Edward Field (born June 7, 1924) is an American poet, and an author of fiction and non-fiction, anthologies, and periodicals.

Biography

Early life

Field was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York City, to a family of

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...

immigrants. He grew up in

Lynbrook, New York Lynbrook is a village in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 20,438 at the time of the 2020 census. History The area currently known as Lynbrook has had o ...

and being

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish, he and his family faced

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

and discrimination. He played

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

in the "Field Family Trio", which had a weekly radio program on

WGBB WGBB (1240 AM) is a radio station licensed to Freeport, New York and serving Nassau County, New York. Founded in 1924, it is Long Island's oldest radio station. WGBB broadcasts the Chinese–language "Chinese Radio Network" and various Engli ...

Freeport Freeport, a variant of free port, may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Freeport, name of several space stations in the video game ''Freelancer'' (2003) * Freeport, a fictional town in the video game ''SiN'' (1998) * ''Freeport: The Cit ...

. He served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in the

8th Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forces S ...

in England and France, as a navigator in heavy bombers, and flew 25 missions over Germany. In February 1945, he took part in a raid on Berlin with his

B-17 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber, the B-17 dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during ...

. His bomber was crippled by flak and crash-landed in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

. All ten crew members made it into the plane's life rafts, but only seven of them managed to resist until the moment they were rescued by a British air-sea boat hours later.

Career

He began writing poetry during World War II, after a Red Cross worker handed him an anthology of poetry. In 1963, Field's book ''Stand Up, Friend, With Me'' was awarded the prestigious

Lamont Poetry Prize The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreac ...

and was published. In 1992, he received a

Lambda Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary Foundation, Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ+ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ+ literatur ...

for ''Counting Myself Lucky, Selected Poems 1963–1992''. Field's other honors include the

Shelley Memorial Award The Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America, was established by the will of Mary P. Sears, and named after the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The prize is given to a living American poet selected with reference to genius and need, and is ...

, a

Rome Prize The Rome Prize is awarded by the American Academy in Rome, in Rome, Italy. Approximately thirty scholars and artists are selected each year to receive a study fellowship at the academy. Recipients must be American citizens. Prizes have been aw ...

, and an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

for the documentary film '' To Be Alive!'', for which he wrote the narration. He received the

Bill Whitehead Award The Bill Whitehead Award is an annual literary award, presented by Publishing Triangle to honour lifetime achievement by writers within the LGBT community. First presented in 1989, the award was named in honour of Bill Whitehead, an editor with ...

for Lifetime Achievement from

Publishing Triangle The Publishing Triangle, founded in 1988 by Robin Hardy, is an American association of gay men and lesbians in the publishing industry. They sponsor an annual National Lesbian and Gay Book Month, and have sponsored the annual Triangle Awards prog ...

in 2005. In 1979, he edited the anthology ''A Geography of Poets'', and in 1992, with Gerald Locklin and Charles Stetler, brought out a sequel, ''A New Geography of Poets''. He and his partner Neil Derrick (1931–2018), long-time residents of Greenwich Village, wrote a best-selling historical novel about the Village, ''The Villagers''. They were both artists in residence at

Westbeth Artists Community Westbeth Artists Housing is a non-profit housing, nonprofit housing and commercial complex dedicated to providing affordable living and working space for artists and New York City arts organizations, arts organizations in New York City. The comp ...

since 1972. Derrick died on January 5, 2018. As of 2018, Field continued to reside at Westbeth. Field's narrative poem "World War II" is part of the ''Poets of World War II'' anthology, published by the

Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published more than 300 volumes by authors ...

and edited by Harvey Shapiro. In 2005, the University of Wisconsin Press published his literary memoirs ''The Man Who Would Marry Susan Sontag and Other Intimate Literary Portraits of the Bohemian Era'', the title of which refers to the writer

Alfred Chester Alfred Chester (September 7, 1928 – August 1, 1971) was an American writer known for his provocative, experimental work, including the novels ''Jamie Is My Heart's Desire'' and ''The Exquisite Corpse'' and the short story collection ''Behold Goli ...

. His most recent book ''After the Fall: Poems Old and New'' was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2007. British editor

Diana Athill Diana Athill (21 December 1917 – 23 January 2019) was a British literary editor, novelist and memoirist who worked with some of the greatest writers of the 20th century at the London-based publishing company Andre Deutsch Ltd. Early life ...

's ''Instead of a Book: Letters to a Friend'' (

Granta Books ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story's supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make ...

, 2011) is a collection of letters from her to Field chronicling their intimate correspondence spanning more than 30 years. In 2019, Field's niece Diane Weis produced the animated film ''Minor Accident of War'', inspired by his memories of survival during the World War II. Designed by Piotr Kabat, the film is narrated by Field using the text from his poem "World War II". Field

turned 100 A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100. Because life expectancies at birth worldwide are well below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarian ...

on June 7, 2024.

Books

Poetry

* ''Icarus'' (1963) * ''Stand Up, Friend, With Me'' (

Grove Press Grove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1947. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into an alternative book press in the United S ...

, 1963) * ''Variety Photoplays'' (Grove Press, 1967) * ''Eskimo Songs and Stories'' (

Delacorte Press Dell Publishing Company, Inc. is an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, that was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. with $10,000 (approx. $145,000 in 2021), two employees and one magazine title, ''I Confess'', and ...

, 1973) * ''A Full Heart'' (Sheep Meadow Press, 1977) * ''Stars in My Eyes'' (Sheep Meadow Press, 1978) * ''The Lost, Dancing'' (Watershed Tapes, 1984) * ''New And Selected Poems'' (Sheep Meadow Press, 1987) * ''Counting Myself Lucky, Selected Poems 1963–1992'' (Black Sparrow, 1992) * ''A Frieze for a Temple of Love'' (

Black Sparrow Books Black Sparrow Press is a New England based independent book publisher, known for literary fiction and poetry. History Black Sparrow was founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1966 by John Martin (publisher), John Martin in order to publish the wo ...

, 1998) * ''Magic Words'' (

Harcourt Brace Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. It was known at different stages in its history as Harcourt Brace, & Co. and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. From 1919 to 1 ...

, 1998) * ''After The Fall: Poems Old and New'' (

University of Pittsburgh Press The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American university press, part of the University of Pittsburgh. The university and the press are located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The press ...

, 2007)

Fiction (with Neil Derrick)

* ''The Potency Clinic'' (Bleecker Street Press, 1978) * ''Die PotenzKlinik'' (Berlin: Albino Verlag, 1982) * ''Village'' (

Avon Books Avon Publications is a leading publisher of romance fiction. At Avon's initial stages, it was an American paperback book and comic book publisher. The shift in content occurred in the early 1970s with multiple Avon romance titles reaching and ma ...

, 1982) * ''The Office'' (

Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in ...

, 1987) * ''The Villagers'' (Painted Leaf Press, 2000)

Non-fiction

* ''The Man Who Would Marry Susan Sontag, and Other Intimate Literary Portraits of the Bohemian Era'' (

University of Wisconsin Press The University of Wisconsin Press (sometimes abbreviated as UW Press) is a Non-profit organization, non-profit university press publishing Peer review, peer-reviewed books and journals. It publishes work by scholars from the global academic comm ...

, 2006, paperback edition, 2007) * ''Kabuli Days: Travels in Old Afghanistan'' (World Parade Books, 2008) * ''Voyage to Destruction: The Moroccan Letters of Alfred Chester'' (Spuyten Duyvil, 2022)

Anthologies and editorial

* ''A Geography of Poets'' (Bantam Books, 1979) * (with C. Stetler/G. Locklin) ''A New Geography of Poets'' (

University of Arkansas Press The University of Arkansas Press is a university press that is part of the University of Arkansas and has been a member of the Association of University Presses since 1984. Its mission is to publish peer-reviewed books and academic journals. It wa ...

, 1992) * Editor, ''Head of a Sad Angel, Stories by Alfred Chester'' (Black Sparrow, 1990). Introduction by

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( ; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his acerbic epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the Social norm, social and sexual ...

. * Editor, ''Looking For Genet, Essays by Alfred Chester'' (Black Sparrow Press, 1992) * Editor, ''Dancing with a Tiger, Selected Poems by Robert Friend'' (Spuyten Duyvil, 2003)

Periodicals

Poetry and essays in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...

'', '' Gay & Lesbian Review'', ''

Partisan Review ''Partisan Review'' (''PR'') was a left-wing small-circulation quarterly "little magazine" dealing with literature, politics, and cultural commentary published in New York City. The magazine was launched in 1934 by the Communist Party USA–affi ...

'', ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

'', ''

Evergreen Review ''The Evergreen Review'' is a U.S.-based literary magazine. Its publisher is John Oakes and its editor-in-chief is Dale Peck. The ''Evergreen Review'' was founded by Barney Rosset, publisher of Grove Press. It existed in print from 1957 until ...

'', ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'', '' Michigan Quarterly'', '' Raritan Quarterly Review'', ''

Parnassus Mount Parnassus (; , ''Parnassós'') is a mountain range of central Greece that is, and historically has been, especially valuable to the Greek nation and the earlier Greek city-states for many reasons. In peace, it offers scenic views of the c ...

'', and ''

The Kenyon Review ''The Kenyon Review'' is a literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, home of Kenyon College. ''The Review'' was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959. ''T ...

''.

Miscellaneous

* Wrote narration for documentary film ''To Be Alive!'', which won an

, 1965 * Readings at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

, Poetry Center, YMHA, and hundreds of colleges and universities * Taught poetry workshops at the Poetry Center, YMHA, Sarah Lawrence,

Hofstra University Hofstra University is a Private university, private research university in Hempstead, New York, United States. It originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University and became an independent college in 1939. Comprising ten schools, includ ...

* Editor of The Alfred Chester Society Newsletter

Awards and honors

(Academy of American Poets), 1962 * Guggenheim Fellowship, 1963 *

(Poetry Society of America), 1974 * Prix de Rome (American Academy of Arts & Letters), 1981 * Lambda Literary Award, 1993 * Bill Whitehead Lifetime Achievement Award (Publishing Triangle), 2005 * W. H. Auden Award (Sheep Meadow Foundation), 2005

References

External links

Field's website

Benjamin Ivry, "British Literary Doyenne's Letters to Gay Poet"
, ''The Forward'' , March 9, 2012
Interview with Edward Field, September 2016

Edward Field papers
held b
Special Collections, University of Delaware Library

Edward Field Alfred Chester archives
a
Special Collections, University of Delaware Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Field, Edward 1924 births 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American poets 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American poets American anthologists American gay writers American LGBTQ military personnel American LGBTQ poets American male poets American men centenarians Gay Jews Gay military personnel Gay poets Jewish American poets Jewish centenarians Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry winners Living people People from Lynbrook, New York Shot-down aviators United States Army Air Forces officers United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II Writers from Brooklyn