Louis Zukofsky

Bio | Publications | Works About Zukofsky | Modern American Poetry Page
ZUKOFSKY, LOUIS 1904 - 1978

Personal Information: Born January 23, 1904, in New York, New York, United States; died May 12, 1978, in Port Jefferson, New York, United States; son of Paul and Chana (Pruss) Zukofsky; married Celia Thaew (a composer), August 20, 1939; children: Paul.

Nationality: American

Education: Columbia University, M.A., 1924.

Career: Writer. University of Wisconsin, Madison, instructor in English, 1930-31; Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, New York City, 1947-66, began as assistant, became associate professor of English. Visiting assistant professor, Colgate University, summer, 1947; poet in residence, San Francisco State College (now California State University), 1958.

Awards/Honors: Lola Ridge Memorial Award, Poetry Society of America, 1949; Longview Foundation award, 1961; Union League Civic and Arts Foundation Prize, Poetry Magazine, 1964; Oscar Blumenthal/Charles Leviton Prize, Poetry Magazine, 1966, and National Endowment for the Arts American Literary Anthology awards, 1967 and 1968, all for excerpts from "A" 13-21 in Poetry Magazine; nominee for National Book Award in poetry, 1968; awards from National Institute and American Academy.

Publications:

A 5 Statements for Poetry, [San Francisco], 1958.

55 Poems, Press of J. A. Decker, 1941. "A" 1-12 (poetry; with an essay by Zukofsky and note by William Carlos Williams), Origin Press, 1959, 2nd edition (with note by Robert Creeley), J. Cape, 1966, Doubleday, 1967.

80 Flowers, Stinehour Press,1978.

"A" 13-21 (poetry; excerpts first published serially in PoetryMagazine), Doubleday, 1969.

"A" 14 (poetry),Turret Books, 1967. Ferdinand, Including "It Was, " Grossman, 1968.

"A" 22 & 23 (poetry),Grossman, 1975. A (poetry), University of California Press, 1978.

"A" 24 (poetry),Grossman, 1972.

All: The Collected Short Poems, 1923-1964 (contains All: The Collected Short Poems,1923-1958 and All: The Collected Short Poems, 1956-1964), Norton, 1971.

All: The Collected Short Poems,1923-1958. Norton, 1965.

Anew, Press of J. A. Decker, 1946.

Arise, Arise (play; first published in Kulture, 1962; first produced Off-Broadway at Cinematheque Theatre, August, 1965), Grossman, 1973.

Autobiography (poems set to music by C. Zukofsky), Grossman,1970.

Barely & Widely (poetry), [New York], 1958.

(With wife, C. Zukofsky) Bottom: On Shakespeare (criticism), two volumes (Volume 2 is wife's musical setting of Shakespeare's Pericles), University of Texas Press, 1963.

(Translator with C. Zukofsky) Catullus, Grossman, 1969.

(Translator with C.Zukofsky) Catullus Fragmenta, music by son, Paul Zukofsky, Turret Books, 1968.

Collected Fiction, foreword by Gilbert Sorrentinoand afterword by Paul Zukofsky, Dalkey Archive Press, 1990.

Collected Short Poems, 1956-1964 (also see below), Norton, 1966.

Complete Short Poetry, foreword by Robert Creeley, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.

Finally a Valentine: A Poem, Piccolo Press (London), 1965.

First Half of "A" 9 (poetry), privately printed, 1934.

Found Objects: 1962-1926 (poetry), Blue Grass Books, 1964.After I's (poetry), Boxwood Press, 1964.

Fragment for Careenagers, Black Sparrow Press, 1967,expanded version published as Little: For Careenagers (novel), Grossman, 1970.

The Gas Age,Ultima Thule Book, 1969. I Sent Thee Late (poetry), [Cambridge, MA], 1965.

Initial, Phoenix Book Shop, 1970.

I's (Pronounced Eyes) (poetry), Trobar Books, 1963.

It Was, Origin Press (Kyoto), 1959.

Iyyob (poetry), Turret Books, 1965.

Louis Zukofsky: 16 Once Published (a selection by his wife, Celia Zukofsky, from 55 Poems, Anew, Some Time, and Barely & Widely ), Wild Hawthorn Press (Edinburgh), 1962.

(Editor) An "Objectivists" Anthology, To Publishers, 1932

Prepositions: The Collected Critical Essays of Louis Zukofsky, Rapp& Whiting, 1967, Horizon, 1968.

Selected Letters of Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky , edited by Barry Ahearn, New Directions Publishing, 1987.

Some Time: Short Poems (poetry), Jargon Books, 1956.

(With Rene Taupin) Le Style Apollinaire (criticism), [Paris], 1934.

Test of Poetry (criticism), Objectivist Press, 1948,Jargon/Corinth Books, 1964 Little:

An Unearthing, [Cambridge, MA], 1965.

Work included in American Literary Anthology, Volume 1, edited by John Hawkes, Farrar, Straus, 1966, and Volume 2, edited by George Plimpton and Peter Ardery, Random House, 1968.

Collections of Zukofsky's papers are housed at Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin, and Beinecke Library, Yale University.

Biographical/Critical Sources:

Ahearn, Barry, Zukofsky's "A": An Introduction, University of California Press, 1983.

Comens, Bruce, Apocalypse and After: Modern Strategy and Postmodern Tactics in Pound, Williams, and Zukofsky, University of Alabama Press, 1995.

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Gale, Volume 1, 1973, Volume 2, 1974, Volume 4, 1975, Volume 7, 1977, Volume 11, 1979, Volume 18, 1981.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 5: American Poets since World War II, Gale, 1980.

Heller, Michael, Conviction's Net of Branches: Essays on the Objectivist Poets and Poetry, Southern Illinois Leggott's Reading Zukofsky's 80 Flowers University Press, 1985.

Leggott, Michele J., Reading Zukofsky's "80 Flowers, " Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989.

Perelman, Bob, The Trouble with Genius: Reading Pound, Joyce, Stein, and Zukofsky, University of California Press, 1994.

Poetry Criticism, Volume 11, Gale, 1995.

Pound, Ezra, Polite Essays, Faber, 1937.

Reference Guide to American Literature, third edition, St. James Press, 1994.

Scroggins, Mark, Upper Limit Music: The Writings of Louis Zukofsky, University of Alabama Press, 1997.

Stanley, Sandra Kumamoto, Louis Zukofsky and the Transformation of a Modern American Poetics, University of California Press, 1994.

Terrell, Carroll F., editor, Louis Zukofsky: Man and Poet, University of Maine Press, 1979.

Zukofsky, Celia, A Bibliography of Louis Zukofsky, Black Sparrow Press, 1969.