Introduction
Horace Gregory (April 10, 1898 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – March 11, 1982 in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts) was a prize-winning American poet, translator of classic poetry, literary critic and college professor.
Life
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin in 1923, he was the author of eight books of poems, and a memoir in 1971. He married poet and editor Marya Zaturenska (1902–1982), in 1925. Her two children were Patrick and Joanna Gregory.
His collected essays were published in 1973. He also wrote book reviews that were published in the New York Times,. His work appeared in The New Yorker, Contemporary Poetry, The Wisconsin literary magazine, and Poetry Magazine.
His poetry is known for its dramatic structure and deep insights into contemporary life's harshness.
Gregory was a professor of English at Sarah Lawrence College, from 1934 to 1960.
He and Marya Zaturenska attended a 1948 reception at the Gotham Book Mart for Edith Sitwell. During the end of his life, Gregory and his wife were residents of Palisades, Rockland County, New York.
His papers are at Syracuse University.
Awards
- 1942 Russell Loines Memorial Fund Poetry Award
- 1961 Academy of American Poets Fellowship
- 1965 Bollingen Prize
- Henry Seidel Canby (May 10, 1942). "GETS $1,000 POETRY PRIZE; Horace Gregory's Work Lauded". The New York Times.
- "Horace Gregory Gets Poetry Prize". The New York Times. November 16, 1961. Retrieved May 4, 2010.
Works
Poetry
- Chelsea rooming house: poems. Covici, Friede. 1930.
- No Retreat, 1933
- Chorus for Survival, 1935
- Fortune for Mirabel, 1941
- Poems, 1930-1940. Harcourt, Brace and Company. 1941.
- A Door in the Desert, 1951
- Medusa in Gramercy Park: poems. Macmillan. 1961.
- Another look: poems. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 1976. ISBN 978-0-03-015396-9.
Criticism
- Pilgrim of the Apocalypse: a critical study of D.H. Lawrence. The Viking Press. 1933.
- The shield of Achilles: essays on beliefs in poetry. Harcourt, Brace. 1944.
- A History of American Poetry, 1900-1940. Harcourt, Brace and company. 1947.
- Amy Lowell: portrait of the poet in her time. T. Nelson. 1958.
- The world of James McNeill Whistler. Nelson. 1959.
- The dying gladiators, and other essays. Grove Press. 1961.
Translations
- Ovid (1958). The Metamorphoses. Signet Classic. ISBN 978-0-451-52793-6.
- Gaius Valerius Catullus (1931). The poems of Catullus. Covici-Friede.