About
John Ashbery (1927-2017) was a major American poet associated with the New York School. After studying at Harvard and Columbia, he went to France in 1955 as a Fulbright Scholar, working as an art editor for the International Herald Tribune. His first collection, Some Trees (1956), was selected by W. H. Auden for the Yale Younger Poets Prize. His reputation was established with Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1975), which won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He published over 40 collections, translated French poets, and was also an art critic. He taught at Bard College and received numerous honors, including the National Humanities Medal in 2012.
* 1927-07-28 — † 2017-09-03
Major works
- Some Trees (1956)poetry collection
- Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1975)poetry collection
- A Wave (1984)poetry collection
- Flow Chart (1991)long poem
- Girls on the Run (1999)poetry collection
Key milestones
- 1956His first collection, Some Trees, was selected by W. H. Auden for the Yale Younger Poets Prize.
- 1975Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
- 2008He became the first living poet to have his work collected in the Library of America series.
Themes
consciousness and perceptionlanguage and meaningmemory and timeart and representationeveryday life and surrealism
Sources: poetryfoundation.org · poets.org