Screeno : stories & poems / Delmore Schwartz ; introduction by Cynthia Ozick.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schwartz, Delmore, 1913-1966.

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

New Directions paperbook ; 985.

New Directions paperbook

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry--21st century.

American poetry.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copies 1-3)

Physical Description:

128 pages ; 18 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : New Directions Pub., 2004.

Summary:

Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966) was one of the finest writers of his generation. Winner of the prestigious Bollingen Prize and the Poetry Society of America's Shelley Memorial Award, he was hailed by John Ashbery as "one of the major twentieth-century poets." Schwartz's stories were also widely read and loved, admired by James Atlas for their "unique style that enabled Schwartz to depict his characters with a sort of childlike verisimilitude." Graced with an introduction by Cynthia Ozick, this New Directions Bibelot, Screeno: Stories & Poems, gathers many of Schwartz's most popular works, including: "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities," "America, America!" "The Heavy Bear who Goes with Me," and "Screeno." Also included is a newly discovered story, "The Heights of Joy," which appeared in the magazine Boulevard in 2002.

Delmore Schwartz's life is legendary. The brightest star of the Partisan Review's post-war intellectual circle, a lecturer at Harvard and Princeton, and perhaps the greatest poet of his generation, he was stricken by a cruel mental illness and died after living in solitude in a Manhattan hotel. Yet it is his work that endures: "What complicates and enriches Schwartz's comedy," says Irving Howe, "is, I think, a reaching out toward nobility, a shy aspiring spirituality, a moment or two of achieved purity of feeling."

Contents:

In the naked bed, in Plato's cave

The ballet of the fifth year

The beautiful American word, sure

March 29

Will you perhaps consent to be

What is to be given

The ballad of the children of the czar

What curious dresses all men wear

Baudelaire

All night, all night

A dog named Ego, the snowflakes as kisses

America, America!

Poem

In dreams begin responsibilities

Screeno

The heights of joy

The statues

At a solemn musick

Tired and unhappy, you think of houses

Darkling summer, ominous dusk, ruinous rain

Spiders

Father and son

Far rockaway

Starlight like intuition pierced the twelve

"I am cheery alive," the little girl sang

The heavy bear who goes with me

Sonnet : O city, city

Lincoln

Seurat's Sunday afternoon along the Seine.

Notes:

"A New Directions bibelot"--P. [4] of cover.

ISBN:

0811215733

9780811215732

OCLC:

54487513