Edward Field
Encyclopedia
Biography
Field was born in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and grew up in Lynbrook
Lynbrook, New York
Lynbrook is a village in Nassau County, New York, USA. The population was 19,427 at the 2010 census. The Village of Lynbrook is inside the Town of Hempstead. The Village of Lynbrook's current mayor is William Hendrick....
, Long Island, New York, where he played cello in the Field Family Trio, which had a weekly radio program on WGBB Freeport
Freeport, New York
Freeport is a village in the town of Hempstead, Nassau County, New York, USA, on the South Shore of Long Island. The population was 42,860 at the 2010 census. A settlement since the 1640s, it was once an oystering community and later a resort popular with the New York City theater community...
. He served in World War II in the 8th Air Force as a navigator in heavy bombers, and flew 25 missions over Germany.
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
Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes. Categories include Humor, Romance and Biography. To qualify, a book must have been published in the United States in the year current to the award...
for Counting Myself Lucky, Selected Poems 1963-1992.
Other honors include the Shelley Memorial Award
Shelley Memorial Award
The Shelley Memorial Award of more than $3,500, given out by the Poetry Society of America, was established by the will of the late Mary P. Sears, and named after the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The prize is given to a living American poet selected with reference to genius and need. The selection is...
, a Prix de Rome
Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...
, and an Academy Award for the documentary film To Be Alive, for which he wrote the narration. In 1979, he edited the anthology A Geography of Poets, and in 1992, with Gerald Locklin
Gerald Locklin
Gerald Locklin is an American poet who is a Professor Emeritus of English at California State University, Long Beach and the poetry editor of Chiron Review...
and Charles Stetler, brought out a sequel, A New Geography of Poets.
He and his partner Neil Derrick, long-time residents of Greenwich Village, have written a best-selling historical novel about the Village, The Villagers. 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
Alfred Chester
Alfred Chester was an American writer known for his provocative, experimental work, including the novels Jamie Is My Heart's Desire and The Exquisite Corpse and the short story collection Behold Goliath....
. His most recent book After the Fall: Poems Old and New was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2007.
Poetry
- Icarus (1963)
- Stand Up, Friend, With Me (Grove Press, 1963)
- Variety Photoplays (Grove Press, 1967)
- Eskimo Songs and Stories (Delacorte, 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, 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 (Albino Verlag, Berlin, 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 PressUniversity of Wisconsin PressThe University of Wisconsin Press is a non-profit university press publishing peer-reviewed books and journals. It primarily publishes work by scholars from the global academic community but also serves the citizens of Wisconsin by publishing important books about Wisconsin, the Upper Midwest, and...
, 2006, paperback edition, 2007)
Anthologies and editorial
- A Geography of Poets (Bantam Books, 1979)
- (with C. Stetler/G. Locklin) A New Geography of Poets (U. of Arkansas Press, 1992)
- Ed., Head Of A Sad Angel, Stories by Alfred Chester (Black Sparrow, 1990). Introduction by Gore Vidal.
- Ed., Looking For Genet, Essays by Alfred Chester (Black Sparrow Press, 1992)
- Ed., Dancing With A Tiger, Selected Poems by Robert Friend (Spuyten Duyvil, 2003)
Periodicals
Poetry and essays in The New YorkerThe New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, New York Review of Books, Gay & Lesbian Review, Partisan Review
Partisan Review
Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:...
, The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, Evergreen Review
Evergreen Review
Evergreen Review is a U.S.-based literary magazine founded by Barney Rosset, publisher of Grove Press. It existed in print from 1957 through 1973, and was re-launched online in 1998...
, New York Times Book Review, Michigan Quarterly, Raritan Quarterly Review
Raritan Quarterly Review
Raritan is a well-regarded literary journal that publishes poetry, fiction and essays. The journal is based at Rutgers University in New Jersey...
, Parnassus, and Kenyon Review.
Miscellaneous
- Wrote narration for documentary film To Be Alive, which won 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 PrizeJames Laughlin AwardThe James Laughlin Award, formerly the Lamont Poetry Prize, is given annually for a poet's second published book; it is the only major poetry award that honors a second book...
(Academy of American Poets), 1962 - Guggenheim Fellowship, 1963
- Shelley Memorial AwardShelley Memorial AwardThe Shelley Memorial Award of more than $3,500, given out by the Poetry Society of America, was established by the will of the late Mary P. Sears, and named after the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The prize is given to a living American poet selected with reference to genius and need. The selection is...
(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