Frederick Seidel
Frederick Seidel (born February 19, 1936) is an American poet.
Biography
Seidel was born to a family of Russian Jewish descent in
Seidel corresponded with Ezra Pound in his youth and visited Pound at St. Elizabeths Hospital. Despite not understanding the Chinese language, Seidel suggested corrections to Pound's translations of Confucius, The Unwobbling Pivot, which Pound accepted. After university Seidel moved with his wife to West Gloucester, Massachusetts, and then to Paris after Seidel became the Parisian editor of The Paris Review in 1961. He lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City.[2]
Career
In 1962, his first book, Final Solutions, was chosen by a jury of Louise Bogan, Stanley Kunitz, and Robert Lowell for an award sponsored by the 92nd Street Y, with a $1,500 prize. However, both the association and the publisher rejected the manuscript for several reasons, one of which was that, in their opinion, "matter in one of the poems libeled a noted living person".[3] Another was that the national head of the
This incident, in which Seidel's poetry offended readers, was a defining moment in his career, and one that he would repeat in subsequent books by consciously trying to offend—or at least, to shock—his readers (although none of his subsequent books caused anywhere near the same degree of controversy as his first).[4]
His collection, The Cosmos Poems, was commissioned by the
In 2016,
Style
In response to the publication of his Collected Poems, The New York Times Magazine's Wyatt Mason wrote a long piece on the poet, titled "Laureate of the Louche". [10] New York Times book reviewer David Orr, in his review of Poems: 1959-2009, wrote, "[Seidel is] one of poetry's few scary characters."[11] Seidel is frequently characterized as such, in part because in his writing he often makes use of violent and disturbing sexual imagery and presents himself as a rather unlikeable aesthete who embraces his own "elite" brand of materialism (extolling, for instance, his love of Ducati motorcycles and handmade shoes). However, Seidel often ironizes this persona, pushing it to cartoonish extremes.
Seidel's poetry comprises more than his outrageous poetic persona. He also writes poems that comment on contemporary events and are political/satirical (as is his poem "Bush's War"). His work is also notable in that he frequently makes use of rhyme and meter (both regular and irregular), including nursery rhyme-influenced references, repetitions and rhythms.[12] One of Seidel's earliest influences was Robert Lowell. Seidel has stated, "The influence of Lowell [on my first book Final Solutions was] unmistakable."[13] However, the critic Richard Poirier noted that Seidel had broken free of this influence by the time he published his second book, Sunrise.[13]
Bibliography
Poetry
- Final Solutions (New York: Random House, 1963)
- Sunrise (New York: Viking Press, 1979)
- Men and Woman: New and Selected Poems (London: Chatto & Windus, 1984)
- Poems, 1959-1979 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989)
- These Days (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989)
- My Tokyo (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1993)
- Going Fast (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998)
- The Cosmos Poems (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000)
- Life on Earth (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001)
- Area Code 212 (New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002)
- The Cosmos Trilogy (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003)
- Ooga-Booga (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006)
- Evening Man (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008)
- Collected Poems: 1959-2009 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009)
- Nice Weather, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012)
- Widening Income Inequality, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016)
- Peaches Goes It Alone (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018)
Critical studies and reviews of Seidel
- Matthews, Steven (Jun–Jul 2014). "Curious insulations". The London Magazine: 25–30. Review of Nice weather.
Notes
- ^ "Frederick Seidel". Poetry Foundation. 2022-12-06. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
- ^ a b "Frederick Seidel, The Art of Poetry No. 95". The Paris Review - Frederick Seidel, The Art of Poetry No. 95. The Paris Review. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
- ^ Knox, Sanka (1962-07-16). "Poets' Jury Quits in Award Dispute". The New York Times. Retrieved March 26, 2015. [As of September 2021 text is behind NYT paywall.]
- ^ Mason, Wyatt (April 8, 2009). "Frederick Seidel, Laureate of the Louche". The New York Times.
- ^ "The Pulitzer Prizes - Poetry". Columbia University. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
- ^ "Frederick Seidel's Ballsy Blasphemy". The New Yorker. 2016-02-01. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
- ^ Seidel, Frederick (2014-11-25). "The Ballad of Ferguson, Missouri". The Paris Review. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
- ^ Stein, Lorin (2016-06-06). "Frederick Seidel: 'It's necessary to criticise the left'". the Guardian. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
- ^ "Paris Review - Writers, Quotes, Biography, Interviews, Artists". The Paris Review. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
- ^ See Mason Wyatt, Citation Above
- ^ Orr, David (May 24, 2009). "The Edge of Night". The New York Times.
- ^ Sturgeon, Jonathon. "Bizarre Love Triangle: Frederick Seidel Rhymes Himself in 'Widening Income Inequality'". Flavorwire. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
- ^ a b Mason, Wyatt
References
- Source: Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2002. PEN (Permanent Entry Number): 0000089250.
External links
- Jonathan Galassi (Fall 2009). "Frederick Seidel, The Art of Poetry No. 95". The Paris Review. Fall 2009 (190).
- Frederick Seidel on Poets.org
- Griffin Poetry Prize biography, including video clip of a reading from Barbados