Max Wickert (born May 26, 1938,

Augsburg, Germany Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ...

) is a German-American teacher, poet, translator and publisher. He is Professor of English Emeritus at the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1 ...

Early life and education

Max Wickert was born Maxalbrecht Wickert in

, the oldest child of Stephan Phillip Wickert, an artist and art teacher (later industrial designer), and Thilde (Kellner) Wickert. Four younger children, all sisters, were born between 1940 and 1946. In 1943, he was evacuated to

Langenneufnach Langenneufnach is a municipality in the district of Augsburg in Bavaria in Germany. References Augsburg (district) {{Augsburgdistrict-geo-stub ...

, a small farming village after the

Augsburg raid Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the '' ...

. He received his early education in

Langenneufnach Langenneufnach is a municipality in the district of Augsburg in Bavaria in Germany. References Augsburg (district) {{Augsburgdistrict-geo-stub ...

, Passau, and

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the '' ...

. In 1952, his family immigrated to

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located i ...

, where he completed high school at the

Aquinas Institute The Aquinas Institute of Rochester is a co-educational Catholic school in Rochester, New York established in 1902. Although The Aquinas Institute was founded as an all-male high school, it opened to female students in 1982. It is located within ...

. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from

St. Bonaventure University St. Bonaventure University is a private Franciscan university in St. Bonaventure, New York. It has 2,381 undergraduate and graduate students. The Franciscan Brothers established the university in 1858. In athletics, the St. Bonaventure Bonn ...

and completed graduate work in English at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, studying under

Cleanth Brooks Cleanth Brooks ( ; October 16, 1906 – May 10, 1994) was an American literary critic and professor. He is best known for his contributions to New Criticism in the mid-20th century and for revolutionizing the teaching of poetry in American higher ...

, E. Talbot Donaldson, Davis P. Harding, Frederick W. Hilles,

John C. Pope John Collins Pope (December 4, 1904 – April 18, 1997) was an American scholar of Old English. He taught at Yale University English Department from 1928 to 1971, where he was William Lampson Professor Emeritus of English at the time of his death. ...

, Eugene Waith,

W.K. Wimsatt William Kurtz Wimsatt Jr. (November 17, 1907 – December 17, 1975) was an American professor of English, literary theorist, and critic. Wimsatt is often associated with the concept of the intentional fallacy, which he developed with Monroe Bear ...

, and Alexander Witherspoon. He completed a dissertation on

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

under the direction of William Clyde DeVane and received his Ph.D. in 1965. At Yale, while working as a reader for ''Penny Poems'' under Al Shavzin and Don Mull, he began writing poetry and briefly met

Gregory Corso Gregory Nunzio Corso (March 26, 1930 – January 17, 2001) was an American poet and a key member of the Beat movement. He was the youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers (with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burrough ...

and

Amiri Baraka Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism. He was the author of numerous bo ...

(then Leroi Jones).

Career

His first teaching appointment was at

Nazareth College Nazareth College may refer to: Australia * Nazareth College (Australia), in Melbourne * Nazareth Catholic College, Adelaide Spain *Nazareth College, Alicante United States * Nazareth College (Kentucky), now Spalding University * Nazareth College ...

(1962–1965). Upon arrival in Buffalo, Max Wickert formed close friendships with a number of writers who were then students or fellow teachers, including Dan Murray, Shreela Ray,

Robert Hass Robert L. Hass (born March 1, 1941) is an American poet. He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997. He won the 2007 National Book Award and shared the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for the collection ''Time and Materials: Poems 199 ...

and John Logan. Other significant colleagues at Buffalo were poets

Robert Creeley Robert White Creeley (May 21, 1926 – March 30, 2005) was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school. He was close with Ch ...

Irving Feldman Irving Feldman (born September 22, 1928) is an American poet and professor of English. Academic career Born and raised in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, Feldman worked as a merchant seaman, farm hand, and factory worker through his universi ...

, Mac Hammond and Bill Sylvester; novelists

John Barth John Simmons Barth (; born May 27, 1930) is an American writer who is best known for his postmodern and metafictional fiction. His most highly regarded and influential works were published in the 1960s, and include ''The Sot-Weed Factor'', a sa ...

J. M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African–Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in th ...

(his office mate for a year), and

Carlene Polite Carlene Hatcher Polite (August 28, 1932 – December 7, 2009) was an American writer. Early life Carlene Hatcher trained at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance and then danced professionally from 1955 to 1963 in New York and Detroit ...

; and critics

Albert Spaulding Cook Albert Spaulding Cook (born October 28, 1925, Exeter, New Hampshire; died July 7, 1998; Providence, Rhode Island) was a noted American literary critic, poet, classical scholar, teacher and translator. He taught Classics, English and Comparative ...

Leslie Fiedler Leslie Aaron Fiedler (March 8, 1917 – January 29, 2003) was an American literary critic, known for his interest in mythography and his championing of genre fiction. His work incorporates the application of psychological theories to American lit ...

Lionel Abel Lionel Abel (28 November 1910- 19 April 2001, in Manhattan, New York)Reisman, Rosemary M. Canfield. "Lionel Abel." ''Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia'' (2013): ''Research Starters''. Web. 11 July 2014. was an eminent Jewish American playwrig ...

, and

Dwight Macdonald Dwight Macdonald (March 24, 1906 – December 19, 1982) was an American writer, editor, film critic, social critic, literary critic, philosopher, and activist. Macdonald was a member of the New York Intellectuals and editor of their leftist mag ...

. For the English Department, he has served as Director of Undergraduate Studies and as Chair of the Charles D. Abbott Poetry Readings Committee. He also helped to establish and frequently judged the University's annual

Academy of American Poets 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 (state), New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetr ...

Student Poetry Prize Competition. With Dan Murray and Doug Eichhorn, he founded the

Outriders Poetry Project ''Outriders Poetry Project'', started in 1968, is a privately funded organization operating in Buffalo, NY that sponsors readings and publishes books by poets and writers based in the greater Niagara-Erie region. History Outriders was founded in 19 ...

in 1968 and has been its Director ever since. (Outriders, originally a sponsor of poetry readings in Buffalo bistros, became a small press in 2009.) Between 1968 and 1972, he published verse translations from the Austrian expressionist

Georg Trakl Georg Trakl (3 February 1887 – 3 November 1914) was an Austrian poet and the brother of the pianist Grete Trakl. He is considered one of the most important Austrian Expressionists. He is perhaps best known for his poem "Grodek", which he wr ...

, and from various German poets. In collaboration with Hubert Kulterer, he also translated ''1001 Ways to Live Without Working'', by the American Beat poet

Tuli Kupferberg Naphtali "Tuli" Kupferberg (September 28, 1923 – July 12, 2010) was an American counterculture poet, author, singer, cartoonist, publisher, and co-founder of the rock band The Fugs. Biography Naphtali Kupferberg was born into a Jewish, Yi ...

, into German. During the early 1970s, he wrote essays on early

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libre ...

and briefly worked as a radio station host for WBFO's "The World of Opera." His short story, ''The Scythe of Saturn'' was a prize-winner in the 1983 ''Stand Magazine'' (Newcastle upon Tyne) Fiction Competition. Over the years, over 100 of Max Wickert’s poems and translation have appeared in journals, including

American Poetry Review ''The American Poetry Review'' (''APR'') is an American poetry magazine printed every other month on tabloid-sized newsprint. It was founded in 1972 by Stephen Berg and Stephen Parker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The magazine's editor is Eliza ...

Chicago Review ''Chicago Review'' is a literary magazine founded in 1946 and published quarterly in the Humanities Division at the University of Chicago. The magazine features contemporary poetry, fiction, and criticism, often publishing works in translation and ...

, ''Choice: A Magazine of Poetry and Photography'', ''The Lyric'',

Malahat Review ''The Malahat Review'' is a Canadian quarterly literary magazine established in 1967. It features contemporary Canadian and international works of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction as well as reviews of recently published Canadian litera ...

, Michigan Review, ''Pequod'',

Poetry (magazine) ''Poetry'' (founded as ''Poetry: A Magazine of Verse'') has been published in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , c ...

Sewanee Review ''The Sewanee Review'' is an American literary magazine established in 1892. It is the oldest continuously published quarterly in the United States. It publishes original fiction and poetry, essays, reviews, and literary criticism. History ''Th ...

Shenandoah (magazine) ''Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee Review'' is a literary magazine published Washington and Lee University. History Originally a student-run quarterly, ''Shenandoah'' has evolved into a biannual literary journal. Since 2018, the magazine has b ...

and ''Xanadu'', as well as in several anthologies. As a scholar, Max Wickert produced a handful of articles and conference papers on Spenser,

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

and early

, but was principally known as a teacher of a lower-division course on Dante’s

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature a ...

and of an ''Intensive Survey of English Literature'', a seminar of his own design for specially motivated majors. Among his students were Neil Baldwin,

Michael Basinski Michael Basinski (born 1950 in Buffalo, New York) is an American text, visual and sound poet. He was the curator of The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, State University of New York at Buffalo The State University of New York a ...

, Charles Baxter, and Patricia Gill. In 1985, he received an

NEH The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

Summer Fellowship to the Dartmouth Dante Institute, and for several summers thereafter pursued intensive study of Italian at the Università per Stranieri in

Perugia, Italy Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...

. He has since turned increasingly to translation from Italian. He published ''The Liberation of Jerusalem'', a verse translation of

Torquato Tasso Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' ( Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...

’s epic, ''Gerusalemme liberata'', in 2008, and a year later completed translations of a medieval prose romance,

Andrea da Barberino Andrea Mangiabotti,Geneviève Hasenohr and Michel Zink, eds. ''Dictionnaire des lettres françaises: Le Moyen Age''. Collection: La Pochothèque. (Paris: Fayard, 1992. ), pp. 62–63. called Andrea da Barberino ( 1370–1431''The Cambridge Histo ...

’s ''Reali di Francia'' (''The Royal House of France'') and of ''Università per Stranieri (University for Aliens)'' by the contemporary Italian poet, Daniela Margheriti. His edition and verse translation of Tasso's early love poems (''Love Poems for Lucrezia Bendidio'')appeared in 2011, followed in 2017 by his version of Tasso’s first epic, ''Rinaldo'', both published by Italica Press. Under his direction,

, reborn as a small press in 2009, is the publisher of Ann Goldsmith’s ''The Spaces Between Us'' (April 2010), Martin Pops’ ''Minoxidyl and Other Stories'' (September 2010), his own ''No Cartoons'' (June 2011), Judith Slater's ''The Wind Turning Pages'' (June 2011), and Gail Fischer's ''Red Ball Jets''(Autumn 2011), Jeremiah Rush Bowen's ''Consolations'' (Fall/Winter 2011-12). Jerry McGuire's ''Venus Transit'' (Spring 2013),

Linda Stern Zisquit Linda Stern Zisquit is an American-born Israeli poet and translator. She teaches poetry, Hebrew literature and poetry translation at Bar-Ilan University. Biography Linda Stern (later Zisquit) was born in Buffalo, NY. She studied at Tufts Univ ...

's ''Return from Elsewhere'' (Spring 2014), Jacob Schepers' ''A Bundle of Careful Compromises'' (Spring 2014), Edric Mesmers ''Of Monodies and Homophony'' (Spring 2015), Carole Southwood's ''Listen and See'' (2017)and Carole Southwood's ''Abdoo: The Biography of a Piece of White Trash'' (2018), as well as two anthologies, both edited with introductions by Wickert: ''An Outriders Anthology: Poetry in Buffalo 1969-1979'' (2013) and ''Four Buffalo Poets: Ansie Baird, Ann Goldsmith, David Landrey, Sam Magavern'' (2016).

Personal life

As a professor at

, Wickert married one of his students. The marriage ended in divorce in 1969. A daughter, now a psychologist working in Massachusetts, was born in 1965. He remarried in 2006, and lives with his wife Katka Hammond in downtown Buffalo. His youngest sister, Gabriele Wickert, a college professor of German literature, taught at

Manhattanville College Manhattanville College is a private university in Purchase, New York. Founded in 1841 at 412 Houston Street in lower Manhattan, it was initially known as Academy of the Sacred Heart, then after 1847 as Manhattanville College of the Sacred Hea ...

until her retirement in 2019.

Published books

* ''All the Weight of the Still Midnight'' (Buffalo, NY:

, 1972; poems) * ''Pat Sonnets'' (Sound Beach, NY: Street Press, 2000; poems) * ''The Liberation of Jerusalem'' ( : Oxford World’s Classics, 2008; verse translation of

’s ''Gerusalemme liberata'') * (with Hubert Kulterer), ''1001 Wege ohne Arbeit zu leben'' (Vienna ustria Eröffnungen, 1972) and Wenzendorf ermany Stadtlichter Presse, 2009, 2nd. ed. 2015; translation of

’s ''1001 Ways to Live Without Working'' * ''No Cartoons'' (Buffalo, NY: Outriders Poetry Project, 2011; poems) *
Love Poems for Lucrezia Bendidio
' (New York, NY: Italica Press, 2011; edition and verse translation from Torquato Tasso's ''Rime d'Amore'') *
Rinaldo by Torquato Tasso
' (New York, NY: Italica Press, 2017; A New English Verse Translation with Facing Italian Text, Critical Introduction and Notes)

Selected publications

Articles

* "Structure and Ceremony in Spenser’s ‘

Epithalamion An epithalamium (; Latin form of Greek ἐπιθαλάμιον ''epithalamion'' from ἐπί ''epi'' "upon," and θάλαμος ''thalamos'' nuptial chamber) is a poem written specifically for the bride on the way to her marital chamber. This form ...

'", ''ELH: A Journal of English Literary History'', XXXV:2 (June, 1968), 135-5. * "

Karl Mickel Karl Mickel (12 August 1935 – 20 June 2000) was a German writer. Life Mickel was born in Dresden into a working-class family. There, he attended primary school from 1941 to 1949 and experienced together with his mother the bombing of Dresd ...

: A Voice from East Germany'',

Books Abroad ''World Literature Today'' is an American magazine of international literature and culture, published at the University of Oklahoma. The stated goal of the magazine is to publish international essays, poetry, fiction, interviews, and book review ...

, XLIII:2 (Spring, 1969), 211-12. * "Librettos and Academies: Some Speculations and an Example", ''Opera Journal'', VII:4 (1974), 6-16. * "Bellini’s

Orpheus Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracians, Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned Ancient Greek poetry, poet and, according to ...

", ''Opera Journal'', IX:4 (1976), 11-18. * "

Dismembered: Operatic Myth Goes Underground",

Salmagundi (magazine) ''Salmagundi'' is a US quarterly periodical, featuring cultural criticism, fiction, and poetry, along with transcripts of symposia and interviews with prominent writers and intellectuals. Susan Sontag, a longtime friend of the publication, referre ...

, XXVIII/XXXIX (Summer/Fall, 1977), 118-136. * "Che Farò Senza Euridyce: Myth and Meaning in Early Opera", ''Opera Journal'', XI: 1 (1978), 18-35.

Verse and fiction (selection)

* "Dawn Scene", ''Choice: A Magazine of Poetry and Photography'', #6 (1970), p. 46. * "Three Poems",

Descant A descant, discant, or is any of several different things in music, depending on the period in question; etymologically, the word means a voice (''cantus'') above or removed from others. The Harvard Dictionary of Music states: A descant is a ...

, XIV (Winter, 1970), pp.13–15. * "Warning", "For Esther", "He is the Mother" and "The Months",

Michigan Quarterly Review The ''Michigan Quarterly Review'' is an American literary magazine founded in 1962 and published at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The quarterly (known as "MQR" for short) publishes art, essays, interviews, memoirs, fiction, poetry, and ...

, X:3 (Summer, 1971), pp. 195–99. * "Nocturne" and "Aubade",

, CXIX:4 (January, 1972), pp. 218–19. * "Two Polemics of Departure", ''Choice: A Magazine of Poetry and Photography'', #7/8 (1972), pp. 310–11. * "Is This Typical?" ''Street'', II:2 (1976), p. 58. * "Born Lucky",

VIIL:4 (July/August, 1978), p. 22. * "Goodbye" and "More Slowly", ''Choice: A Magazine of Poetry and Photography'', #10 (1978), pp. 256–7. * from the "Pat Sonnets",

, LXXXVII:1 (October, 1980), pp. 18–21. * "Dawn Song", ''Pequod'' (Winter, 1980), p. 8. * "A Little Satori Take",

Berkeley Poetry Review ''Berkeley Poetry Review'' (BPR) is an American poetry journal published annually by the undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley since 1974. The journal has featured a wide array of poets and writers, including: * Pablo Ner ...

, #13 (Spring, 1980), p. 22. * "Parallax, Twenty-two-hundred Hours" and "Letters to Your Grandfather", ''Pacific Poetry and Fiction Review'', VIII:2 (Fall, 1980), pp. 43, 58. * "Slugabed", ''Xanadu'', #8 (1982), p. 34. * "Two Poems", ''Pembroke Magazine'', #14 (1983), pp. 42–43. * from the "Pat Sonnets",

, CXL:1 (April,1982), pp. 8–11. * "Two Poems",

, XXXIII:2 (Winter, 1983), pp. 53–54. * "Pastoral", ''The Lyric'', LXIII:1 (Winter, 1983), p. 14. * "Three Sonnets from ''The Unholy Weeks''",

, XXXV:1 (1983-4), pp. 52–53. * "Parsifal",

, XCII:4 (Fall,1984), pp. 541–42. * "The Scythe of Saturn" (fiction) in: Michael Blackburn,

Jon Silkin Jon Silkin (2 December 1930 – 25 November 1997) was a British poet. Early life Jon Silkin was born in London, in a Litvak Jewish family, his parents were Joseph Silkin and Doris Rubenstein. His grandparents were all from the Lithuanian- pa ...

and Lorna Tracy (ed.), ''Stand One'' (London:

Victor Gollancz Sir Victor Gollancz (; 9 April 1893 – 8 February 1967) was a British publisher and humanitarian. Gollancz was known as a supporter of left-wing causes. His loyalties shifted between liberalism and communism, but he defined himself as a Chris ...

, 1984), pp. 93–115.

Fellowships and awards

* Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, 1957–58 * NYS Research Foundation Grant-in-Aid, 1968 (for Trakl translations) * Co-Winner, New Poets Prize,

Chowan University Chowan University ()
, from the North Carolina Collection's website at the

Summer Fellowship, Dartmouth Dante Institute, Summer 1986

References

http://outriderspoetryproject.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Wickert, Max 1938 births American male poets Living people American publishers (people) American translators University at Buffalo faculty People from Augsburg Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni St. Bonaventure University alumni Nazareth College (New York)