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Howard Nemerov

ハワード・ネメロフ

Hawādo Nemerofu

Pen Names: Joseph Cross（Pseudonym used for a short story published in an anthology）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1920-02-29 （New York City, U.S.）
Died
1991-07-05 （University City, Missouri, U.S.） age 71
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Religion
Judaism (family background)
Residence History
New York City (born and raised) → Bennington, Vermont (Bennington College) → Massachusetts (associated with Brandeis University) → St. Louis, Missouri (Washington University in St. Louis)

Career

Occupations
Poet, University professor
Active Years
1940-1991
Affiliations
Hamilton College, Bennington College, Brandeis University, Washington University in St. Louis, Academy of American Poets (Chancellor)
Memberships
Academy of American Poets (Chancellor)
Influenced By
Traditional formalist poetic tradition, John Hollander (often compared), Philip Larkin (often compared)

Education

Harvard University
Undergraduate (Bachelor's)
Degree: BA
Period: 1937–1940
Year of Graduation: 1940
Country: United States
Served as Bowdoin Essayist

Awards

National Book Award (Poetry)
1978
Work: The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov
Organization: National Book Foundation
Result: 受賞
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
1978
Work: The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov
Organization: Pulitzer Prizes
Result: 受賞
Bollingen Prize
1978
Work: The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov
Organization: Bollingen Prize committee
Result: 受賞
National Medal of Arts
Organization: United States government
Result: 受賞
St. Louis Literary Award
Organization: Saint Louis University Library Associates
Result: 受賞
Golden Plate Award (American Academy of Achievement)
Organization: American Academy of Achievement
Result: 受賞
Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry
Organization: Awarding organization
Result: 受賞（初回受賞者）

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov

1977 Poetry collection

A comprehensive collection of Nemerov's major poems, showcasing his formal technique and wry wit.

Everyday lifeWar and memoryForm and technique

The Image and the Law

1947 Poetry collection

An early collection containing poems that display Nemerov's emerging style and concerns.

ImageEthics and lawFormal verse

The Melodramatists

1949 Novel / Prose

One of Nemerov's prose novels, featuring literary experiment and wit.

FictionHuman relationshipsSatire

The War in the Air

Poem

A poem drawing on Nemerov's wartime experience as a pilot, addressing memory and conflict.

WarMemoryFlying experience

Bibliography

  • The Image and the Law (1947)
  • Guide to the Ruins (1950)
  • The Vacuum (1955)
  • The Salt Garden (1955)
  • Mirrors and Windows (1958)
  • The Next Room of The Dream: Poems and Two Plays (1962)
  • The Blue Swallows (1967)
  • The Winter Lightning: Selected Poems (1968)
  • Gnomes & Occasions: Poems (1973)
  • The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov (1977)
  • Sentences (1980)
  • Inside the Onion (1984)
  • War Stories: Poems about Long Ago and Now (1987)
  • Trying Conclusions: New and Selected Poems, 1961-1991 (1992)
  • Grace to be Said at the Supermarket
  • The War in the Air
  • The Melodramatists (1949)
  • Federigo: Or the Power of Love (1954)
  • The Homecoming Game (1957)
  • The Commodity of Dreams and Other Stories (1959)
  • Journal of the Fictive Life (1965)
  • Stories, Fables and Other Diversions (1971)
  • The Oak in the Acorn: On Remembrance of Things Past and on Teaching Proust, Who Will Never Learn (1987)

Adaptations

  • No major film/TV adaptations documented

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Formalist (use of fixed forms and meter)Meticulous, refined techniqueWitty and playful tone
Recurring Motifs
Observations of daily lifeWar and piloting experiencesDialogue between form and ethics

Health

  • Cancer
    1991年（死因）までの罹患
    Affected his health in later years; he died of cancer in 1991

Legacy

Howard Nemerov is regarded as a leading formalist poet; his The Collected Poems (1977) won the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and Bollingen Prize. He is honored in academia and the poetry community, with a Washington University building named for him and the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award established in his memory.

Museums

  • Howard Nemerov House (dedicated building/dormitory) St. Louis, Missouri (Washington University in St. Louis) Opened in 1999

Academic Societies

  • Academy of American Poets

Archives

  • Washington University in St. Louis (Howard Nemerov Papers)

In Popular Culture

  • Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award (established 1994) influences contemporary sonnet writers

Quotes

  • Because You Asked about the Line between Prose and Poetry
    Source: Poem: "Because You Asked about the Line between Prose and Poetry"

Trivia

  • Born on leap day, February 29, 1920.
  • Photographer Diane Arbus was his sister.
  • Served as a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force and later the U.S. Army Air Forces during WWII.
  • The Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award was established in 1994.