John Hollander (October 28, 1929 – August 17, 2013) was an American poet and literary critic. At the time of his death, he was

Sterling Professor Sterling Professor, the highest academic rank at Yale University, is awarded to a Academic tenure in North America, tenured faculty member considered the best in their field. It is akin to the rank of distinguished professor at other universities. ...

Emeritus of English at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, having previously taught at

Connecticut College Connecticut College (Conn) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. Originally chartered as Thames College, it was founded in 1911 as the state's only women's colle ...

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

, and the Graduate Center,

CUNY The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

Life

John Hollander was born in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

to Muriel (Kornfeld) and Franklin Hollander, Jewish immigrant parents. He was the elder brother of Michael Hollander (1934–2015), a distinguished professor of architecture at Pratt Institute. He attended the

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science is a State school, public Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school in the Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science ...

and then

Columbia College of Columbia University Columbia College is the oldest Undergraduate education#United States system, undergraduate college of Columbia University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the ...

, where he studied under

Mark Van Doren Mark Van Doren (June 13, 1894 – December 10, 1972) was an American poet, writer and critic. He was a scholar and a professor of English at Columbia University for nearly 40 years, where he inspired a generation of influential writers and thin ...

and

Lionel Trilling Lionel Mordecai Trilling (July 4, 1905 – November 5, 1975) was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. He was one of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century who analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, ...

and overlapped with

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...

(Hollander's poetic mentor),Yezzi, David, ''The New Criterion'', vol. 32, October 2013.

Jason Epstein Jason Wolkow Epstein (August 25, 1928 – February 4, 2022) was an American editor and publisher. He was the editorial director of Random House from 1976 to 1995. He also co-founded ''The New York Review of Books'' in 1963. Early life and edu ...

Richard Howard Richard Joseph Howard (October 13, 1929 – March 31, 2022), adopted as Richard Joseph Orwitz, was an American poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, and translator. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and was a graduate of Columbia University, ...

Robert Gottlieb Robert Adams Gottlieb (April 29, 1931 – June 14, 2023) was an American writer and editor. He was the editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf, and ''The New Yorker''. Gottlieb joined Simon & Schuster in 1955 as an editorial ass ...

Roone Arledge Roone Pinckney Arledge Jr. (July 8, 1931 – December 5, 2002) was an American sports and news broadcasting executive who was president of ABC Sports from 1968 until 1986 and ABC News from 1977 until 1998, and a key part of the company's rise ...

Max Frankel Max Frankel (April 3, 1930 – March 23, 2025) was an American journalist who was executive editor of ''The New York Times'' from 1986 to 1994. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for his coverage of Richard Nixon's visit to China. He also brought ...

, Louis Simpson and

Steven Marcus Steven Paul Marcus (December 13, 1928 – April 25, 2018) was an American academic and literary critic who published influential psychoanalytic analyses of the novels of Charles Dickens and Victorian pornography. He was George Delacorte Professo ...

. At Columbia, he joined the Boar's Head Society. After graduating, he supported himself for a while by writing liner notes for classical music albums before returning to obtain an MA in literature and then a PhD from

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

. Hollander resided in

Woodbridge, Connecticut Woodbridge is a New England town, town in New Haven County, Connecticut, New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the South Central Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut, South Central Connecticut Planning Region. The ...

, where he served as a judge for several high-school recitation contests. He said he enjoyed working with students on their poetry and teaching it. With his ex-wife, Anne Loesser (daughter of pianist

Arthur Loesser Arthur Adolph Loesser (August 26, 1894 – January 5, 1969) was an American classical pianist, musicologist, and writer. Early life Born into a musical family in New York City, Loesser received early piano training from his German-born father until ...

; married 1953–77), he was the father of writer Martha Hollander and uncle of the songwriter

Sam Hollander Sam Hollander is an American songwriter. He has collaborated with Panic! at the Disco, One Direction, Fitz and the Tantrums, Weezer, blink-182, Train, Ringo Starr, Carole King, Katy Perry, Boys Like Girls, Metro Station, Billy Idol, Def Leppar ...

. He married Natalie Charkow in 1981. Hollander died at

Branford, Connecticut Branford is a shoreline New England town, town located on Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, about east of downtown New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven. The town is part of the South Central Connecticut Planning Regi ...

, on August 17, 2013, at the age of 83.

Poetic career

Hollander stressed the importance of hearing poems out loud: "A good poem satisfies the ear. It creates a story or picture that grabs you, informs you and entertains you".Boynton, Cynthia Wolfe, "Venerable Poet's Words To a Pop Music Beat", ''The New York Times'', Connecticut and the Region section, February 10, 2008, p. 6. The poet needs to be aware of the "sound of sense; the music of speech". To Hollander, verse was a kind of music in words, and he spoke eloquently about their connection with the human voice. Hollander was also known for his translations from

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

. He usually wrote his poems on a computer, but if inspiration struck him, he offered that, "I've been known to start poems on napkins and scraps of paper, too." Hollander was considered to have technical poetic powers without equal, as exampled by his "Powers of Thirteen" poem, an extended sequence of 169 (13 × 13) unrhymed 13-line

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'', ; ) is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. ...

s with 13 syllables in each line. These constraints liberated rather than inhibited Hollander's imagination, giving a fusion of

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...

s that enabled Hollander to conceive this work as "a perpetual calendar". Hollander also composed poems as "graphematic"

emblem An emblem is an abstract art, abstract or representational pictorial image that represents a concept, like a moral truth, or an allegory, or a person, like a monarch or saint. Emblems vs. symbols Although the words ''emblem'' and ''symbol'' ...

s (''Type of Shapes'', 1969) and epistolary poems (exampled in ''Reflections on Espionage'', 1976), and, as a critic (in ''Vision and Resonance: Two Senses of Poetic Form'', 1975), offered telling insights into the relationship between words and music and sound in poetry, and in metrical experimentation, and 'the lack of a theory of graphic prosody'. Hollander influenced poets Todd LaRoche and

Karl Kirchwey Karl Kirchwey (born February 25, 1956) is an American poet, essayist, translator, critic, teacher, arts administrator, and literary curator. His career has taken place both inside and outside of academia. He is Professor of English and Creative ...

, who both studied under Hollander at

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

. Hollander taught Kirchwey that it was possible to build a life around the task of writing poetry. Kirchwey recalled Hollander's passion: 'Since he is a poet himself ... he conveyed a passion for that knowledge as a source of current inspiration.' Hollander also served in the following positions, among others: member of the board,

Wesleyan University Press Wesleyan University Press is a university press that is part of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The press is currently directed by Suzanna Tamminen, a published poet and essayist. History and overview Founded (in its present form ...

(1959–62); editorial assistant for poetry, ''

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 ...

'' (1959–65); and contributing editor of ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States. ''Harper's Magazine'' has ...

'' (1969–71). His other role was as a poetry critic. Hollander's poetry has been set to music by

Milton Babbitt Milton Byron Babbitt (May 10, 1916 – January 29, 2011) was an American composer, music theorist, mathematician, and teacher. He was a Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Fellowship recipient, recognized for his serial and electronic music. Biography ...

Elliott Carter Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer who was one of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century. He combined elements of European modernism and American " ...

, and others; in 2007 he collaborated with the

Eagles Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

, allowing them use of his poem "An Old Fashioned Song" to create the song " No More Walks in the Wood".

Awards and honors

*2006: Appointed Poet Laureate of the State of ConnecticutSTATE OF CONNECTICUT, Sites º Seals º Symbols
; ''Connecticut State Register & Manual''; retrieved on January 4, 2007 (term ended in 2011) *2006: Robert Fitzgerald Prosody Award *2002: Philolexian Award for Distinguished Literary Achievement *1990:

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

*1983:

Bollingen Prize The Bollingen Prize for Poetry is a literary honor bestowed on an American poet. Every two years, the award recognizes a poet for best new volume of work or lifetime achievement. It is awarded without nominations or submissions by the Beinecke R ...

for ''Powers of Thirteen''. *1979: elected a member of the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

Department of Literature *1958:

Yale Series of Younger Poets The Yale Series of Younger Poets is an annual event of Yale University Press aiming to publish the debut collection of a promising American poet. Established in 1918, the Younger Poets Prize is the longest-running annual literary award in the Uni ...

for his first book of poems, ''A Crackling of Thorns'', chosen by

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry is noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, ...

Works

*''A Crackling of Thorns'' (1958) poems *''The Untuning of the Sky'' (1961) *''The Wind and the Rain'' (1961) editor with

Harold Bloom Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world". Af ...

*''Movie-Going'' (1962) poems *'' Philomel'' (1964) "cantata text" for the composition of the same name by American composer

*''Visions from the Ramble'' (1965) poems *''The Quest of the Gole'' (1966) *''Jiggery-Pokery: A Compendium of Double Dactyls'' (1967) with

Anthony Hecht Anthony Evan Hecht (January 16, 1923 – October 20, 2004) was an American poet. His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the Second World War, in which he fought, an ...

*''Types of Shape'' (1969, 1991) poems *''Images of Voice'' (1970) criticism *''The Night Mirror'' (1971) poems *''Town and Country Matters'' (1972) poems *''The Oxford Anthology of English Literature'' (1973), co-editor *''The Head of the Bed'' (1974) poems, with commentary by

*''Tales Told of the Fathers'' (1975) poems *''Vision and Resonance'' (1975) criticism *''Reflections on Espionage'' (1976) poems *''Spectral Emanations: New and Selected Poems'' (1978) *''Blue Wine'' (1979) poems *''The Figure of Echo'' (1981) criticism *''Rhyme's Reason: A Guide to English Verse'' (1981, 1989, 2001, 2014) manual of prosody *''Powers of Thirteen'' (1983) poems *''In Time and Place'' (1986) poems *''Harp Lake'' (1988) poems *''Melodious Guile: Fictive Pattern in Poetic Language'' (1988) *''Some Fugitives Take Cover'' (1988) poems *''The Essential Rossetti'' (1990), editor *''Tesserae and Other Poems'' (1993) *''Selected Poetry'' (1993) *''American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century'' (1993), editor *''Animal Poems'' (1994) poems *''The Gazer's Spirit: Poems Speaking to Silent Works of Art'' (1995) criticism *''Committed to Memory: 100 Best Poems to Memorize'' (1996), editor *''The Work of Poetry'' (1997) criticism *''The Poetry of Everyday Life'' (1998) criticism *''Figurehead and Other Poems'' (1999) poems *''Sonnets. From Dante to the present'' (2001), Everyman's library pocket poets. *''Picture Window'' (2003) *''American Wits: An Anthology of Light Verse'' (2003), editor *''Poems Bewitched and Haunted'' (2005), editor *''A Draft of Light'' (2008), poems *''The Substance of Shadow: a Darkening Trope in Poetic History'' (2016), lectures

References

External links

Review of 'Stanley Cavell and the Claim of Reason'
*
Brief biographyJohn Hollander at Random House

* John Hollander Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hollander, John 1929 births 2013 deaths Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters American male poets Bollingen Prize recipients Formalist poets Jewish American poets American literary critics Hunter College faculty CUNY Graduate Center faculty Connecticut College faculty Poets laureate of Connecticut Columbia College (New York) alumni MacArthur Fellows Poets from Connecticut Poets from New York (state) Yale Sterling Professors Yale University faculty Yale Younger Poets winners 20th-century American poets 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers American anthologists