. He was born ...

– "never an interesting one" In ''Namedropping'', Richard Elman writes a short chapter about a meeting with Kreymborg in the early 1960s.Namedropping
/ref>

Works

Maxim Lieber Maxim Lieber (October 15, 1897 – April 10, 1993) was a prominent American literary agent in New York City during the 1930s and 1940s. The Soviet spy Whittaker Chambers named him as an accomplice in 1949, and Lieber fled first to Mexico and then ...

was Kreymborg's literary agent in 1947. *'' Love and Life and Other Studies'' (1908) *'' Apostrophes: A Book of Tributes to Masters of Music'' (1910) *''Erna Vitek'' (1914) novel *''Edna: The Girl of the Street'' (1915

PDF of 1919 edition with G. B. Shaw contribution *''To My Mother 10 Rhythms'' (1915) *''Mushrooms: A Book of Free Forms'' (1916) poems, as 1915 ''Mushrooms 16 Rhythms'' in Bruno Chap Books *''Others: An Anthology of the New Verse'' (1916) editor *''Others: An Anthology of the New Verse'' (1917) editor *''Six Plays for Poem-Mimes'' (1918) *''Blood of Things: A Second Book of Free Forms'' (1920) *''Others for 1919: An Anthology of the New Verse'' (1920)
''Plays for Merry Andrews''
(1920) *''Less Lonely'' (1923)
''Puppet Plays''
(1923) *''Troubadour'' (1925) autobiography *''Lima Beans. A Scherzo Play in One Act'' (1925) *''Rocking Chairs and Other Comedies'' (1925) *''Manikin and Minikin'' (1925) *''Scarlet and Mellow'' (1926) *''There's a Moon Tonight'' (1926) comedy *''The American Caravan'' (1927), yearbook, editor with

and Paul Rosenfeld, later years also *''Funnybone Alley'' (1927) *''The Lost Sail, A Cape Cod Diary'' (1928) *''Alfred Kreymborg'' (1928) The Pamphlet Poets *''Manhattan Men: Poems and Epitaphs'' (1929) poems *''Body and Stone: A Song Cycle'' (1929) *''Our Singing Strength, An Outline of American Poetry, 1620 - 1930'' (1929) also later in 1934 *''An Anthology of American Poetry Lyric: America 1630–1930'' (1930) anthology, later editions are supplemented *''Prologue in Hell'' (1930) *''I'm Not Complaining: A Kaffeeklatsch'' (1932) *''The Little World. 1914 and After'' (1932) *''I'm No Hero'' (1933) *''How Do You Do Sir? And Other Short Plays'' (1934) *''Anthology of One-Act Plays 1937-38'' (1938) editor *''The Planets: A Modern Allegory'' (1938) *''Two New Yorkers'' (1938) editor Stanley Burnshaw, illustrated by Alexander Kruse *''The Four Apes and Other Fables of Our Day'' (1939) *''Poetic Drama: An Anthology of Plays in Verse'' (1941) editor *''Ten American Ballads'' (1942) *''Selected Poems 1912 to 1944'' (1945) *''Man and Shadow: An Allegory'' (1946) poems *''The Poetry Society of America Anthology'' (1946) editor with Amy Bonner and others *''No More War: An Ode to Peace'' (1949) *''No More War and other poems'' (1950)

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *

External links

* * * * Edward Winter
Alfred Kreymborg and Chess1921 passport photo, Alfred and Dorothy Kreymborg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kreymborg, Alfred 1883 births 1966 deaths American male poets Imagists American chess players 20th-century American poets People from Ridgefield, New Jersey 20th-century American male writers Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Presidents of the Poetry Society of America Writers from Bergen County, New Jersey