George Oppen

in 1969.

Early life

Oppen was born in New Rochelle, New York. His father, George August Oppenheimer, a successful diamond merchant, changed the family name to Oppen in 1927. Oppen's childhood was one of considerable affluence; the family was well tended to by servants and maids and Oppen enjoyed all the benefits of a wealthy upbringing: horse riding, expensive automobiles, frequent trips to Europe. Oppen's mother committed suicide when he was four and his father married Seville Shainwald, who apparently abused Oppen. Oppen developed a skill for sailing at a young age and the seascapes around his childhood home left a mark on his later poetry. He was taught carpentry by the family butler; as an adult Oppen found work as a carpenter and cabinetmaker.

In 1917, the family moved to San Francisco where Oppen attended Warren Military Academy. It is speculated that during this time in his life, Oppen's early traumas with both his mother's suicide and an abusive stepmother led to fighting and drinking, so that by the time he was reaching maturity Oppen was experiencing a personal crisis. By 1925, this period of personal and psychic transition culminated in a serious car wreck in which George was driver and a young passenger was killed. Ultimately, Oppen was expelled from high school just before he graduated. After this period, he traveled to England and Scotland by himself, visiting his stepmother's relative, and attending lectures by C.A. Mace, professor in philosophy at St. Andrews.

In 1926, Oppen started attending Oregon State Agricultural College (what is now Oregon State University). Here he met Mary Colby, a fiercely independent young woman from Grants Pass, Oregon. On their first date, the couple stayed out all night with the result that she was expelled and he suspended. They left Oregon, married, and started hitch-hiking across the country working at odd jobs along the way.

Early writing

While living on the road, Oppen began writing poems and publishing in local magazines. In 1929, and 1930 he and Mary spent some time in New York, where they met Louis Zukofsky, Charles Reznikoff, musician Tibor Serly, and designer Russel Wright, among others.

In 1929, George came into a small inheritance which meant that they had relative financial independence. In 1930 they moved to California and then to France, where, thanks to their financial input, they were able to establish "To Publishers" acting as printer/publishers with Zukofsky as editor. The short-lived publishing venture managed to publish works by William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound. Oppen had begun working on poems for what was to be his first book, "Discrete Series", a seminal work in early Objectivist history. Some of these appeared in the February 1931 Objectivist issue of "Poetry" and the subsequent "An "Objectivist's" Anthology" published in 1932.

Oppen the Objectivist

The poems of Oppen's first book following his return to poetry, "The Materials", were poems that, as he told his sister June, should have been written ten years earlier. Oppen published two more collections of poetry during the 1960s, "This In Which" (1965) and "Of Being Numerous" (1968), the latter of which garnered him the Pulitzer Prize in 1969.

Last years

Oppen was able to complete and see into publication his "Collected Poems," together with a new section "Myth of the Blaze," in 1975. In 1977, Mary provided the secretarial help George needed to complete his final volume of poetry "Primitive". During this time, George's final illness, Alzheimer's disease, began to manifest itself with confusion, failing memory, and other losses. The disease was eventually to make it impossible for him to continue writing. George Oppen, age 76, died of pneumonia with complications from Alzheimer's disease in a convalescent home in California on July 7th, 1984.

elected Bibliography

*"Discrete Series" (1934)
*"The Materials" (1962)
*"This in Which" (1965)
*"Of Being Numerous" (1968)
*"Seascape: Needle's Eye" (1971)
*"The Collected Poems" (1975) includes "Myth of the Blaze"
*"Primitive" (1978)

Posthumous publications

:"For more information on Oppen's posthumous publications, such as his Selected Letters and New Collected Poems, see Wikipedia articles on" Rachel Blau DuPlessis "and" Michael Davidson.

Further reading

* Cope, Stephen. "Daybook One," "Daybook Two," and "Daybook Three," from "George Oppen's Working Papers"," edited with an Introduction by Stephen Cope. "The Germ", 4, Santa Cruz: The Poetic Research Bloc (May 1999).

* DuPlessis, Rachel Blau, editor. "The Selected Letters of George Oppen," Duke University Press, 1990.

* Hatlen, Burton, editor. "George Oppen: Man and Poet" (Man/Woman and Poet Series) (Man and Poet Series), National Poetry Foundation, 1981. ISBN 0915032538

*Heller, Michael, "Speaking the Estranged: Essays on the Work of George Oppen", Cambridge UK: Salt Publishing, 2008

* Oppen, George. "The Philosophy of the Astonished (Selections from Working Papers)." Ed. Rachel Blau DuPlessis. "Sulfur" 27 (Fall 1990): 212.

* Oppen, George. "Selected Prose, Daybooks, and Papers," Edited and with an Introduction by Stephen Cope. University of California Press, 2007; ISBN 978-0-520-23579-3, paperback: ISBN 978-0-520-25232-5'

Notes and resources

External links

* [http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/920 Academy of American Poets: George Oppen] A brief biography of Oppen, poems, and excerpts from a 1964 recording of the poet.
* [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=5145 George Oppen at "Poetryfoundation.org] this site includes links to a dozen or so Oppen poems & an article on the poet by Carl Phillips
* [http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/oppen/oppen.htm Oppen at Modern American Poetry]
* [http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/testing/html/mss0016a.html the George Oppen Papers]
* [http://writing.upenn.edu/epc/authors/oppen/ George Oppen Homepage at Electronic Poetry Center]
* [http://www.factbites.com/topics/George-Oppen Factbites website on Oppen] 'dozens of essential quotes featuring direct source & links'
* [http://www.leafepress.com/litter/hooker01.html "Seeing the World: The Poetry of George Oppen"] essay by Jeremy Hooker, first published in "Not comfort/But Vision: Essays on the Poetry of George Oppen"(Interim Press, 1987)
* [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=6&fid=317818&jid=&volumeId=&issueId=01&aid=291582 "George Oppen in Exile: Mexico and Maritain (For Linda Oppen)"] essay by Peter Nicholls
* [http://www.poems.com/essagand.htm#18 "Finding the Phenomenal Oppen"] on-line reprint of an essay by Forrest Gander which first appeared in "No: a journal of the arts"
* [http://www.fascicle.com/issue03/main/issue03_frameset.htm OPPEN TALK by Kevin Killian] transcription of "The Tenth Annual George Oppen Memorial Lecture on Twentieth Century Poetics" (1995) presented by the Poetry Center & American Poetry Archives of San Francisco State University
* [http://www.box.net/shared/sdcqkngjxf "The Romantic Poetics of George Oppen"] thesis on "Of Being Numerous"
* [http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a782008782~db=all~order=page "A Poetry of Action: George Oppen and Communism"] , essay by Eric Hoffman, an in-depth study of Oppen's years as member of Communist Party. Pay site.
* [http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/2008/04/i-was-somewhere-in-vicinity-of-20-to-22.html "I was somewhere in the vicinity of 20 to 22-years-old when..."] Here poet Ron Silliman recalls first meeting Oppen at an anti-war reading. This brief essay was published on April 07, 2008 before Silliman was set to attend "A Celebration of George Oppen’s 100th Birthday: 100 Minutes of talk & poetry" at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia
* [http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Oppen-Centennial-NYC.html The Shape of Disclosure: George Oppen Centennial Symposium] Audio from the Oppen Centennial symposium in NYC, held at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, April 8, 2008. Features Panel talks, presentations, as well as readings from Oppen's work