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Anthony Evan Hecht

アンソニー・エヴァン・ヒーチ

Anthony Evan Hecht

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1923-01-16 （New York City, New York, U.S.）
Died
2004-10-20 （Washington, D.C., U.S.） age 81
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Religion
Judaism (family background)
Residence History
New York City (birth–) → Annandale-on-Hudson (burial at Bard College cemetery) → Washington, D.C. (later life)

Career

Occupations
Poet, Translator, Professor, Critic
Active Years
1944-2004
Affiliations
University of Rochester (faculty), Kenyon College (student/teacher association), Bard College (faculty/burial site), Smith College (visiting faculty), Harvard University (visiting faculty), Georgetown University (visiting faculty), Yale University (visiting faculty), Library of Congress, Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry (1982–1984)
Memberships
Academy of American Poets (association), Library of Congress (Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry)
Influenced By
W. H. Auden, Wallace Stevens, T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas

Education

Bard College
Period: 1940年代（在学）
Country: United States
Discovered poetry while an undergraduate
Kenyon College
English
Degree: BA
Period: 1946–1947（GI法利用）
Country: United States
Studied under John Crowe Ransom
Columbia University
English
Degree: MA
Period: 1940年代後半
Country: United States
Master's degree focusing on poetry and criticism
University of Iowa
Iowa Writers' Workshop (teaching)
Period: 1947（在職／教員）
Country: United States
Taught briefly then left due to PTSD

Awards

Guggenheim Fellowship
1954
Organization: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Result: 受賞
Rome Prize
1952
Organization: American Academy in Rome
Result: 受賞
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
1968
Work: The Hard Hours
Organization: Pulitzer Prize Board
Result: 受賞
Bollingen Prize
1983
Organization: Bollingen Prize committee
Result: 受賞
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
1988
Organization: Ruth Lilly Foundation
Result: 受賞
Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry
1989
Organization: Aiken Taylor Award committee
Result: 受賞
Wallace Stevens Award
1997
Organization: Academy of American Poets
Result: 受賞
Robert Frost Medal
2000
Organization: Academy of American Poets
Result: 受賞
National Medal of Arts
2004
Organization: National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
Result: 追贈（死後授与）

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

A Summoning of Stones

1954 Poetry collection

Early collection showcasing formal control and technical skill.

formtraditionpersonal memory

The Hard Hours

1967 Poetry collection

Centered on WWII experiences and their aftermath; won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize.

wartraumamemory

Millions of Strange Shadows

1977 Poetry collection

A mature collection notable for classical allusions and literary echoes.

classical allusionmemoryhuman condition

The Venetian Vespers

1979 Poetry collection

Contains poems weaving Italian and European cultural backgrounds.

Europecultural memory

The Transparent Man

1990 Poetry collection

A later collection marked by technical craft and intellectual play.

formintellectual themes

Flight Among the Tombs

1998 Poetry collection

Includes poems revisiting war, death, and memory in mid-late career.

deathmemoryhistory

The Darkness and the Light

2001 Poetry collection

A late collection offering reflective meditations on life and history.

lifehistoryreflection

Collected Earlier Poems

1990 Collected poems (earlier)

Selection of early poems; noted by Harold Bloom in The Western Canon.

overview of early work

Bibliography

  • A Summoning of Stones (1954)
  • The Hard Hours (1967)
  • Millions of Strange Shadows (1977)
  • The Venetian Vespers (1979)
  • The Transparent Man (1990)
  • Collected Earlier Poems (1990)
  • Flight Among the Tombs (1998)
  • The Darkness and the Light (2001)
  • Collected Later Poems (2003)
  • Collected Poems of Anthony Hecht (ed. Philip Hoy, 2023)
  • Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes (translation, 1973; with Helen H. Bacon)
  • Obbligati: Essays in Criticism (1986)
  • The Hidden Law: The Poetry of W. H. Auden (1993)
  • On the Laws of the Poetic Art (1995)
  • Melodies Unheard: Essays on the Mysteries of Poetry (2003)

Translations by Author

  • Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes (translation, with Helen H. Bacon, 1973)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
mastery of traditional formsstrict metrical and technical controlerudite allusion and literary reference
Recurring Motifs
war and traumamemory and guiltclassical literary allusiondeath and loss

Health

  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), nervous breakdown
    1940年代後半〜1950年代（終生影響）
    War experiences caused nightmares and breakdowns, leading to hospitalization and psychoanalysis; had a lasting impact on his poetry and worldview.

Legacy

Anthony Hecht is regarded as a poet who embodied a revival of traditional form. Known for addressing war and personal memory with technical mastery and erudite allusion, he received numerous awards and is commemorated by the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize (Waywiser Press).

Museums

  • Bard College Cemetery (memorial site) Annandale-on-Hudson, New York

Academic Societies

  • Academy of American Poets (associated)

Archives

  • Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University (Anthony Hecht papers, 1894–2005)

In Popular Culture

  • Featured in major anthologies and criticism, including selection in Harold Bloom's The Western Canon.
  • The Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize awarded by Waywiser Press

Quotes

  • The place, the suffering, the prisoners' accounts were beyond comprehension. For years after I would wake shrieking.
    Source: The New York Times (obituary) (2004)

Trivia

  • As a young man his parents attempted to dissuade him from becoming a poet and enlisted Dr. Seuss (Ted Geisel) to intervene (anecdotally reported).
  • He is buried in the Bard College cemetery.
  • Waywiser Press administers the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize named in his honor.