John Beecher (poet)
John Beecher (January 22, 1904 – May 11, 1980) was an
Biography
John Henry Newman Beecher was born in
Beecher's family intended their son to become an executive like his father. After graduating from public high school at age fourteen, Beecher went to work in the steel mills of the
Beecher earned a master's degree in English at the
During World War II, he volunteered and served as a commissioned officer of the interracial crew of the troop transport SS Booker T. Washington and wrote a book about his experiences, All Brave Sailors.[1] Reviewing it in the New Republic, Ralph Ellison wrote that it provided "a heartwarming but somewhat sentimentalized picture" that excluded even the healthy amount of interracial conflict that could be expected. "Despite their high political consciousness," he wrote, "for a mixed group of Americans a-sail on the rough seas of our race relations, Beecher's seamen encountered an embarrassment of fine weather." He thought Beecher's portrait of his family background showed the promise of "a really important autobiography".[3] After the war, he was commissioned to write a history of Minnesota's politicians and the farmer-labor movement in the 1930s. It was not published until 1980 when it appeared as Tomorrow is a Day.[4]
Beecher took a teaching position at
Beecher spent the 1960s primarily as a journalist writing about social injustice, and also as a teacher, while enjoying the renewed prominence of his poetry.[
In 1967, the
Beecher taught full-time at San Francisco State until August 1979. His classes included Sociology, Writing, Humanities, and American Literature.[10]
Beecher married several times. He wed Virginia St. Clair Donovan in 1926. They had four children and later divorced. He was married twice briefly between 1946, which produced a son Tom, and 1952 and married his fourth wife, Barbara, in 1955.[1]
John Beecher died of lung disease on May 11, 1980, and was buried in Los Gatos Memorial Park in San Jose, California.
Writings
- Poetry
- Here I Stand, Twice A Year Press, 1940
- And I Will Be Heard: Two Talks to the American People, Twice A Year Press, 1941
- Land of the Free, Morning Star Press, 1956
- In Egypt Land, Rampart Press, 1960
- Phantom City, Rampart Press, 1961
- Report to the Stockholders & Other Poems, Rampart Press, 1962
- Undesirables, Goosetree Press, 1964
- To Live & Die in Dixie & Other Poems, Monthly Review Press, 1966
- Hear the Wind Blow: Poems of Protest & Prophecy, International Publishers, 1968
- Collected Poems, 1924-1974, MacMillan, 1974
- One More River to Cross: Selected Poems, foreword by Studs Terkel, edited by Steven Ford Brown, NewSouth Books, 2003
- Nonfiction
- All Brave Sailors: The Story of the S.S. Booker T. Washington, L.B. Fischer, 1945
- Tomorrow is a Day: A Story of the People in Politics, Vanguard Press, 1980
- Like it Be's in Leesville; Deep in the Heart of Texas, Workers Press, 1980
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Dickson, Foster. "John Beecher". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Alabama Humanities Foundation. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
- ^ Jack, Peter Monro (December 1, 1940). "Mr. Yeats on Poetry" (PDF). New York Times. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
- ^ Ellison, Ralph (February 18, 1946). "The Booker T." The New Republic. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
- ^ "John Beecher: An Inventory of His Draft of Tomorrow is a Day". Manuscripts Collection. Minnesota Historical Society. Archived from the original on October 30, 2014. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
- ^ Smith, Angela J. "The Loyalty Oath". fr.scribd.com.
- ^ John Beecher, "California: There She Goes," The Nation, June 30, 1951
- ^ Lask, Thomas (August 25, 1968). "Spoof or Protest, Political or Primitive, It's All Poetry" (PDF). New York Times. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
- ^ Rhodes, Richard (April 19, 1970). "Hard Times". New York Times. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
- ^ "California Loyalty Oath Rules Unconstitutional" (PDF). New York Times. December 22, 1967. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
- ^ Los Angeles Times, The book Review. Sunday, August 26, 1979, including hand written notes by John Beecher
Sources
- Dickson, Foster J. The Life and Poetry of John Beecher (1904-1980): Advocate of Poetry as a Spoken Art (Edwin Mellen Press, 2009), ISBN 978-0-7734-4654-0
- Merideth, Robert. "Homage to a Subversive: Notes Toward Explaining John Beecher", American Poetry Review, v. 5.3 (1976), 45-46