John Brooks Wheelwright (sometimes Wheelright) (September 9, 1897 – September 13, 1940) was an American poet from a

Boston Brahmin The Boston Brahmins are members of Boston's historic upper class. From the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, they were often associated with a cultivated New England accent, Harvard University, Anglicanism, and traditional Britis ...

background. He belonged to the poetic ''avant garde'' of the 1930s and was a

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

, a founder-member of the

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

Socialist Workers Party in the United States. He was

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

. He died after being struck by an automobile at the intersection of Beacon St. and Massachusetts Avenue in the early morning hours of September 13, 1940. His ''Selected Poems'' was published posthumously a few months later, with an introduction by his friend R.P. Blackmur. Wheelwright was the son of Boston architect Edmund M. Wheelwright. He was descended from the 17th-century clergyman

John Wheelwright John Wheelwright (c. 1592–1679) was a Puritan clergyman in England and America, noted for being banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the Antinomian Controversy, and for subsequently establishing the town of Exeter, New Hamps ...

on his father's side and the 18th-century Massachusetts governor John Brooks on his mother's side. He studied at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

but left without a degree in 1920. He then studied at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

before practising as an

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. From 1930 to 1932, Wheelwright worked with

Lincoln Kirstein Lincoln Edward Kirstein (May 4, 1907 – January 5, 1996) was an American writer, impresario, art connoisseur, philanthropist, and cultural figure in New York City, noted especially as co-founder of the New York City Ballet. He developed and su ...

and

Walker Evans Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great ...

to photograph Victorian architecture in Boston. He was editor of the magazine ''Poetry for a Dime''.Paul Christensen, 'Wheelwright, John (Brooks)', ''20th Century American Literature'', Macmillan, 1980, pp.619-620

Works

* (ed.) ''A History of the New England Poetry Club'', 1932. * ''Rock and Shell: Poems 1923-1933'', 1933. * ''Mirrors of Venus: A Novel in Sonnets, 1914-1938'', 1938. * ''Political Self-Portrait'', 1940 * ''Selected Poems'', 1941. * ''Collected Poems'', ed. Alvin H. Rosenfeld, 1972.

References

External links

Biography
1897 births 1940 deaths 20th-century American poets Bisexual male writers Bisexual poets American LGBTQ poets The Harvard Lampoon alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni 20th-century American architects 20th-century American LGBTQ people American bisexual writers {{US-architect-19C-stub