Edward Steinhardt
Encyclopedia
Edward Steinhardt is an American poet, journalist, editor and fiction author.
Lee Steinhardt, an itinerate carpenter and cabinet-maker, moved the family frequently. Except for a dairy farm in Minnesota, the elder Steinhardt made his living exclusively as a contractor, residing at last in Missouri where the teenage Edward attended high school and graduated in 1980.
High school English teacher Erwin Neigbors nurtured Steinhardt's writing, inviting him to join the high school creative writing club. Neighbors also took club members to a poetry reading by Howard Nemerov
. Nemerov substantially influenced Steinhardt's later work.
After graduation, Steinhardt worked at a number of occupations, including bookkeeper, 35mm film projectionist, house-painter, journalist and town librarian.
His first book of poetry was published in the late 1980s. By the 1990s he served as president of the Missouri Writers' Guild. For many years, he also produced the inaugural ceremonies for Missouri Writers Week, which included readings in the village of Hermann, Missouri by U.S. Poets Laureate Howard Nemerov
, Richard Wilbur
and Mona Van Duyn
. The second of two readings Steinhardt produced with Howard Nemerov
proved to be Nemerov's final poetry reading, before his death in 1991.
Steinhardt is the author of six books, four of which are exclusively verse. His second book, Dandelion Dreams and Other Poems, was a sponsored entrant for the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
.
He is of the Imagist or Narrative school of poetry rejecting, for the most part, the Formalist approach to writing poetry
. His poems rarely rhyme, but he does employ acute description, resonance, occasional internal rhyme, and imagery, which is purposely employed to evoke acute or certain feelings and “images.” It is with this work that he has excelled, while also becoming versatile with short fiction. He has also edited several books.
in form. Richard Wilbur
, in describing his work, employed the word “exploratory,” in part, to describe his poetry. Rarely does Steinhardt use traditional forms.
His first book, The Painting Birds, published in 1988, showed marked promise. One can see Steinhardt's progress in perfecting his Imagist form, when compared to his later work. Charles Guenther
, literary book review editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, said “Steinhardt already displayed the broad vision of experienced poets and artists.” He said the poems in The Painting Birds were “acutely observant commentaries unbridled by time, topic or geography.” Many of the poems, including “Oliver Twist” and “Anne Frank, 1988” are social commentaries, or about nature as in “The Wooded Brook.” He takes a droll look at everyday activities as in “Taking Out the Trash” and “Miss Universe.” Rarely is the work autobiographical, although Steinhardt does give credit to Nemerov for his influence, as in the moving tribute “Letter to H.N.” (May you be blessed, friend/With a muse of inspiration/Always at your back,/Until that squadron/Of comrades gone before/Drones by and takes you/Past the mortal corridor.) The diversity of subject matter compelled the book's editor and publisher, Bill Nunn, to write “In poetry, seldom comes along a book for everyone,” and that the book was “a delightful nominee for the appellation.”
At the time of the release of The Painting Birds, Steinhardt had already embarked on a newspaper journalism career, chiefly human-interest features, as well as extensively researched historical articles. He also wrote two weekly columns, one of which dealt with national and international issues. “The Tragedy of Bosnia-Hercegovina,” “Merry Christmas
, Sarajevo
” and “The Ghosts of Auschwitz” demonstrated Steinhardt's sensitivity toward the oppressed.
In the mid-1990s Steinhardt wrote the biographical remarks (liner-notes) that appeared in the B.J. Thomas recording package, B.J. Thomas: Back/Forward, a compilation of the five-time Grammy-winner's greatest hits. Steinhardt was also slated to write a biography of Thomas, which was never completed due to a contractual dispute with the singer.
The poet's next work, Dandelion Dreams and Other Poems, published in 1999, proved to be a critical success. The book also included photography by Jeremy Nemerov, son of the U.S. Poet Laureate.
Charles Guenther
, writing an introduction to the book, said the new book “brings us (as Lowell described) both the promise and permanence of the poet's voice.” Guenther said the new collection was “replete with honest and authentic American life in the finest traditions of such greatly neglected poets such as Edgar Lee Masters
, E.A. Robinson (Edwin Arlington Robinson
), Maxwell Bodenheim
and others early in our century.”
The new book, with few exceptions, employed no formal forms. Steinhardt's work was firmly Imagist, free-verse, and rarely employing rhyme
. Guenther noted that the material was “revealing” but not confessional, saying “life experiences enter his lines, often subtly, for a larger purpose.”
The poems run the gamut of work and play (“Mowing,” “Two Boys in a Field,”) haunting narratives (“Gone-away Lake,” “Night-Demons)” and love and nature poems. The book was divided into four sections thematically, namely, “Relation,” “Nature, “Spirit” and “Solo.”
Richard Wilbur
said the work “moves in a characteristic, exploratory way, through scenes large or small, through memories, through relationships.” He said “They are highly readable—talkative, sympathetic, humane—and it is a pleasure to follow their courses.”
Similarly, Robert Creeley
was effusive in praise for the collection, saying, “These poems are fact of an enduring human attention to what values and feelings are still possible in our world. They are pledge and record, testament and persuasive story, of a real life in a real time and place.” He said Steinhardt “has learned his art with great determination and humility. His generous authority is clear in every page.”
The work in the latter portion of the book is contemplative and largely psycho-analytical. In a complete break with any tradition is his poem, a playful commentary on the writing process:
Writer's Block
Qwertyuiop[
asdfghjkl;
zxcvbnm,./
`1234567890-=
~!@#$%^&*_+
ZXCVBNM<>?
Other poems, such as “Shadowlands,” are a marked attempt to explore the human psyche. The end of the poem explains the pains in self-investigation or psycho-analysis, We press our nose/To the glass of our soul/And think that whatever should come,/Tempest or not,/We will see our own/Shadow cast upon the wall./We will remember that/We are our company in our aloneness,/That our image is that/Of belief battling unbelief,/Both in ourselves/And when we are in the shadowlands.
This poem was the keystone of an art exhibit in Nashville in 2007.
A thread of spirituality runs through many of Steinhardt's poems, as in the poem of apology “P,” very reminiscent of Nemerov's style and frequent droll look at the world:
We're never really fully born
Until we die—and the difference
Between breath and exit
Is the Manufacturer's guarantee
That we are now, after Milton
's Paradise,
Less-bent for evil and more divine.
The best insurance for that, simply,
Is a tattle-tale heart.
Some of the poems are epigrammatic and tongue-in-cheek:
"The Difference Between Living and Dying"
The high-tension wire drawn across the soul:
Promises of heaven, prospects of below.
In December 2003 Steinhardt relocated to Key West
from St. Louis. There he began to write extensively on the Key West
experience. The poem “Algebra of Love” about graffiti and conversation on a Key West
pier, was published in 2006 in Secret of Salt: An Indigenous Journal, followed the next year by a return to journalism with the expansive features on Tennessee Williams
and Richard Wilbur
in the same publication.
Steinhardt's third book, Standing Pelican: Key West Poems & Stories
, was published in 2009. He continued his poetic offerings, but added in this collection short fiction as well. John Hemingway
, who wrote a foreword to the book, said the stories “let you feel what the character experiences but with an economy of words and description that only true poets and artists are capable of.” The book, which was purposely Key West
-themed, was (according to Hemingway) “a subtropical alfresco with all the heat and ambiguity that had originally attracted my grandfather to the island in the 1920s.” The book is not unlike John Hersey
's book Key West Tales, an earlier Key West-themed book.
Charles Guenther
, writing a review of the book, said Steinhardt “excels in the short story.” He said “Many if not most writers have more than one voice—lyric, dramatic or narrative. Few have succeeded in all three, but it's always a joy to find such an emerging talent.”
The opening section of Standing Pelican contains a dozen poems, all with present-day Key West
settings, and all strikingly different. Guenther said “ The lines are spare, cinematic, on themes of a Tarot
reader, urban bars, and Key West
settings. Emotion is tempered, unlike that of modernist Wallace Stevens
in whose "Farewell to Florida" (a century ago) "Key West
sank downward under massive clouds," and who "hates the weathery yawl" and "the vivid blooms" of that city.
“Contrasted is Wallace Stevens
' "The Idea of Order at Key West
" which begins with a singing woman (the Sea) and ends almost romantically by summoning a fisherman (Ramon Hernandez
). Steinhardt's "On the Pier at Key West
" sings a real man and woman who "Methodically cast/Their blind lines into the sea."
In fiction, Steinhardt employs surprising transitions in the narrative
, as in “The Trials of January Jones,” or “The Thing You Least Expect,” which are decidedly about the failure of communication in human relationships. “A Square Green Patch of Earth,” about an elderly couple and their relationship, employs symbolism (a white and then dark ibis
) and the resulting loss of a loved one and grief
.
J. Peter Bergman, in his November, 2010 review of the book in "Edge," said there is a “condition of universality that pervades the poems that open this book.” He cites the poems “The Tarot
Reader,” “The Marriage
” and “The Algebra
of Love” as examples. The poem "Going and Coming Back," which closes the poetry section, “in its own tightly written and beautifully expressed way gives us the poet and his choices in life. Like "Johnny Bible
" this poem brings us closest to the heart of the man who writes the words.”
In fiction, Steinhardt employs surprising transitions in the narrative, as in “The Trials of January Jones,” or “The Thing You Least Expect,” which are decidedly about the failure of communication in human relationships. “A Square Green Patch of Earth,” about an elderly couple and their relationship, employs symbolism (a white and then dark ibis
) and the resulting loss of a loved one and grief.
J. Peter Bergman said Steinhardt’s stories are sometimes merely character sketches with no narrative
purpose, such as "A Square Green Patch of Earth," or lengthy adventures leading to no ending like "The Thing You Least Expect." Others create vivid pictures of people and place, all of the places being sites in Key West
. Best among them is "Johnny Bible
,” which Bergman said “is a brilliant effort by a writer to show how obsession begets regret, how solitariness becomes loneliness and the how the spirit can be lifted and dropped in an instant.”
Steinhardt also dabbled in playwriting with the derivative one-act play “A Summer Place,” a patently biographical play (or docu-drama) about Tennessee Williams
and a (fictitious) last-minute interview
, and his habit of going from town to town with a young companion. The play, according to Bergman, “is flawed by its own brilliant construction and the necessity for outside influences from the street below. These interruptions are as much visual as they are vocal and the script’s technique is more cinematic than stageworthy.”
Where ten years before he dedicated Dandelion Dreams and Other Poems to Margaret Nemerov, the widow of Howard Nemerov
, this time Steinhardt dedicated the Key West book to poet laureate Richard Wilbur
, who used to winter in Key West.
Steinhardt's fourth book was Letters to Ryan. This book departed from his usual fare by being patently autobiographical, detailing the experience of being a co-dependent with a lover on cocaine
. Completely in verse diary
form, the book is strongly revealing and descriptive. The poems detail the freshness of a new relationship, romance; then the succeeding adverse effects of drug addiction.
Gary Hirshberg, L.C.S.W., in his introduction to the book, said "To describe Letters to Ryan as a parable
on co-dependency would certainly be accurate." He said, "in reading such raw and revealing lines as Steinhardt has written we are able to see a reflection of ourselves, we are able to step back and see ourselves as the boys we are—boys of such deep need:
Was he ever mine?
Was he ever his himself
To give for me?
(from "Discharged")
Hirshberg said the book "lays-bare our collective soul
, it chronicles the dysfunction of our relationships, the hollowness of our attempts at love, the hopelessness of our ability to connect." Jane L. Anton, Ph.D. contributed an Afterword to the book. Artist George Towne contributed the cover art, originally entitled "Lucio on Tony's Bed."
Steinhardt's fifth book, Papa's Big Fish: Stories of Youthful Adventure at the Hemingway's in Key West, was his first book which was solely fiction. The book, categorized as historical fiction
, has 15 chapters, each chapter being a separate adventure from the viewpoint of eight year-old protagonist Gig Hemingway, one of Ernest Hemingway
's children. The book details Steinhardt's considerable scholarship in Hemingway biography, offering a keen, light-hearted look at the Hemingway home in Key West during the 1930s. The book also contains a substantial appendix, listing the work Ernest Hemingway
wrote while living in Key West from 1928 to 1939. The book serves a juvenile audience, while also maintaining an adult readership for the Hemingway trivia presented.
Steinhardt's sixth book, Sleeping with Rilke: Poems & Prayers, is a return to the poet's usual fare of Imagist poetry. The book is divided into three sections. The first section deals with everyday activities ("At the Launderette") and acquaintances ("Perennial"), and the second part deals with relationships, presumably the author's. The last section is notable in that it is similar to the last section of the earlier Dandelion Dreams and Other Poems, where he speaks extensively on subjects such as faith and doubt. Rainer Maria Rilke
plays a considerable influence on this work, as Steinhardt dissects and searches for the meaning of life. The poem "The Jacob Ladder," is a strong example of Steinhardt's declarative imagery: We are counted once/To climb the rungs/'til limbs give way/(Or sight diminished)/To the extent/We are blind to the heights/We might have gained/Through clouds and sky/On our standing-rung;/When, having properly/Reached a destiny,/(We should have seen)/We step off in faith/(Or jump forward)/In our unfolding—/As a sprinter who springs/And finds his pace/In the gait of a level run—/And the ultimate/Finish-line.
Other poems, such as the title poem "Sleeping with Rilke" and "Atlantis Rising," are avant-garde and narrative, reminiscent of Richard Wilbur
's earlier description of Steinhardt's poems as being exploratory in nature.
In 2011 Steinhardt began to appear in several television segments on KPLR Channel 11 in St. Louis. These included biographical remarks pertaining to several St. Louis authors such as Howard Nemerov
and Tennessee Williams
.
Presently Steinhardt is writing almost exclusively fiction, and divides his time between Florida
and St. Louis.
Early years
Edward Steinhardt was born in Wayne, Michigan to Lee and Ethel (née Comstock) Steinhardt. His father was then active duty Navy. The child was born premature, and named Edward in honor of his mother's father. The marriage, however, did not last. Lee remarried in 1966, marrying Mary Campbell, a union which produced four more children.Lee Steinhardt, an itinerate carpenter and cabinet-maker, moved the family frequently. Except for a dairy farm in Minnesota, the elder Steinhardt made his living exclusively as a contractor, residing at last in Missouri where the teenage Edward attended high school and graduated in 1980.
Early Influences and Background
As a child, Steinhardt showed an interest in writing, an interest which his father reinforced by frequently purchasing books for him. By the time Edward was in high school, he demonstrated an ability to write both poetry and fiction.High school English teacher Erwin Neigbors nurtured Steinhardt's writing, inviting him to join the high school creative writing club. Neighbors also took club members to a poetry reading by Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov was an American poet. He was twice appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1963 to 1964, and again from 1988 to 1990. He received the National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Bollingen Prize for The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov...
. Nemerov substantially influenced Steinhardt's later work.
After graduation, Steinhardt worked at a number of occupations, including bookkeeper, 35mm film projectionist, house-painter, journalist and town librarian.
His first book of poetry was published in the late 1980s. By the 1990s he served as president of the Missouri Writers' Guild. For many years, he also produced the inaugural ceremonies for Missouri Writers Week, which included readings in the village of Hermann, Missouri by U.S. Poets Laureate Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov was an American poet. He was twice appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1963 to 1964, and again from 1988 to 1990. He received the National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Bollingen Prize for The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov...
, Richard Wilbur
Richard Wilbur
Richard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989....
and Mona Van Duyn
Mona Van Duyn
Mona Jane Van Duyn was an American poet. She was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1992.-Early years:Van Duyn was born in Waterloo, Iowa. She grew up in the small town of Eldora Mona Jane Van Duyn (9 May 1921 – 2 December 2004) was an American poet. She was...
. The second of two readings Steinhardt produced with Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov was an American poet. He was twice appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1963 to 1964, and again from 1988 to 1990. He received the National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Bollingen Prize for The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov...
proved to be Nemerov's final poetry reading, before his death in 1991.
Steinhardt is the author of six books, four of which are exclusively verse. His second book, Dandelion Dreams and Other Poems, was a sponsored entrant for the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
The Pulitzer Prize in Poetry has been presented since 1922 for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author. However, special citations for poetry were presented in 1918 and 1919.-Winners:...
.
He is of the Imagist or Narrative school of poetry rejecting, for the most part, the Formalist approach to writing poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
. His poems rarely rhyme, but he does employ acute description, resonance, occasional internal rhyme, and imagery, which is purposely employed to evoke acute or certain feelings and “images.” It is with this work that he has excelled, while also becoming versatile with short fiction. He has also edited several books.
Steinhardt's Work
Steinhardt's work in poetry is markedly Imagist (or Narrative) and free verseFree verse
Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...
in form. Richard Wilbur
Richard Wilbur
Richard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989....
, in describing his work, employed the word “exploratory,” in part, to describe his poetry. Rarely does Steinhardt use traditional forms.
His first book, The Painting Birds, published in 1988, showed marked promise. One can see Steinhardt's progress in perfecting his Imagist form, when compared to his later work. Charles Guenther
Charles Guenther
Charles Guenther was an American poet, critic and translator.He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His book, Phrase/Paraphrase, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry....
, literary book review editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is the major city-wide newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri. Although written to serve Greater St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch is one of the largest newspapers in the Midwestern United States, and is available and read as far west as Kansas City, Missouri, as far south as...
, said “Steinhardt already displayed the broad vision of experienced poets and artists.” He said the poems in The Painting Birds were “acutely observant commentaries unbridled by time, topic or geography.” Many of the poems, including “Oliver Twist” and “Anne Frank, 1988” are social commentaries, or about nature as in “The Wooded Brook.” He takes a droll look at everyday activities as in “Taking Out the Trash” and “Miss Universe.” Rarely is the work autobiographical, although Steinhardt does give credit to Nemerov for his influence, as in the moving tribute “Letter to H.N.” (May you be blessed, friend/With a muse of inspiration/Always at your back,/Until that squadron/Of comrades gone before/Drones by and takes you/Past the mortal corridor.) The diversity of subject matter compelled the book's editor and publisher, Bill Nunn, to write “In poetry, seldom comes along a book for everyone,” and that the book was “a delightful nominee for the appellation.”
At the time of the release of The Painting Birds, Steinhardt had already embarked on a newspaper journalism career, chiefly human-interest features, as well as extensively researched historical articles. He also wrote two weekly columns, one of which dealt with national and international issues. “The Tragedy of Bosnia-Hercegovina,” “Merry Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
” and “The Ghosts of Auschwitz” demonstrated Steinhardt's sensitivity toward the oppressed.
In the mid-1990s Steinhardt wrote the biographical remarks (liner-notes) that appeared in the B.J. Thomas recording package, B.J. Thomas: Back/Forward, a compilation of the five-time Grammy-winner's greatest hits. Steinhardt was also slated to write a biography of Thomas, which was never completed due to a contractual dispute with the singer.
The poet's next work, Dandelion Dreams and Other Poems, published in 1999, proved to be a critical success. The book also included photography by Jeremy Nemerov, son of the U.S. Poet Laureate.
Charles Guenther
Charles Guenther
Charles Guenther was an American poet, critic and translator.He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His book, Phrase/Paraphrase, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry....
, writing an introduction to the book, said the new book “brings us (as Lowell described) both the promise and permanence of the poet's voice.” Guenther said the new collection was “replete with honest and authentic American life in the finest traditions of such greatly neglected poets such as Edgar Lee Masters
Edgar Lee Masters
Edgar Lee Masters was an American poet, biographer, and dramatist...
, E.A. Robinson (Edwin Arlington Robinson
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Edwin Arlington Robinson was an American poet who won three Pulitzer Prizes for his work.- Biography :Robinson was born in Head Tide, Lincoln County, Maine, but his family moved to Gardiner, Maine, in 1870...
), Maxwell Bodenheim
Maxwell Bodenheim
Maxwell Bodenheim was an American poet and novelist who was known as the King of Greenwich Village Bohemians. His writing brought him international fame during the Jazz Age of the 1920s.-Biography:...
and others early in our century.”
The new book, with few exceptions, employed no formal forms. Steinhardt's work was firmly Imagist, free-verse, and rarely employing rhyme
Rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and songs. The word "rhyme" may also refer to a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as nursery rhymes.-Etymology:...
. Guenther noted that the material was “revealing” but not confessional, saying “life experiences enter his lines, often subtly, for a larger purpose.”
The poems run the gamut of work and play (“Mowing,” “Two Boys in a Field,”) haunting narratives (“Gone-away Lake,” “Night-Demons)” and love and nature poems. The book was divided into four sections thematically, namely, “Relation,” “Nature, “Spirit” and “Solo.”
Richard Wilbur
Richard Wilbur
Richard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989....
said the work “moves in a characteristic, exploratory way, through scenes large or small, through memories, through relationships.” He said “They are highly readable—talkative, sympathetic, humane—and it is a pleasure to follow their courses.”
Similarly, Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school's. He was close with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn. He served as the Samuel P...
was effusive in praise for the collection, saying, “These poems are fact of an enduring human attention to what values and feelings are still possible in our world. They are pledge and record, testament and persuasive story, of a real life in a real time and place.” He said Steinhardt “has learned his art with great determination and humility. His generous authority is clear in every page.”
The work in the latter portion of the book is contemplative and largely psycho-analytical. In a complete break with any tradition is his poem, a playful commentary on the writing process:
Writer's Block
Qwertyuiop[
asdfghjkl;
zxcvbnm,./
`1234567890-=
~!@#$%^&*_+
ZXCVBNM<>?
Other poems, such as “Shadowlands,” are a marked attempt to explore the human psyche. The end of the poem explains the pains in self-investigation or psycho-analysis, We press our nose/To the glass of our soul/And think that whatever should come,/Tempest or not,/We will see our own/Shadow cast upon the wall./We will remember that/We are our company in our aloneness,/That our image is that/Of belief battling unbelief,/Both in ourselves/And when we are in the shadowlands.
This poem was the keystone of an art exhibit in Nashville in 2007.
A thread of spirituality runs through many of Steinhardt's poems, as in the poem of apology “P,” very reminiscent of Nemerov's style and frequent droll look at the world:
We're never really fully born
Until we die—and the difference
Between breath and exit
Is the Manufacturer's guarantee
That we are now, after Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
's Paradise,
Less-bent for evil and more divine.
The best insurance for that, simply,
Is a tattle-tale heart.
Some of the poems are epigrammatic and tongue-in-cheek:
"The Difference Between Living and Dying"
The high-tension wire drawn across the soul:
Promises of heaven, prospects of below.
In December 2003 Steinhardt relocated to Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
from St. Louis. There he began to write extensively on the Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
experience. The poem “Algebra of Love” about graffiti and conversation on a Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
pier, was published in 2006 in Secret of Salt: An Indigenous Journal, followed the next year by a return to journalism with the expansive features on Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
and Richard Wilbur
Richard Wilbur
Richard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989....
in the same publication.
Steinhardt's third book, Standing Pelican: Key West Poems & Stories
Standing Pelican: Key West Poems & Stories
Standing Pelican: Key West Poems & Stories is a 2009 book by American author Edward Steinhardt.In Standing Pelican: Key West Poems & Stories, Steinhardt continued his poetic offerings, but added in this collection short fiction as well...
, was published in 2009. He continued his poetic offerings, but added in this collection short fiction as well. John Hemingway
John Hemingway
John Patrick Hemingway is an American author, whose memoir Strange Tribe: A Family Memoir examines the similarities and the complex relationship between his father Dr...
, who wrote a foreword to the book, said the stories “let you feel what the character experiences but with an economy of words and description that only true poets and artists are capable of.” The book, which was purposely Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
-themed, was (according to Hemingway) “a subtropical alfresco with all the heat and ambiguity that had originally attracted my grandfather to the island in the 1920s.” The book is not unlike John Hersey
John Hersey
John Richard Hersey was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer and journalist considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling devices of the novel are fused with non-fiction reportage...
's book Key West Tales, an earlier Key West-themed book.
Charles Guenther
Charles Guenther
Charles Guenther was an American poet, critic and translator.He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His book, Phrase/Paraphrase, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry....
, writing a review of the book, said Steinhardt “excels in the short story.” He said “Many if not most writers have more than one voice—lyric, dramatic or narrative. Few have succeeded in all three, but it's always a joy to find such an emerging talent.”
The opening section of Standing Pelican contains a dozen poems, all with present-day Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
settings, and all strikingly different. Guenther said “ The lines are spare, cinematic, on themes of a Tarot
Tarot
The tarot |trionfi]] and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of cards , used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot...
reader, urban bars, and Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
settings. Emotion is tempered, unlike that of modernist Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar",...
in whose "Farewell to Florida" (a century ago) "Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
sank downward under massive clouds," and who "hates the weathery yawl" and "the vivid blooms" of that city.
“Contrasted is Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar",...
' "The Idea of Order at Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
" which begins with a singing woman (the Sea) and ends almost romantically by summoning a fisherman (Ramon Hernandez
Ramón Hernández
Ramón José Hernández Marin is a Venezuelan professional baseball catcher who plays for the Colorado Rockies. Previously, he played with the Oakland Athletics , San Diego Padres , Baltimore Orioles , and Cincinnati Reds .-Career:Hernández is a career .263 hitter with 144 home runs, 651 RBI, and 455...
). Steinhardt's "On the Pier at Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
" sings a real man and woman who "Methodically cast/Their blind lines into the sea."
In fiction, Steinhardt employs surprising transitions in the narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
, as in “The Trials of January Jones,” or “The Thing You Least Expect,” which are decidedly about the failure of communication in human relationships. “A Square Green Patch of Earth,” about an elderly couple and their relationship, employs symbolism (a white and then dark ibis
Ibis
The ibises are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae....
) and the resulting loss of a loved one and grief
Grief
Grief is a multi-faceted response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or something to which a bond was formed. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, it also has physical, cognitive, behavioral, social, and philosophical dimensions...
.
J. Peter Bergman, in his November, 2010 review of the book in "Edge," said there is a “condition of universality that pervades the poems that open this book.” He cites the poems “The Tarot
Tarot
The tarot |trionfi]] and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of cards , used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot...
Reader,” “The Marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
” and “The Algebra
Algebra
Algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning the study of the rules of operations and relations, and the constructions and concepts arising from them, including terms, polynomials, equations and algebraic structures...
of Love” as examples. The poem "Going and Coming Back," which closes the poetry section, “in its own tightly written and beautifully expressed way gives us the poet and his choices in life. Like "Johnny Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
" this poem brings us closest to the heart of the man who writes the words.”
In fiction, Steinhardt employs surprising transitions in the narrative, as in “The Trials of January Jones,” or “The Thing You Least Expect,” which are decidedly about the failure of communication in human relationships. “A Square Green Patch of Earth,” about an elderly couple and their relationship, employs symbolism (a white and then dark ibis
Ibis
The ibises are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae....
) and the resulting loss of a loved one and grief.
J. Peter Bergman said Steinhardt’s stories are sometimes merely character sketches with no narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
purpose, such as "A Square Green Patch of Earth," or lengthy adventures leading to no ending like "The Thing You Least Expect." Others create vivid pictures of people and place, all of the places being sites in Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
. Best among them is "Johnny Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
,” which Bergman said “is a brilliant effort by a writer to show how obsession begets regret, how solitariness becomes loneliness and the how the spirit can be lifted and dropped in an instant.”
Steinhardt also dabbled in playwriting with the derivative one-act play “A Summer Place,” a patently biographical play (or docu-drama) about Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
and a (fictitious) last-minute interview
Interview
An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...
, and his habit of going from town to town with a young companion. The play, according to Bergman, “is flawed by its own brilliant construction and the necessity for outside influences from the street below. These interruptions are as much visual as they are vocal and the script’s technique is more cinematic than stageworthy.”
Where ten years before he dedicated Dandelion Dreams and Other Poems to Margaret Nemerov, the widow of Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov was an American poet. He was twice appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1963 to 1964, and again from 1988 to 1990. He received the National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Bollingen Prize for The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov...
, this time Steinhardt dedicated the Key West book to poet laureate Richard Wilbur
Richard Wilbur
Richard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989....
, who used to winter in Key West.
Steinhardt's fourth book was Letters to Ryan. This book departed from his usual fare by being patently autobiographical, detailing the experience of being a co-dependent with a lover on cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
. Completely in verse diary
Diary
A diary is a record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone...
form, the book is strongly revealing and descriptive. The poems detail the freshness of a new relationship, romance; then the succeeding adverse effects of drug addiction.
Gary Hirshberg, L.C.S.W., in his introduction to the book, said "To describe Letters to Ryan as a parable
Parable
A parable is a succinct story, in prose or verse, which illustrates one or more instructive principles, or lessons, or a normative principle. It differs from a fable in that fables use animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as characters, while parables generally feature human...
on co-dependency would certainly be accurate." He said, "in reading such raw and revealing lines as Steinhardt has written we are able to see a reflection of ourselves, we are able to step back and see ourselves as the boys we are—boys of such deep need:
Was he ever mine?
Was he ever his himself
To give for me?
(from "Discharged")
Hirshberg said the book "lays-bare our collective soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
, it chronicles the dysfunction of our relationships, the hollowness of our attempts at love, the hopelessness of our ability to connect." Jane L. Anton, Ph.D. contributed an Afterword to the book. Artist George Towne contributed the cover art, originally entitled "Lucio on Tony's Bed."
Steinhardt's fifth book, Papa's Big Fish: Stories of Youthful Adventure at the Hemingway's in Key West, was his first book which was solely fiction. The book, categorized as historical fiction
Historical fiction
Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...
, has 15 chapters, each chapter being a separate adventure from the viewpoint of eight year-old protagonist Gig Hemingway, one of Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
's children. The book details Steinhardt's considerable scholarship in Hemingway biography, offering a keen, light-hearted look at the Hemingway home in Key West during the 1930s. The book also contains a substantial appendix, listing the work Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
wrote while living in Key West from 1928 to 1939. The book serves a juvenile audience, while also maintaining an adult readership for the Hemingway trivia presented.
Steinhardt's sixth book, Sleeping with Rilke: Poems & Prayers, is a return to the poet's usual fare of Imagist poetry. The book is divided into three sections. The first section deals with everyday activities ("At the Launderette") and acquaintances ("Perennial"), and the second part deals with relationships, presumably the author's. The last section is notable in that it is similar to the last section of the earlier Dandelion Dreams and Other Poems, where he speaks extensively on subjects such as faith and doubt. Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
plays a considerable influence on this work, as Steinhardt dissects and searches for the meaning of life. The poem "The Jacob Ladder," is a strong example of Steinhardt's declarative imagery: We are counted once/To climb the rungs/'til limbs give way/(Or sight diminished)/To the extent/We are blind to the heights/We might have gained/Through clouds and sky/On our standing-rung;/When, having properly/Reached a destiny,/(We should have seen)/We step off in faith/(Or jump forward)/In our unfolding—/As a sprinter who springs/And finds his pace/In the gait of a level run—/And the ultimate/Finish-line.
Other poems, such as the title poem "Sleeping with Rilke" and "Atlantis Rising," are avant-garde and narrative, reminiscent of Richard Wilbur
Richard Wilbur
Richard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989....
's earlier description of Steinhardt's poems as being exploratory in nature.
In 2011 Steinhardt began to appear in several television segments on KPLR Channel 11 in St. Louis. These included biographical remarks pertaining to several St. Louis authors such as Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov was an American poet. He was twice appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1963 to 1964, and again from 1988 to 1990. He received the National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Bollingen Prize for The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov...
and Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
.
Presently Steinhardt is writing almost exclusively fiction, and divides his time between Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and St. Louis.
External links
Plowhaus Artist's Cooperative, September 29-October 21, 2007 Shadowland Exhibit,- http://lists.plowhaus.org/pipermail/plowhaus-patrons_lists.plowhaus.org/2007-September/000014.html,
- http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/on-the-pier-at-key-west/,
- http://www.pw.org/content/edward_steinhardt,
- http://www.versesandvoices.org/pages/poets/poets%20resident.html,
- http://thesecretofsalt.wordpress.com/3/,
- http://www.westendword.com/NC/0/1481.html,
- http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=entertainment&sc=books&sc3=fiction&id=112290&pf=1
- http://www.georgetowneart.com/pages.php?content=news.php&navGallID=News
- http://www.margaretnewman2011.blogspot.com
- http://www.margaretstreetbooks.com
- http://www.missouribooks.org/node/557
- http://www.kplr11.com/videobeta/204aa938-352a-4346-8fb7-1f0c3a3176cc/News/April-Is-Poetry-Month
- http://www.kplr11.com/videobeta/b6b2536d-c158-4e3d-84a0-5e524c154e6b/News/Howard-Nemerov