Robinson Jeffers: Poet and Prophet - Softcover

Karman, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804789630 ISBN 13: 9780804789639

Verlag: STANFORD UNIV PR, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

The precipitous cliffs, rolling headlands, and rocky inlets of the California coast come alive in the poetry of John Robinson Jeffers, an icon of the environmental movement. In this concise and accessible biography, Jeffers scholar James Karman reveals deep insights into this passionate and complex figure and establishes Jeffers as a leading American poet of prophetic vision.

In a move that would define his life's work, Jeffers' family relocated to California from Pennsylvania in 1903 when he was sixteen. While a graduate student at the University of Southern California he met Una Call Kuster, a student who was the wife of a prominent Los Angeles attorney, and they began a scandalous affair that made the front page of the Los Angeles Times. They eventually married and escaped to Carmel, California to write poetry; there they would spend the rest of their lives.

At the height of his popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, Jeffers became one of the few poets ever featured on the cover of Time magazine, and posthumously put on a U.S. postage stamp. Writing by kerosene lamp in a granite tower that he had built himself, his vivid and descriptive poetry of the coast evoked the difficulty and beauty of the wild and inspired photographers such as Edward Weston and Ansel Adams. He was known for long narrative blank verse that shook up the national literary scene, but in the 1940s his interest in the Greek classics led to several adaptations which were staged on Broadway to great success.

Inspiring later artists from Charles Bukowski to Czeslaw Milosz and even the Beach Boys, Robinson Jeffers' contribution to American letters is skillfully brought back out of the shadows of history in this compelling biography of a complex man of poetic genius who wrote so powerfully of the astonishing beauty of nature.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

James Karman, Emeritus Professor of English and Religious Studies at California State University, Chico, is the author of Robinson Jeffers: Poet of California (1987).

James Karman, Emeritus Professor of English and Religious Studies at California State University, Chico, is the author of Robinson Jeffers: Poet of California (1987).

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Robinson Jeffers

Poet and Prophet

By James Karman

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 2015 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-8047-8963-9

Contents

Illustrations, 
Introduction, 
I. Wild honey, 
1887–1905, 
1905–1910, 
1910–1915, 
II. Tides of fire, 
1915–1920, 
1920–1925, 
1925–1930, 
III. The whirlwind's heart, 
1930–1935, 
1935–1940, 
1940–1945, 
IV. Eagle and hawk, 
1945–1950, 
1950–1955, 
1955–1962, 
Conclusion, 
Bibliography, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

WILD HONEY

But now, as I smelled the wild honey midway the trestle and meditated the direction of modern poetry, my discouragement blackened. It seemed to me that Mallarmé and his followers, renouncing intelligibility in order to concentrate the music of poetry, had turned off the road into a narrowing lane. Their successors could only make further renunciations; ideas had gone, now meter had gone, imagery would have to go; then recognizable emotions would have to go; perhaps at last even words might have to go or give up their meaning, nothing be left but musical syllables. Every advance required the elimination of some aspect of reality, and what could it profit me to know the direction of modern poetry if I did not like the direction? It was too much like putting out your eyes to cultivate the sense of hearing, or cutting off the right hand to develop the left. These austerities were not for me. ... Circa 1914 — from the introduction to Roan Stallion, Tamar and Other Poems

1887–1905

For one destined to become a visionary poet concerned with nature, civilization, and the fate of humankind, Jeffers could not have had a better nor a more intellectually challenging childhood. He was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, now a part of Pittsburgh, and raised in nearby Sewickley and Edgeworth. His father, Dr. William Hamilton Jeffers, was a Presbyterian minister and professor of church history, biblical literature, and ancient languages (Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic, Babylonian, and Assyrian). At the time Robinson was born, Dr. Jeffers was forty-nine and teaching at Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny. Jeffers' mother, Annie Tuttle Jeffers, was twenty-seven.

Dr. Jeffers had been married once before. His first wife, Louisa Maria Robinson, was the daughter of Thomas and Margaret Robinson, a prosperous Ohio couple involved in farming and cattle dealing. The Robinsons' only other child, a son named Clark, died in infancy. Dr. Jeffers and Louisa married in 1868. In 1869 Louisa remained with her parents when her husband embarked upon a study tour of Egypt, the Middle East, and Greece. When Dr. Jeffers returned, the couple moved to Wooster, Ohio, where Dr. Jeffers accepted a position at the University of Wooster. Their son William "Willie" Robinson Jeffers was born in February 1872. He died of cholera the following July during a visit to the home of his maternal grandparents. The couple had no other children. Louisa died in 1882 as a result of "paralysis." How long she had been disabled prior to her death is unknown. Louisa's mother died the year before while visiting the Jeffers home, and her father died the year after, broken by his losses. The entire family is buried at Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Jeffers placed a large memorial obelisk at the gravesite, with "Robinson" inscribed on one side and "Jeffers" on the other.

Dr. Jeffers met his second wife, Annie Tuttle, at the home of her foster parents, John and Philena Robinson (no known relation to Louisa's family), who lived in Sewickley. A brief engagement led to marriage in April 1885 and the birth of their first son, John Robinson Jeffers, in 1887. A second son, Hamilton Moore Jeffers, was born in 1893.

Jeffers' parents preferred his middle name (possibly given with Dr. Jeffers' first wife in mind), so he was always called Robinson or Robin. As a little boy he attended private schools in Pittsburgh and received additional lessons from his father at home. Instruction in Greek came first, along with study of the Bible and church doctrine, and then Latin. When Robinson was eleven, having already visited Europe six years before, he was enrolled in a school in Leipzig so he could study Greek and Latin while learning German. The following year he was sent to a school in Vevey, Switzerland in order to further his classical studies while learning French. Courses in Greek, Latin, and other basic subjects, taught in French or German, continued in Switzerland for three more years. Jeffers' mother, who spoke French and was an accomplished musician, stayed in Europe with her son at this time; Jeffers' father joined them each summer.

A September 1901 letter (located in the archives of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary), written by Annie in Zurich to her husband in the United States, provides a glimpse into Robinson's academic regimen. Knowing that Dr. Jeffers regarded German as the language of scholars, especially in the field of philology, and anticipating his professorial concern, she tells him that Robinson "is translating his Latin into French still instead of German; his teacher is an Italian & does not know German well enough to translate into it." In regard to frequency of use, English was Jeffers' third working language when he lived in Europe; it was his fifth language overall, counting Greek and Latin.

Dr. Jeffers brought his family back to America in 1902. At fifteen, Robinson enrolled as a sophomore at Western University of Pennsylvania, now called the University of Pittsburgh. For a curriculum he selected the Classical Course, which allowed him to continue along the path already laid out for him. According to the university catalog, the Classical Course was designed to help students become "well versed in ancient languages, German, French, and English Literature, with the usual courses in Science and Mathematics."

It is worth noting that the acting chancellor of the university at the time Robinson was there was John A. Brashear, one of Pittsburgh's most famous and popular citizens. Brashear was a self-taught mechanical genius who became a celebrated astronomer and manufacturer of precision scientific instruments. The telescopes he made were among the best in the world. As a director of the Allegheny Observatory and as a committed educator (who had a special interest in reaching out to children), Brashear helped make Pittsburgh a center for astronomical research. Jeffers' own lifelong interest in the stars may have been stimulated by the attention given astronomy in his hometown. The same could be said for his younger brother Hamilton, who eventually earned a Ph.D. in the field and devoted his career to research at Lick Observatory.

In 1903 Dr. Jeffers retired from teaching at the seminary and, wanting to live in a healthier climate, moved his family to southern California. Soon thereafter he purchased property and built a home in Highland Park, a suburb of Los Angeles. As an accomplished public speaker, Dr. Jeffers participated in chautauqua programs in Los Angeles and remained active in Presbyterian Church councils. Robinson was given advanced standing at Occidental College in Highland Park and, though younger than his fellow students, participated fully in college life. He joined and later became an officer of the Philomathian Society, a literary club, and served as literary editor of the...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: STANFORD UNIV PR
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0804789630
• ISBN 13: 9780804789639
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 264
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Mare Nostrum Group B.V.; gpsr@mare-nostrum.co.uk; ; Doelen 72; Breda; 4831 GR; Niederlande