Edward Field (poet)

American poet and author

Edward Field (born June 7, 1924) is an American poet and author of fiction and non-fiction, as well as anthologies and periodicals.

Biography

Early life

Field was born in Brooklyn, to a family of Ashkenazi immigrants. He grew up in Lynbrook, New York, and, being Jewish,^[1][2] he and his family faced antisemitism and discrimination. He played cello in the "Field Family Trio", which had a weekly radio program on WGBB Freeport. He served in World War II in the 8th Air Force in England and France, as a navigator in heavy bombers, and flew 25 missions over Germany. In February 1945 he took part in a raid on Berlin with his B-17. His bomber was crippled by flak and crash-landed in the North Sea. All ten crew members made it into the plane's life rafts, but only seven of them managed to resist till the moment they were rescued by a British air-sea boat hours later.

Career

He began writing poetry during World War II, after a Red Cross worker handed him an anthology of poetry. In 1963 his book Stand Up, Friend, With Me was awarded the prestigious Lamont Poetry Prize and was published. In 1992, he received a Lambda Award for Counting Myself Lucky, Selected Poems 1963–1992.^[3]

Other honors include the Shelley Memorial Award, a Rome Prize, and an Academy Award for the documentary film To Be Alive!, for which he wrote the narration. He received the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from Publishing Triangle in 2005.

In 1979, he edited the anthology A Geography of Poets, and in 1992, with Gerald Locklin and Charles Stetler, brought out a sequel, A New Geography of Poets.

He and his partner Neil Derrick (1931–2018),^[4] long-time residents of Greenwich Village, wrote a best-selling historical novel about the Village, The Villagers. They were both artists in residence at Westbeth Artists Community since 1972.^[5] Derrick died on January 5, 2018. As of 2018, Field continued to reside at Westbeth.^[6] Field's narrative poem "World War II" is part of "Poets of World War II" anthology, published by the Library of America and edited by Harvey Shapiro.

In 2005, the University of Wisconsin Press published his literary memoirs The Man Who Would Marry Susan Sontag and Other Intimate Literary Portraits of the Bohemian Era, the title of which refers to the writer Alfred Chester.^[7] His most recent book After the Fall: Poems Old and New was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2007.

British editor Diana Athill's Instead of a Book: Letters to a Friend (Granta Books, 2011) is a collection of letters from her to Field chronicling their intimate correspondence spanning more than 30 years.^[8][9]

In 2019, Field's niece Diane Weis produced the animated film "Minor Accident of War," inspired by his memories of survival during the World War II. Designed by Piotr Kabat, the film is narrated by Field using the text from his poem, "World War II."^[10]

Field turned 100 on June 7, 2024.^[11]

Books

Poetry

• Icarus (1963)
• Stand Up, Friend, With Me (Grove Press, 1963)
• Variety Photoplays (Grove Press, 1967)
• Eskimo Songs and Stories (Delacorte Press, 1973)
• A Full Heart (Sheep Meadow Press, 1977)
• Stars in My Eyes (Sheep Meadow Press, 1978)
• The Lost, Dancing (Watershed Tapes, 1984)
• New And Selected Poems (Sheep Meadow Press, 1987)
• Counting Myself Lucky, Selected Poems 1963–1992 (Black Sparrow, 1992)
• A Frieze for a Temple of Love (Black Sparrow Books, 1998)
• Magic Words (Harcourt Brace, 1998)
• After The Fall: Poems Old and New (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007)

Fiction (with Neil Derrick)

• The Potency Clinic (Bleecker Street Press, 1978)
• Die PotenzKlinik (Berlin: Albino Verlag, 1982)
• Village (Avon Books, 1982)
• The Office (Ballantine Books, 1987)
• The Villagers (Painted Leaf Press, 2000)

Non-fiction

• The Man Who Would Marry Susan Sontag, and Other Intimate Literary Portraits of the Bohemian Era (University of Wisconsin Press, 2006, paperback edition, 2007)
• Kabuli Days: Travels in Old Afghanistan (World Parade Books, 2008)
• Voyage to Destruction: The Moroccan Letters of Alfred Chester (Spuyten Duyvil, 2022)

Anthologies and editorial

• A Geography of Poets (Bantam Books, 1979)
• (with C. Stetler/G. Locklin) A New Geography of Poets (University of Arkansas Press, 1992)
• Editor, Head of a Sad Angel, Stories by Alfred Chester (Black Sparrow, 1990). Introduction by Gore Vidal.
• Editor, Looking For Genet, Essays by Alfred Chester (Black Sparrow Press, 1992)
• Editor, Dancing with a Tiger, Selected Poems by Robert Friend (Spuyten Duyvil, 2003)

Periodicals

Poetry and essays in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Gay & Lesbian Review, Partisan Review, The Nation, Evergreen Review, The New York Times Book Review, Michigan Quarterly, Raritan Quarterly Review, Parnassus, and The Kenyon Review.

Miscellaneous

• Wrote narration for documentary film To Be Alive!, which won an Academy Award, 1965
• Readings at the Library of Congress, Poetry Center, YMHA, and hundreds of colleges and universities
• Taught poetry workshops at the Poetry Center, YMHA, Sarah Lawrence, Hofstra U.
• Editor of The Alfred Chester Society Newsletter

Awards and honors

• Lamont Poetry Prize (Academy of American Poets), 1962
• Guggenheim Fellowship, 1963
• Shelley Memorial Award (Poetry Society of America), 1974
• Prix de Rome (American Academy of Arts & Letters), 1981
• Lambda Literary Award, 1993
• Bill Whitehead Lifetime Achievement Award (Publishing Triangle), 2005
• W. H. Auden Award (Sheep Meadow Foundation), 2005

References

1. "Edward Field Part 1".
2. "Edward Field Part 2".
3. "Previous Lammy Award Winners". Lambda Literary Foundation. Archived from the original on May 6, 2007. Retrieved June 13, 2007.
4. "Edward Field Papers: 1943 – 1994". University of Delaware Special Collections Department. Retrieved June 13, 2007.
5. "Edward Field: Poet". Archived from the original on December 3, 2018. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
6. "Writer and Greenwich Village Mainstay Neil Derrick has Died". Lambda Literary. March 19, 2018. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
7. Field, Edward (2005), The Man Who Would Marry Susan Sontag, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, ISBN 0-299-21320-X
8. "Diana Athill introduces Instead of a Book: Letters to a Friend", YouTube, November 3, 2011.
9. "Diana Athill's letters: Dear Edward – Missives about everything, including the kitchen sink", The Economist, October 29, 2011.
10. New animated film honors Edward Field, WWII veteran and a hero on several fronts
11. "Poet Edward Field Turns 100". June 7, 2024.

External links

• Field's website
• Benjamin Ivry, "British Literary Doyenne's Letters to Gay Poet" Archived July 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, The Forward , March 9, 2012
• Interview with Edward Field, September 2016
• Edward Field papers held by Special Collections, University of Delaware Library
• Edward Field Alfred Chester archives at Special Collections, University of Delaware Library