Allen Turner Cassity (January 12, 1929, in Jackson, Mississippi – July 26, 2009, in Atlanta)[1] was an American poet, playwright, and short story writer.
Life[]
He was the son of Dorothy and Allen Cassity, and grew up in Jackson and Forest, Mississippi. He graduated from Millsaps College and Stanford University with a master's degree.[2]
Cassity was drafted into the United States Army and stationed in Puerto Rico from 1952 to 1954.[3] He attended Columbia University on the GI Bill, and received a master's degree in library science in 1955 and then moved to South Africa. He worked at the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Emory University, from 1962 to 1991,[4] and also taught poetry there. He also cofounded the Callanwolde Readings Program, which highlights poets and writers, with poet Michael Mott.
He is buried in Forest, Mississippi.[3] His papers are at Emory University.[5]
Awards[]
- Georgia Author of the Year Award from the Georgia Writers Association.
- Levinson Prize for Poetry, for Devils and Islands
- Michael Braude Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- Ingram Merrill Foundation Award
- National Endowment for the Arts Grant
Works[]
- Watchboy, What of the Night?. Wesleyan University Press. 1966.
- Steeplejacks in Babel. D. R. Godine. 1973. ISBN 978-0-87923-070-8.
- Yellow for Peril, Black for Beautiful. G. Braziller. 1975. ISBN 978-0-8076-0775-6. https://archive.org/details/yellowforperilbl00cass.
- The Defense of the Sugar Islands: a recruiting poster. Symposium Press. 1979.
- Phaëthon unter den Linden. Iris Press. 1979.
- Keys to Mayerling. Robert L. Barth. 1983. ISBN 978-0-941150-14-9.
- The Airship Boys in Africa. Hendricks. 1984. ISBN 978-0-943764-01-6.
- Hurricane Lamp. University of Chicago Press. 1986. ISBN 978-0-226-09615-5. https://books.google.com/?id=Xhy5W4hX2pkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Turner+Cassity#v=onepage&q=.
- Lessons. Para Press. 1987. ISBN 978-0-941150-57-6.
- To the Lost City, or, the Sins of Nineveh. R.L. Barth. 1989. ISBN 978-0-941150-74-3.
- Between the Chains. University of Chicago Press. 1991. ISBN 978-0-226-09617-9. https://books.google.com/?id=z8CuS380frkC&pg=PP1&dq=Turner+Cassity#v=onepage&q=.
- The Destructive Element: New and Selected Poems. Ohio University Press. 1998. ISBN 978-0-8214-1221-3. https://archive.org/details/destructiveeleme00cass.
- No Second Eden. Ohio University Press. 2002. ISBN 978-0-8040-1050-4. https://books.google.com/?id=HdI9X6xS_tsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Turner+Cassity#v=onepage&q=.
- "Crystal but not crystal ball". The New Criterion. November 2006. http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Crystal-but-not-crystal-ball-2519.
- Devils & islands: poems. Ohio University Press. 2007. ISBN 978-0-8040-1102-0. https://books.google.com/?id=IuPoBibYvzsC&dq=Turner+Cassity&printsec=frontcover&q=.
- "Four poems (published posthumously)". Able Muse, Tribute Issue. December 2009. http://www.ablemuse.com/v8/bio/turner-cassity.
- "Turner Cassity Reads at the Huntington Library, April 12, 2003 (video)". Able Muse, Tribute Issue. December 2009. http://www.ablemuse.com/v8/poetry/turner-cassity/turner-cassity-poetry-reading-video.
Verse plays[]
- Silver Out of Shanghai (1973)
- The Book of Alna (1985)
Anthologies[]
- John Hollander, David Lehman, ed (1998). The Best American poetry, 1998. Scribner. ISBN 978-0-684-81453-7. https://archive.org/details/bestamericanpoet00davi_0.
- Leon Stokesbury, ed (1999). The made thing: an anthology of contemporary Southern poetry. University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 978-1-55728-579-9. https://books.google.com/?id=m1e7kg3uM7EC&pg=PA58&dq=Turner+Cassity#v=onepage&q=Turner%20Cassity.
- Joseph Parisi, Stephen Young, ed (2002). The Poetry anthology, 1912-2002. Ivan R. Dee. ISBN 978-1-56663-468-7. https://archive.org/details/poetryanthology10000unse.
Criticism[]
- Herbert A. Leibowitz, ed (1994). "Double Dutch". Parnassus: twenty years of poetry in review. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-06577-6. https://books.google.com/?id=hydg0bdWd2cC&pg=PA191&dq=Turner+Cassity#v=onepage&q=Turner%20Cassity.
- "Hapax: A Book Review". Cortland Review. May 2007. http://www.cortlandreview.com/issue/35/cassity_r.html.
[]
- "Deep Depression in Key West". Ploughshares. Fall 1983. Archived from the original on August 28, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070828173606/http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmarticleID=1502.
- "U-24 Anchors off New Orleans 1938". Ploughshares. Fall 1983. Archived from the original on September 9, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070909035231/http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmarticleid=1503.
Reviews[]
Devils & Islands, Cassity's 10th collection, reinforces the image of the dapper Southerner as a satirist, and, in the words of National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia, '73, MBA '77, perhaps "the most brilliantly eccentric poet in America." [6]
References[]
- ↑ 'The New Georgia Encyclopedia Companion to Georgia Literature', edited by Hugh Ruppersburg, John C. Inscoe, 2011, page 75
- ↑ "Turner Cassity, 80, award-winning poet and Emory librarian". Ajc.com. 2009-08-11. http://www.ajc.com/news/turner-113585.html. Retrieved 2013-10-17.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Turner Cassity (1929-2009) | New Georgia Encyclopedia". Georgiaencyclopedia.org. 2007-03-17. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1254. Retrieved 2013-10-17.
- ↑ David Yezzi. "Turner Cassity". The Poetry Foundation. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=1137. Retrieved 2013-10-17.
- ↑ [1] Archived November 18, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ CYNTHIA HAVEN. "A Poet Fond of Stumps". Stanford Magazine. http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2008/marapr/show/cassity.html.
External links[]
- "Turner Cassity Tribute (Guest Features Editor - Suzanne J. Doyle)", Able Muse, December, 2009
- "Remembering Turner Cassity (by David Yezzi)", Best American Poetry, August 13, 2009
The original article can be found at Turner Cassity and the edit history here.