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Horace Gregory

ホレス・グレゴリー

Horesu Guregori

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1898-04-10 （Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States）
Died
1982-03-11 （Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, United States） age 83
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Milwaukee, Wisconsin (birth) → Palisades, New York (residence) → Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts (late life)

Career

Occupations
poet, translator, literary critic, college professor, essayist, biographer
Active Years
1923-1976
Affiliations
Sarah Lawrence College (Professor of English), Syracuse University (holds papers)
Influenced By
D.H. Lawrence, Classical poets (Catullus, Ovid)
Influenced
Myra Cohn Livingston (student)

Education

University of Wisconsin–Madison
Period: 1919–1923
Year of Graduation: 1923
Country: United States

Awards

Russell Loines Memorial Fund Poetry Award
1942
Organization: Russell Loines Memorial Fund
Result: 受賞
Academy of American Poets Fellowship
1961
Organization: Academy of American Poets
Result: 受賞
Bollingen Prize
1965
Organization: Bollingen Foundation / Prize committee
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Chelsea Rooming House

1930 Poetry collection

Early collection depicting urban life and scenes of working people.

cityworking-class liferealism

No Retreat

1933 Poetry collection

A mid-career collection including poems on social and personal defiance.

resistanceindividual and society

Poems, 1930-1940

1941 Poetry collection (selected)

A selected collection of work from the 1930s showing social awareness and poetic maturity.

spirit of the timesurban lifeelegiac monologue

Medusa in Gramercy Park

1961 Poetry collection

A mature collection blending urban settings with mythic imagery.

mythcitysymbolism

The Metamorphoses (translation)

1958 Translation (classical)

A notable English translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

classical reinterpretationtransformationmyth

Collected Poems

1964 Poetry collection (collected)

A collected volume representing the achievements of his poetic career.

retrospectivematurityvaried themes

Bibliography

  • Chelsea Rooming House (1930)
  • No Retreat (1933)
  • Chorus for Survival (1935)
  • Fortune for Mirabel (1941)
  • Poems, 1930-1940 (1941)
  • The Triumph of Life: Poems of Consolation for the English-Speaking World (1943)
  • The Door in the Desert (1951)
  • Medusa in Gramercy Park (1961)
  • Collected Poems (1964)
  • Another Look (1976)
  • The Metamorphoses (translation, 1958)
  • The Poems of Catullus (translation, 1931)
  • Amy Lowell: portrait of the poet in her time (1958)
  • The World of James McNeill Whistler (1959)
  • The Dying Gladiators, and other essays (1961)

Translations of Works

  • The Metamorphoses (translation, 1958)
  • The Poems of Catullus (translation, 1931)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
lyrical and straightforward dictiontranslation-informed sensibility with deep knowledge of classical literaturesocially aware depiction of the spirit of the times
Recurring Motifs
city and laborelegy and retrospectionmythic imagery

Legacy

Horace Gregory was recognized as a poet, translator, and literary critic, noted especially for his translations of classical poetry and his own verse. He won the Bollingen Prize in 1965 and taught for many years at Sarah Lawrence College. His papers are held at Syracuse University.

Academic Societies

  • Academy of American Poets (Fellowship recipient)

Archives

  • Syracuse University Library (Horace Gregory papers)

Quotes

  • He used to be interested in the ruthlessness of the city; now there is the general serenity, poise and lyrical concern with language. Gregory is lyrical and straight-forward in these poems.
    Source: Richard Eberhart (criticism)

Trivia

  • Married poet Marya Zaturenska in 1925; she won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1938.
  • His papers are archived at Syracuse University.
  • Taught at Sarah Lawrence College for 26 years and became Professor Emeritus in 1960.
  • Won the Bollingen Prize in 1965.