Richard Palmer Blackmur (January 21, 1904 – February 2, 1965) was an American

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

Life

Blackmur was born and grew up in

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...

. He attended Cambridge High and Latin School, but was expelled in 1918. An

autodidact Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning, self-study and self-teaching) is the practice of education without the guidance of schoolmasters (i.e., teachers, professors, institutions). Overview Autodi ...

, Blackmur worked in a bookshop after high school, and attended lectures 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 ...

without enrolling. He was managing editor of the literary quarterly ''

Hound & Horn ''Hound & Horn'', originally subtitled "a Harvard Miscellany", was a literary quarterly founded by Harvard undergrads Lincoln Kirstein and Varian Fry in . At the time, the college's literary magazine ''The Harvard Advocate'' did not accept their ...

'' from 1928 to 1930, at which time he resigned, although he continued to contribute to the magazine until its demise in 1934. In 1930 he married Helen Dickson. In 1935 he published his first volume of criticism, ''The Double Agent''; during the 1930s his criticism was influential among many

modernist poets This is a list of major poets of the Modernist poetry. English-language Modernist poets * Marion Angus *W. H. Auden *Djuna Barnes *Rupert Brooke *Basil Bunting *Hart Crane *E. E. Cummings * H.D. *Cecil Day-Lewis *T. S. Eliot * Roy Fisher *Robe ...

and the

New Critics New Criticism was a formalist movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned a ...

. In 1940 Blackmur moved to

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, where he taught first creative writing and then English literature for the next twenty-five years. In 1947, he was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship. He founded and directed the university's Christian Gauss Seminars in Criticism, named in honor of his colleague Christian Gauss. He met other influential poets while he taught at Princeton. They include W. S. Merwin and

John Berryman John Allyn McAlpin Berryman (born John Allyn Smith, Jr.; October 25, 1914 – January 7, 1972) was an American poet and scholar. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and is considered a key figure in th ...

. Merwin later published an anthology dedicated to Blackmur and Berryman, and a book of his own poetry (''The Moving Target'') dedicated to Blackmur. He taught at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 1961—62. Blackmur died in

Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...

. His papers are held at Princeton University.

In popular culture

Frederick Crews Frederick Campbell Crews (February 20, 1933 – June 21, 2024) was an American essayist and literary critic. Professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, Crews was the author of numerous books, including ''The Tragedy of Man ...

parodied Blackmur as "P. R. Honeycomb" in his 1963 book of satirical literary criticism '' The Pooh Perplex''.

Saul Bellow Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; June 10, 1915April 5, 2005) was a Canadian-American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the 1976 Nobel Prize in Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only write ...

based the snob figure of the critic Sewell on him in the novel ''

Humboldt's Gift ''Humboldt's Gift'' is a 1975 novel by Canadian-American author Saul Bellow. It won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and contributed to Bellow's winning the Nobel Prize in Literature the same year. Plot The novel, which Bellow initially inten ...

'' (1975).

Works

;Poetry *''From Jordan's Delight'' 1937 *''The Second World'', 1942 *''The Good European'', 1947 *''Poems of R. P. Blackmur'', Princeton University Press, 1977 ;Criticism *''The Double Agent: essays in craft and elucidation'', 1935 *''The Expense of Greatness'', 1940 *''Language as Gesture,'' 1952 *''Form and value in modern poetry'', Doubleday, 1952 *''The Lion and the Honeycomb'', 1955 *''Eleven Essays in the European Novel,'' 1964 * *Denis Donoghue, ed. ''Selected essays of R.P. Blackmur'', Ecco Press, 1986,

Notes

;Attribution * *Robert Boyers, ''R. P. Blackmur, poet-critic: toward a view of poetic objects'', University of Missouri Press, 1980,

External links

* Finding aid t
R.P. Blackmur papers
an
manuscripts
at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

from ''The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism''

from ''A Princeton Companion'' by Alexander Leitch (1978)
"No Success Like Failure"
a discussion of Blackmur's career from the

New York Review of Books New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

(abstract online; full text for subscribers only) *Bloom, James D. The Stock of Available Reality: R.P. Blackmur and

. (

Bucknell University Press Bucknell University Press is a university press associated with Bucknell University, located in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The press was founded in 1968 and is currently a member of the Association of University Presses, to which it was admitted in ...

, 1984)
Henry Gould on Unjustly Neglected Ph.D. Monographs and the American Sublime
''

ELH ''ELH'' (''English Literary History'') is an academic journal established in 1934 at Johns Hopkins University, devoted to the study of major works in the English language, particularly British literature. It covers developments in literature thr ...

'', Volume 68, Number 3, Fall 2001, pp. 725–743
"A Critic's Obscurity: R. P. Blackmur"
Maurice Kramer, ''

College English ''College English'' is an official publication of the American National Council of Teachers of English and is aimed at college-level teachers and scholars of English. The peer-reviewed journal publishes articles on a range of topics related to th ...

'', Vol. 22, No. 8 (May, 1961), pp. 553–555
"R. P. Blackmur: The Politics of a New Critic"
Russell Fraser, ''

The 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 '' ...

'', Vol. 87, No. 4 (Fall, 1979), pp. 557–572
"No Success Like Failure"
Michael Wood, ''

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 ...

'', May 7, 1987 {{DEFAULTSORT:Blackmur, Richard 1904 births 1965 deaths American literary critics School of Letters faculty Princeton University faculty Writers from Springfield, Massachusetts Academics of the University of Cambridge 20th-century American non-fiction writers Cambridge Rindge and Latin School alumni Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Poets from Springfield, Massachusetts