James Schuyler facts for kids

James Marcus Schuyler (born November 9, 1923 – died April 12, 1991) was an American poet. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1981 for his poetry collection The Morning of the Poem. He was an important poet in a group called the New York School. Other famous poets from this group included John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Kenneth Koch, and Barbara Guest.

Early Life and Passing

James Marcus Schuyler was born in Chicago. His father, Marcus Schuyler, was a reporter. James spent his teenage years in East Aurora, New York. After finishing high school, he went to Bethany College in West Virginia from 1941 to 1943. He wasn't very focused on his studies, once saying he "just played bridge all the time."

In the late 1940s, Schuyler moved to New York City. He worked for NBC and became friends with the famous poet W. H. Auden. In 1947, he moved to Ischia, Italy, where he lived in Auden's apartment and worked as his secretary. He also studied at the University of Florence between 1947 and 1948.

After returning to the United States, he settled back in New York City. He shared a home with fellow poets John Ashbery and Frank O'Hara.

James Schuyler passed away in Manhattan in April 1991, at the age of sixty-seven, after having a stroke. His ashes were buried in Mt. Sinai, Long Island, New York.

His Unique Style

When Schuyler moved to Italy to work for Auden, he planned to write. He later said that Auden's very strict way of writing poetry felt "inhibiting" to him. This likely influenced Schuyler's own style, which was more like a conversation and often sounded like prose (regular writing) rather than traditional poetry.

While living in New York, Schuyler found inspiration in the art world. From 1955 to 1961, he worked at the Museum of Modern Art. He also wrote articles and reviews about art for a magazine called Art News. He explained that he learned a lot during those years and enjoyed writing about painting and art. This time as an art critic greatly inspired his own writing.

From 1961 to 1973, Schuyler lived with the painter Fairfield Porter and his family in Southampton, Long Island. Porter also became an important influence for Schuyler. Schuyler dedicated his first major collection of poems, Freely Espousing, to Anne and Fairfield Porter.

Schuyler was known for his special ability to see the beauty in everyday things. He would notice details that many people might overlook, like individual raindrops. He looked closely at ordinary objects and how they connected to everything else. For example, he wrote: "It's the water in the drinking glass the tulips are in./ It's a day like any other."

Schuyler wrote a poem called "Buried at Springs" to honor his friend Frank O'Hara after he passed away. In this poem, Schuyler used ideas from Ralph Waldo Emerson's transcendentalism, using nature to express his feelings. Schuyler also wrote several works that included or referenced lists of things.

In his Diary, Schuyler mentioned that he felt he was "more of a reader than a writer." He also said that "everything happens as I write," meaning his ideas often came to him while he was in the process of writing.

Awards and Recognition

James Schuyler received the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 1980 collection of poems called The Morning of the Poem. He also wrote a novel with John Ashbery called A Nest of Ninnies in 1969. Schuyler won the Longview Foundation Award in 1961 and the Frank O'Hara Prize for Poetry in 1969 for his book Freely Espousing.

He was also recognized as a Guggenheim Fellow and a fellow of the American Academy of Poets. In 1985, he received a Whiting Award.

His poem The Morning of the Poem is considered one of the best long poems from the postmodern era.

Published Works

Many of Schuyler's works, including books, plays, and recordings, have been published over the years. Here is a list of some of his published works.

Books

• Alfred and Guinevere (1958)
• Salute (1960)
• May 24 or So (1966)
• Freely Espousing (1969)
• A Nest of Ninnies, with John Ashbery (1969)
• The Crystal Lithium (1972)
• A Sun Cab (1972)
• Hymn to Life (1974)
• The Fireproof Floors of Witley Court; English Songs and Dances (1976)
• Song (1976)
• The Home Book: Prose and Poems, 1951–1970, edited by Trevor Winkfield (1977)
• What's For Dinner? (1978)
• The Morning of the Poem (1980)
• Collabs, with Helena Hughes (1980)
• Early in '71 (1982)
• A Few Days (1985)
• For Joe Brainard (1988)
• Selected Poems (1988)
• Collected Poems (1993)
• Two Journals: James Schuyler, Darragh Park, with Darragh Park (1995)
• Diary of James Schuyler (1996)
• Last Poems (1999)
• Just the Thing: Selected Letters of James Schuyler, 1951–1991, edited by William Corbett (2004)
• The Letters of James Schuyler to Frank O'Hara, edited by William Corbett (2006)
• Other Flowers: Uncollected Poems, edited by James Metzee and Simon Pettet (2010)

Play Productions

• Presenting Jane, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1952.
• Shopping and Waiting: A Dramatic Pause, New York, 1953.
• Unpacking the Black Trunk, with Kenward Elmslie, New York, 1964.
• The Wednesday Club, with Elmslie, New York, 1964.

Recording

• Hymn to Life & Other Poems, 1989.

Other Works

• "Poet and Painter Overture", in The New American Poetry, edited by Donald M. Allen (1960).
• Appearance and Reality: October Third to Thirty-first, 1960, introduction by Schuyler (1960).
• Robert Dash: November 11 – December 5, 1970, introduction by Schuyler (1970).
• Penguin Modern Poets 24, edited by John Ashbery (1973) – includes poems by Schuyler.
• Broadway: A Poets and Painters Anthology, edited by Schuyler and Charles North (1979).
• Broadway 2: A Poets and Painters Anthology, edited by Schuyler and North (1989).

Papers

A large collection of Schuyler's writings and papers, from 1947 to 1991, is kept at the University of California, San Diego.

Images for kids

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  James Schuyler

See also

In Spanish: James Schuyler para niños