Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
1 appearances
-
Edition 27 (1945) Winner
Karl Jay Shapiro
カール・ジェイ・シャピロ
Karl Jay Shapiro
Profile
- Gender
- Male
- Born
- 1913-11-10 （Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.）
- Died
- 2000-05-14 （New York City, New York, U.S.） age 86
- Nationality
- United States
- Languages
- English
- Religion
- Judaism
- Residence History
- Baltimore (childhood/adolescence) → Chicago (childhood/adolescence) → New York (later life) → California (residence/academic posts)
Career
- Occupations
- Poet, Essayist, Professor, Editor
- Active Years
- 1935-2000
- Affiliations
- Editor of Poetry (magazine), University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Professor of English; editor of Prairie Schooner), University of California, Davis (Professor)
- Influenced By
- W. H. Auden, Walt Whitman, D. H. Lawrence, Dylan Thomas, Henry Miller, William Carlos Williams
Education
| Institution | Faculty | Department | Degree | Period | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baltimore City College (secondary school) | — | — | — | 1920s-1930s | United States |
| University of Virginia | — | — | — | 1932–1933 | United States |
| Peabody Institute | Piano performance | Music | — | 1930年代 | United States |
| Johns Hopkins University | — | — | — | 1937–1939 | United States |
| Library school associated with Enoch Pratt Free Library | — | Library science | — | 1940 | United States |
Baltimore City College (secondary school)
Period:
1920s-1930s
Country:
United States
Secondary school; completed secondary education before attending university-level institutions.
University of Virginia
Period:
1932–1933
Country:
United States
Attended during the 1932–1933 academic year; wrote critically about the experience.
Peabody Institute
Piano performance
/ Music
Period:
1930年代
Country:
United States
Studied piano performance.
Johns Hopkins University
Period:
1937–1939
Country:
United States
Attended on a scholarship; did not complete an undergraduate degree.
Library school associated with Enoch Pratt Free Library
Library science
Period:
1940
Country:
United States
Studied library science and was employed at the associated library.
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | Pulitzer Prize for Poetry | V-Letter and Other Poems | — | Pulitzer Prize | Winner |
| 1969 | Bollingen Prize in Poetry | — | — | Bollingen Prize | Winner (shared) |
| 1944 | Guggenheim Fellowship | — | — | John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation | Fellowship |
| 1953 | Guggenheim Fellowship | — | — | John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation | Fellowship |
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
1945
Work:
V-Letter and Other Poems
Organization:
Pulitzer Prize
Result:
Winner
Bollingen Prize in Poetry
1969
Organization:
Bollingen Prize
Result:
Winner (shared)
Guggenheim Fellowship
1944
Organization:
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Result:
Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
1953
Organization:
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Result:
Fellowship
Awards & Nominations
Bollingen Prize for Poetry
2 appearances
-
Edition 20 (1969) Winner
Los Angeles Times Book Prize
1 appearances
-
Edition 10 (1989) Winner
Works
Major Works
V-Letter and Other Poems
1944 Poetry collectionA collection written while Shapiro served in the Pacific during World War II; addresses wartime experience and ordinary objects with candid modern sensibility.
War and military lifeCity and the everydayJewish identity
Essay on Rime
1945 Long poem / prosody studyA long poem addressing rhyme and prosody, reflecting Shapiro's interest in formal technique.
Prosody and techniqueTheory of poetry
Edsel
1971 NovelA novel published by Shapiro in 1971.
Character studySocial satire
The Old Horsefly
1993 Poetry collectionA later collection of poems addressing life, memory, and reflection.
Aging and memoryLove and loss
Bibliography
- Poems (1935)
- Person, Place, and Thing (1942)
- The Place of Love (1943)
- V-Letter and Other Poems (1944)
- Essay on Rime (1945)
- Trial of a Poet (1947)
- Poems of a Jew (1950)
- Poems 1940-1953 (1953)
- The Bourgeois Poet (1964)
- White-Haired Lover (1968)
- Edsel (1971)
- Adult Bookstore (1976)
- Collected Poems, 1940–1978 (1978)
- New and Selected Poems, 1940–1987 (1988)
- The Old Horsefly (1993)
- The Wild Card: Selected Poems, Early and Late (1998)
- Selected Poems (2003, edited by John Updike)
- Coda: Last Poems (2008, posthumous)
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- Formalist technique combined with modern sensibilityClear, visual imageryInterest in rhyme and prosody
- Recurring Motifs
- Urban everyday scenesMilitary and wartime experienceOrdinary objects like cars, flies, drugstores
Legacy
Karl Shapiro is known for poetry that combines mastery of formal technique with a modern sensibility rooted in his World War II experiences. He won the Pulitzer Prize and the Bollingen Prize, served in academic and editorial roles, and left a lasting mark on American poetry. His work continued to be collected and published posthumously.
Academic Societies
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (grant/recognition)
Archives
- Karl Shapiro papers (University of Maryland libraries)
In Popular Culture
- Mentioned in newspapers and held in library/authority databases
Quotes
-
"Karl Shapiro's poems are fresh and young and rash and live; their hard clear outlines, their flat bold colors create a world... with notable visual and satiric force." — Randall Jarrell
Source: Randall Jarrell (criticism) (1963)
Trivia
- Won the Pulitzer Prize for a collection written during World War II.
- Was mistakenly included in a list of writers who had committed suicide by the American Medical Association and obtained a settlement.
- Posthumous poems were discovered in his desk and later published.