Donald Justice

Donald Justice
Donald Justice
Born	August 12, 1925; Miami,Florida, U.S.
Died	August 6, 2004(aged 78); Iowa City, Iowa,U.S.
Education	University of Miami(BA); University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill(MA); Stanford University; University of Iowa(PhD)
Awards	Guggenheim Fellowship; Pulitzer Prize
	Scientific career
Fields	Poetry
Institutions	University of Florida; Syracuse University

Donald Rodney Justice(August 12, 1925 – August 6, 2004) was an American poet and teacher of creative writing who won thePulitzer Prize for Poetryin 1980.

Early life and education

Justice was born on August 12, 1925, inMiami.He attended theUniversity of Miami,where he obtained his bachelor's degree in 1945. He received anMAfrom theUniversity of North Carolinain 1947, studied for a time atStanford University,and earned adoctoratefrom theUniversity of Iowain 1954.

Career

After obtaining his doctorate, Justice went on to teach for many years at theIowa Writers' Workshopat theUniversity of Iowa,the nation's first graduate program increative writing.He also taught atSyracuse University,theUniversity of California at Irvine,Princeton University,theUniversity of Virginia,and theUniversity of FloridainGainesville.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Justice published thirteen collections of his poetry. The first collection,The Summer Anniversaries,was the winner of theLamont Poetry Prizegiven by theAcademy of American Poetsin 1961;Selected Poemswon thePulitzer Prize for Poetryin 1980. He was awarded theBollingen Prizein Poetry in 1991, and theLannan Literary Award for Poetryin 1996.

His honors also included grants from theGuggenheim Foundation,theRockefeller Foundation,and theNational Endowment for the Arts.He was a member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters,and a Chancellor of theAcademy of American Poetsfrom 1997 to 2003. HisCollected Poemswas nominated for theNational Book Awardin 2004. Justice was a National Book Award Finalist three times, in 1961, 1974, and 1995.

Death

Justice died August 6, 2004, at anIowa City, Iowanursing home. He had been in a nursing home after suffering a stroke several weeks before his death. He was 78 years old. His family said the immediate cause of death waspneumonia,but that he also hadParkinson's disease.^[1]

Legacy

"In most ways, Justice was no different from any number of solid, quiet older writers devoted to traditional short poems. But he was different in one important sense: sometimes his poems weren't just good; they were great. They were great in the way thatElizabeth Bishop's poems were great, orThom Gunn's orPhilip Larkin's. They were great in the way that tells us what poetry used to be, and is, and will be. "

David Orr^[4]

In his obituary forThe Independent,Andrew Rosenheim wrote that that Justice "was a legendary teacher, and despite his own Formalist reputation influenced a wide range of younger writers — his students includedMark Jarman,Rita Dove,James Tate,C. Dale Young,Ellen Bryant Voigt,Will Schmitz,Mark Strand,William Stafford,Larry Levis,and the novelistJohn Irving."^[5]His student and later colleagueMarvin Bellsaid, "As a teacher, Don chose always to be on the side of the poem, defending it from half-baked attacks by students anxious to defend their own turf. While he had firm preferences in private, as a teacher Don defended all turfs. He had little use for poetic theory..."^[6]

Justice's former student, the poet and criticTad Richards,noted that, "Donald Justice is likely to be remembered as a poet who gave his age a quiet but compelling insight into loss and distance, and who set a standard for craftsmanship, attention to detail, and subtleties of rhythm."^[7]

Justice's work was the subject of the 1998 volumeCertain Solitudes: On The Poetry of Donald Justice,a collection of essays edited byDana GioiaandWilliam Logan.^[8]

Published work

Poetry collections

The Old Bachelor and Other Poems(Pandanus Press, Miami, FL), 1951.
The Summer Anniversaries(Wesleyan University Press,Middletown, CT), 1960; revised edition (University Press of New England, Hanover, NH), 1981.
A Local Storm(Stone Wall Press, Iowa City, IA, 1963).
Night Light(Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT, 1967); revised edition (University Press of New England, Hanover, NH, 1981).
Sixteen Poems(Stone Wall Press, Iowa City, IA, 1970).
From a Notebook(Seamark Press, Iowa City, IA, 1971).
Departures(Atheneum, New York City, 1973).
Selected Poems(Atheneum, New York City, 1979).
Tremayne(Windhover Press, Iowa City, IA, 1984).
The Sunset Maker(Anvil Press Poetry, 1987).ISBN 978-0-85646-195-8.
A Donald Justice Reader(Middlebury, 1991).ISBN 978-0-87451-626-5.
New and Selected Poems(Knopf, 1995).ISBN 978-0-679-44173-1.
Orpheus Hesitated beside the Black River: Poems, 1952-1997(Anvil Press Poetry, London, England), 1998.
Collected Poems(Knopf, 2004).ISBN 978-1-4000-4239-5.

Essay and interview collections

Platonic Scripts,1984
Oblivion: On Writers and Writing,1998
Compendium: A Collection of Thoughts on Prosody.ed. David Koehn & Alan Soldofsky (Omnidawn, 2017).ISBN 978-1-63243-032-8^[9]

Edited volumes

Justice edited posthumous selections of unpublished poetry for four poets: Weldon Kees, Henri Coulette, Raeburn Miller, and Joe Bolton.

Aspel, Alexander (1965). Aspel, Alexander; Justice, Donald (eds.).Contemporary French Poetry: Fourteen Witnesses after Man's Fate.University of Michigan Press.
Kees, Weldon;Wojahn, David (2003). Justice, Donald (ed.).The Collected Poems of Weldon Kees(Third ed.). Bison Books.ISBN 978-0-8032-7809-7.The first edition of this collection was published in 1960.
Coulette, Henri(1990). Justice, Donald; Mezey, Robert (eds.).Collected Poems ofHenri Coulette.University of Arkansas Press.ISBN 978-1-55728-145-6.
Miller, Raeburn;Justice, Donald (1994). Justice, Donald; Mackin, Cooper R.; Olson, Richard D. (eds.).The Comma after Love: Selected Poems of Raeburn Miller.University of Akron Press.ISBN 978-1-884836-03-9.
Bolton, Joe(1999). Justice, Donald (ed.).Last Nostalgia: Poems 1982-1990.University of Arkansas Press.ISBN 978-1-55728-558-4.

Libretti

The Young God - A Vaudeville(opera by Edward Miller), 1969
The Death of Lincoln: an opera by Edwin London on an original libretto by Donald Justice,1988

References

^^a ^bSaxon, Wolfgang (August 10, 2004)."Donald Justice, 78, a Poet Admired for Precise Beauty".The New York Times.Archived fromthe originalon 2015-05-28.
^Date of birth taken from theSocial Security Death Index.
^"Notable University of Iowa Alums".University of Iowa. Archived fromthe originalon 2010-07-23.
^Orr, David (August 29, 2004)."'Collected Poems': The Ironist of Nostalgia ".The New York Times.Archived fromthe originalon 2015-05-28.
^Rosenheim, Andrew (August 18, 2004)."Donald Justice: Award-winning poet revered by his peers and influential to a wide range of younger writers".The Independent.
^Bell, Marvin (Winter 2004–2005)."A Garland for Donald Justice: A Reminiscence".The Iowa Review.34(3): 177–178.doi:10.17077/0021-065X.5933.JSTOR 20151937.
^Richards, Tad (2005)."Donald Justice,"ArchivedDecember 2, 2008, at theWayback MachineGreenwood Encyclopedia of American Poets and Poetry(Greenwood Press).ISBN 978-0-313-32381-2.Online version retrieved November 9, 2007.
^Gioia, Dana; Logan, William, eds. (1998).Certain Solitudes: On The Poetry of Donald Justice.University of Arkansas Press.ISBN 978-1-55728-475-4.OCLC 875545534.
^"Compendium: A Collection of Thoughts on Prosody | Donald Justice | Omnidawn".Archived fromthe originalon 2017-03-30.Retrieved2017-05-08.

External links

Renner, B. (1997)."Donald Justice interview",Elimae(an electronic literary magazine).
Biography and links to several poemsat thePoetry Foundationwebsite. Retrieved November 9, 2007.

[NYTobit-1] Saxon, Wolfgang (August 10, 2004)."Donald Justice, 78, a Poet Admired for Precise Beauty".The New York Times.Archived fromthe originalon 2015-05-28.

[2] Date of birth taken from theSocial Security Death Index.

[3] "Notable University of Iowa Alums".University of Iowa. Archived fromthe originalon 2010-07-23.

[Orr-4] Orr, David (August 29, 2004)."'Collected Poems': The Ironist of Nostalgia ".The New York Times.Archived fromthe originalon 2015-05-28.

[Rosenheim-5] Rosenheim, Andrew (August 18, 2004)."Donald Justice: Award-winning poet revered by his peers and influential to a wide range of younger writers".The Independent.

[6] Bell, Marvin (Winter 2004–2005)."A Garland for Donald Justice: A Reminiscence".The Iowa Review.34(3): 177–178.doi:10.17077/0021-065X.5933.JSTOR 20151937.

[7] Richards, Tad (2005)."Donald Justice,"ArchivedDecember 2, 2008, at theWayback MachineGreenwood Encyclopedia of American Poets and Poetry(Greenwood Press).ISBN 978-0-313-32381-2.Online version retrieved November 9, 2007.

[8] Gioia, Dana; Logan, William, eds. (1998).Certain Solitudes: On The Poetry of Donald Justice.University of Arkansas Press.ISBN 978-1-55728-475-4.OCLC 875545534.

[9] "Compendium: A Collection of Thoughts on Prosody | Donald Justice | Omnidawn".Archived fromthe originalon 2017-03-30.Retrieved2017-05-08.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]