Howard Nemerov facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Howard Nemerov
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| Born | March 1, 1920 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | July 5, 1991 (aged 71) University City, Missouri, U.S. |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Alma mater | Harvard College |
| Notable awards | National Book Award 1978 Pulitzer Prize 1978 |
| Children | 3, including Alexander Nemerov |
| Relatives | Diane Arbus (sister) Doon Arbus (niece) Amy Arbus (niece) |
Howard Nemerov (born March 1, 1920 – died July 5, 1991) was an important American poet. He was chosen twice to be the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. This means he was the official poet for the United States government. He held this role from 1963 to 1964 and again from 1988 to 1990.
Nemerov won several major awards for his book The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov (1977). These awards included the National Book Award for Poetry, the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and the Bollingen Prize.
Howard Nemerov was the brother of famous photographer Diane Arbus. His son, Alexander Nemerov, is an art historian and a professor at Stanford University.
Contents
Biography
Early Life and Education
Howard Nemerov was born in New York City on March 1, 1920. His parents were David and Gertrude Nemerov. They were a Russian Jewish couple who owned a department store called Russeks on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
Howard had two younger sisters: Diane Arbus, who became a famous photographer, and Renee Nemerov Sparkia Brown, a sculptor and painter. Howard's father was very interested in art, painting, and photography. These interests likely influenced young Howard.
Howard grew up in a cultured environment in New York City. He attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, a well-known school. He graduated in 1937 as an excellent student. He also played football.
After high school, he went to Harvard University. In 1940, he earned a bachelor's degree.
Military Service and Marriage
During World War II, Nemerov served as a pilot. He first flew for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Later, he joined the U.S. Army Air Forces.
He got married in 1944. After the war, he was a first lieutenant. He and his wife moved back to New York. There, he worked on his first book.
Teaching Career and Later Life
After the war, Nemerov started teaching. He taught at several colleges and universities. These included Hamilton College, Bennington College, and Brandeis University.
Finally, he taught at Washington University in St. Louis. He was a distinguished professor of English there from 1969 until he died in 1991. In 1999, a dormitory at Washington University was named The Howard Nemerov House in his honor.
Awards and Recognition
Howard Nemerov received many awards and honors for his work. He got fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He also received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Other major awards included the National Medal of Arts and the Bollingen Prize for Poetry. He also won the St. Louis Literary Award and the Golden Plate Award. He was the first person to receive the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry.
Nemerov served as a poetry consultant for the Library of Congress in 1963 and 1964. He became a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 1976. He was also the Poet Laureate of the United States for two terms, from 1988 to 1990.
In 1990, he was added to the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Howard Nemerov died from cancer in 1991 in University City, Missouri. To honor him, the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award was created in 1994. Many sonnets are entered into this poetry competition every year.
Poetry
Nemerov's Poetic Style
Howard Nemerov's poetry is known for being "formalist." This means he often wrote using strict rules for how poems should be structured. He almost always used fixed forms and meter. Meter refers to the rhythm of the words in a poem.
He was known for his careful and skilled writing. His poems are also often witty and playful. Some people compare his style to other poets like John Hollander and Philip Larkin.
Famous Poems
One of his most well-known poems is "A Primer of the Daily Round." This poem is often included in poetry collections. It shows Nemerov's unique poetic style. It is a classic Elizabethan sonnet, which is a type of poem with 14 lines and a specific rhyme scheme.
Another popular poem is "The War in the Air." This poem was inspired by his experiences as a pilot during World War II.
Nemerov's poem "Because You Asked about the Line between Prose and Poetry" is often studied in schools. It is an example of an Ars Poetica, which is a poem about poetry itself. This poem describes how rain can slowly turn into snow. It does this while still keeping the formal elements of poetry, like rhyme and meter. One reviewer said that the poem "imperceptibly thickens itself out of the stream of prose."
Nemerov also wrote a short story called "Exchange of Men." He published it under the name Joseph Cross.
See also
In Spanish: Howard Nemerov para niños
