Bollingen Prize for Poetry
1 appearances
-
Edition 36 (1991) Winner
Laura Riding Jackson
ローラ・ライディング・ジャクソン
Rora Raidingu Jakkuson
Aliases:
Laura Riding / Laura Reichenthal / Laura Reichenthal Gottschalk / Laura Riding Gottschalk
Pen Names:
Laura Riding Gottschalk（Pen name used during and shortly after her marriage to Louis R. Gottschalk; used for early poetry (c.1923–1926).）,
Laura Riding（Principal name under which she published poems and criticism, especially during the 1920s–1930s.）
Profile
- Gender
- Female
- Born
- 1901-01-16 （New York City, U.S.）
- Died
- 1991-09-02 （Wabasso, Florida, U.S.） age 90
- Nationality
- United States
- Languages
- English
- Religion
- Judaism (family background at birth)
- Residence History
- New York City (birth and youth) → England (London) (c.1926–1930s) → Deià, Majorca (1930s) → New Hope, Pennsylvania, U.S. (c.1939) → Wabasso / Vero Beach, Florida, U.S. (later life)
Career
- Occupations
- poet, critic, novelist, essayist, short story writer, translator, language/meaning researcher (dictionary work)
- Active Years
- 1923-1991
- Influenced By
- Robert Graves, Allen Tate
- Influenced
- John Ashbery, Harry Mathews, Paul Auster (noted commentator and admirer)
Education
| Institution | Faculty | Department | Degree | Period | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cornell University | — | — | — | — | United States |
Cornell University
Year of Graduation:
1920
Country:
United States
Educated at Cornell University; met and married Louis R. Gottschalk while at Cornell.
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1924 | Nashville Prize | — | — | The Fugitives / The Fugitive (magazine) | 受賞 |
| 1991 | Bollingen Prize | — | — | Bollingen Prize Committee | 受賞 |
Nashville Prize
1924
Organization:
The Fugitives / The Fugitive (magazine)
Result:
受賞
Bollingen Prize
1991
Organization:
Bollingen Prize Committee
Result:
受賞
Awards & Nominations
Works
Major Works
The Close Chaplet
1926 PoetryRiding's first collection of poems; shows her early avant-garde free-verse style and attracted contemporary attention.
language and meaningself and identitychallenge to poetic form
Progress of Stories
1935 Short stories / ProseA prose collection from the 1930s including stories later admired by John Ashbery and others.
function of narrativepsychological portraitureexploration of language
Collected Poems
1938 Poetry (collected)Collected volume of major poems published in 1938, considered a central statement of her poetry.
poetic theorypossibilities of languageintersection of emotion and reason
The Telling
1972 Essay / Philosophical prose 185 pagesA philosophical exploration of language and meaning, composed of 62 numbered passages; regarded as one of her important later works.
truth-potential of languagemeaning and definitionviews on gender and society
Bibliography
- The Close Chaplet (1926)
- A Survey of Modernist Poetry (1927, with Robert Graves)
- Love as Love, Death as Death (1928)
- Poems: A Joking Word (1930)
- Progress of Stories (1935)
- Collected Poems (1938)
- The Telling (1972)
- Rational Meaning: A New Foundation for the Definition of Words (1997, with Schuyler B. Jackson; posthumous)
Translations by Author
- Anatole France at Home (translation of Marcel Le Goff, 1926)
- Almost Forgotten Germany (translation with Robert Graves, 1936)
Translations of Works
- Works translated into French, German, Spanish, Danish, Polish, Portuguese and Norwegian, among others
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- avant-garde free verseclear, theoretical prose focused on language and meaningcritical approach to poetic tradition
- Recurring Motifs
- function of words and languagetruth and definitiongender relations, motherhood and poetry
Health
-
Suicide attempt (fall with serious injuries)1929Sustained life-threatening injuries; had major effects on her personal life and relationships.
Legacy
Laura Riding is regarded as an influential avant-garde poet and critic of the early 20th century. Her renunciation of poetry and later writings on language gave her a distinctive intellectual trajectory; her work was re-evaluated after her death. She received the Bollingen Prize in 1991 and her house has been preserved as a museum.
Museums
- Laura Riding Jackson House (Indian River State College, Vero Beach) Vero Beach, Florida, on the Indian River State College campus Opened in 2021
Academic Societies
- New Criticism scholarly community (related)
- Laura Riding Jackson Foundation
Archives
- Laura Riding Jackson papers (Washington University in St. Louis)
- Laura Riding fonds (University of Victoria Special Collections)
- Laura Riding Jackson papers (University of Maryland libraries)
- Nottingham Trent University Laura (Riding) Jackson webpage/records
In Popular Culture
- Fictional treatments of her relationship with Robert Graves (e.g. Miranda Seymour's novel The Summer of '39) and portrayals in biographies and essays
- Frequently cited figure in histories of modern poetry and criticism
Quotes
-
“As to the ‘White Goddess’ identity: the White Goddess theme was a spiritually, literarily and scholastically fraudulent improvisation by Robert Graves into the ornate pretentious framework of which he stuffed stolen substance of my writings, and my thought generally, on poetry, woman, cosmic actualities and the history of religious conceptions.”
Source: Writings/interviews commenting on Robert Graves and The White Goddess (1967)
Trivia
- Renounced poetry around 1941 but later published philosophical writings on language and meaning.
- Co-founded the Seizin Press with Robert Graves and produced several important publications.
- Later work focused on foundations of language and the definition of words; a dictionary project with Schuyler B. Jackson was published posthumously (1997).
- Received the Bollingen Prize in 1991.
- Residences in Deià (Majorca) and her Florida house have been preserved and commemorated.