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{{Short description|American poet}}

'''Howard Nemerov''' ([[February 29]], [[1920]] – [[July 5]], [[1991]]) was [[United States]] [[Poet Laureate]] [[1963]]-[[1964]] and [[1988]]-[[1990]]. "The Collected Poems" won [[National Book Award]] and [[Pulitzer Prize]]. He was brother to [[photographer]] [[Diane Arbus|Diane Nemerov Arbus]].

{{Redirect|Nemerov|the surname|Nemerov (surname)}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Howard Nemerov

| image = Howard Nemerov.jpg

| birth_date = {{birth date|mf=y|1920|02|29}}

| birth_place = New York City, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|mf=y|1991|07|05|1920|03|1}}

| death_place = [[University City, Missouri]], U.S.

| occupation = Poet

| education = [[Harvard University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])

| children = 3, including [[Alexander Nemerov]]

| relatives = [[Diane Arbus]] {{small|(sister)}}<br />[[Doon Arbus]] {{small|(niece)}}<br />[[Amy Arbus]] {{small|(niece)}}

| awards = {{awd|[[National Book Award]]|1978}}{{awd|[[Pulitzer Prize]]|1978}}

}}

'''Howard Nemerov''' (February 29, 1920 – July 5, 1991) was an American poet. Nemerov was the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor of English and Distinguished Poet in Residence at [[Washington University in St. Louis]]. He was twice [[Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress]], from 1963 to 1964 and again from 1988 to 1990.<ref>{{cite web | title=Poet Laureate Timeline: 1961-1970 | url=https://www.loc.gov/poetry/laureate-1961-1970.html | publisher=Library of Congress | year=2008 | access-date=2008-12-19}}</ref> For ''The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov'' (1977), he won the [[National Book Award for Poetry]],<ref name=nba1978>

[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1978 "National Book Awards – 1978"]. [[National Book Foundation]]. Retrieved 2012-04-07.

<br/>(With acceptance speech by Nemerov and essay by Ross Gay from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)</ref> [[Pulitzer Prize for Poetry]],<ref name=pulitzer>

[http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Poetry "Poetry"]. ''Past winners & finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2012-04-07.</ref> and [[Bollingen Prize]].

==Biography==

Nemerov was born on February 29, 1920, in New York City;<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Duncan |editor-first1=Bowie |title=The Critical Reception of Howard Nemerov |date=1971 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810804005 |page=7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Meinke |first1=Peter |title=Howard Nemerov |date=1968 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=9780816652174 |page=6}}</ref> his parents were David Nemerov (who among other things was a national director of the [[Anti Defamation League]] of [[B'nai B'rith]]) and Gertrude Russek. The Nemerovs were a [[Russian Jewish]] couple who lived in New York City and he rose to become chairman of [[Russeks]], a [[Fifth Avenue]] women's wear department store.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/05/24/90537437.html?pageNumber=26 "DAVID NEMEROV OF RUSSEKS DIES,"] ''The New York Times''.</ref> His younger sisters were the photographer [[Diane Arbus]] and sculptor/painter Renee Nemerov Sparkia Brown. The elder Nemerov's talents and interests extended to art connoisseurship, painting, [[philanthropy]], and photography &mdash; talents and interests undoubtedly influential upon his son. Young Howard was raised in a sophisticated New York City environment where he attended the Society for [[Ethical Culture Fieldston School|Ethical Culture's Fieldston School]]. Graduated in 1937 as an outstanding student and second-string team football fullback, he commenced studies at Harvard University where, in 1940, he was Bowdoin Essayist, and he received a bachelor's degree. Throughout [[World War II]], he served as a pilot, first in the [[Royal Canadian Air Force]] and later the [[U.S. Army Air Forces]]. He married in 1944, and after the war, having earned the rank of first lieutenant, returned to New York with his wife to complete his first book.

Nemerov then began teaching, first at [[Hamilton College]] and later at [[Bennington College]], [[Brandeis University]], and finally [[Washington University in St. Louis]], where he was [[Edward Mallinckrodt]] Distinguished University Professor of English and Distinguished Poet in Residence from 1969 until his death in 1991. In 1999, Washington University dedicated a dormitory, The Howard Nemerov House, to him.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wustl.edu/community/visitors/tour/danforth/nemerov-house.html|title=Howard Nemerov House}}</ref> Nemerov's numerous collections of poetry include ''Trying Conclusions: New and Selected Poems, 1961-1991'' (University of Chicago Press, 1991); ''The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov'' (1977), which won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Bollingen Prize; ''The Winter Lightning: Selected Poems'' (1968); ''Mirrors and Windows'' (1958); ''The Salt Garden'' (1955); and ''The Image and the Law'' (1947). His novels have also been commended; they include ''The Homecoming Game'' (1957), ''Federigo: Or the Power of Love'' (1954), and ''The Melodramatists'' (1949).

Nemerov was awarded the Bollingen Prize for Poetry, a Guggenheim fellowship, and the first Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry. He was the Edward Mallinckrodt Distringuished University Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis.

Nemerov received many awards and honors, among them fellowships from The [[Academy of American Poets]] and The [[John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation|Guggenheim Foundation]], a [[National Endowment for the Arts]] grant, the [[National Medal of Arts]], the [[Bollingen Prize]] for Poetry, the [[St. Louis Literary Award]] from the [[Saint Louis University]] Library Associates,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.slu.edu/libraries/associates/award.html |title=Website of St. Louis Literary Award |access-date=2016-07-26 |archive-date=2016-08-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160823003924/http://www.slu.edu/libraries/associates/award.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://lib.slu.edu/about/associates/literary-award |title=Recipients of the Saint Louis Literary Award |author=Saint Louis University Library Associates |access-date=July 25, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731082313/http://lib.slu.edu/about/associates/literary-award |archive-date=July 31, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> the Golden Plate Award of the [[Academy of Achievement|American Academy of Achievement]],<ref>{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|url= https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#the-arts}}</ref> and the first [[Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry]].<ref>{{cite news | author=Staff writers | title=Nemerov First Winner Of Taylor Poetry Prize| work=New York Times| date=18 January 1987 | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE5D7173EF93BA25752C0A961948260| access-date=2009-01-19 }}</ref>

Nemerov served as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress in 1963 and 1964, as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets beginning in 1976, and two terms as poet laureate of the United States from 1988 to 1990. In 1990 he was inducted into the [[St. Louis Walk of Fame]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stlouiswalkoffame.org/inductees/?view=achievement|title=St. Louis Walk of Fame Inductees|last=St. Louis Walk of Fame|publisher=stlouiswalkoffame.org|access-date=25 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121031162946/http://www.stlouiswalkoffame.org/inductees/?view=achievement|archive-date=31 October 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> Nemerov died of cancer in 1991 in [[University City, Missouri]]. The [[Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award]] was instituted in 1994 to honor him, and by 2008 about 3000 sonnets were entered annually in the associated competition.<ref name=Juster>{{cite journal |url=http://www.14by14.com/Issue6/SoYouWanttoWinaNemerov.html |title=So you want to win a Nemerov? |first=Mike |last=Juster |journal=14by14 |issue=6 |date=October 2008 |access-date=2009-03-25}}</ref>

His work is considered part of the formalist tradition, and he has written almost exclusively in fixed forms and meter. However, while he is known for his meticulousness and technique, his work also has a reputation for being witty and playful. He is often compared to [[John Hollander]], [[Phillip Larkin]], and [[Richard Wilbur]].

== Poetry ==

Nemerov's work is formalist. He wrote almost exclusively in fixed forms and meter. While he is known for his meticulousness and refined technique, his work also has a reputation for being witty and playful. He is compared to [[John Hollander]] and [[Philip Larkin]].

"A Primer forof the Daily Round" is his most frequently anthologized poem, and highly representative of Nemerov's poetic style. It is an archetypal Elizabethan sonnet, demonstrative of the prosodic creativity for which Nemerov is famous. Another widely appreciated poem is "The War in the Air," which draws on his wartime experience as a pilot.<ref>[http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177169 "'The War in the Air' By Howard Nemerov"]. Poetry Foundation.</ref>

Nemerov's "Because You Asked about the Line between Prose and Poetry" is frequently taught as an example of an [[Ars Poetica (Horace)|Ars Poetica]] as it describes the nearly imperceptible change between rain and snow while still maintaining the formal poetic elements of rhyme and meter. A critical review by Mary Kinzie said of it: "the poem imperceptibly thickens itself out of the stream of prose."<ref>{{cite web|last=Kinzie|first=Mary|title=The Judge Is Rue|url=http://www.bookrags.com/criticism/howard-nemerov-crit2_33/|publisher=Poetry Magazine|access-date=16 July 2012}}</ref>

Nemerov also published a short story in the book ''Stories Selected from the Unexpected'' by Bennett Cerf under the pseudonym Joseph Cross called "Exchange of Men". http://www.philsp.com/homeville/anth/s194.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190216104113/http://www.philsp.com/homeville/anth/s194.htm |date=2019-02-16 }}

== Personal life ==

"A Primer for the Daily Round"

Nemerov was brother to photographer [[Diane Arbus|Diane Nemerov Arbus]] and father to art historian [[Alexander Nemerov]], Professor of the History of Art and American Studies at [[Stanford University]].

==Bibliography==

::"A peels an apple, while B kneels to God,"

::"C telephones to D, who has a hand"

::"On E's knee, F coughs, G turns up the sod"

::"For H's grave, I do not understand"

::"But J is bringing one clay pigeon down"

::"While K brings down a nightstick on L's head,"

::"And M takes mustard, N drives into town,"

::"O goes to bed with P, and Q drops dead,"

::"R lies to S, but happens to be heard"

::"By T, who tells U not to fire V"

::"For having to give W the word"

::"That X is now deceiving Y with Z,"

::" Who happens just now to remember A"

::" Peeling an apple somewhere far away."

===Poetry collections===

==External links==

*''The Image and the Law'' (1947)

* [http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=226 Nemerov Biographical Sketch]

*''Guide to the Ruins'' (1950)

* [http://www.loc.gov/poetry/laureate-1961-1970.html Poet Lauriete Timeline: 1961-1970]

*''The Vacuum'' (1955)

[[Category:Leap day births|Nemerov, Howard]]

*''The Salt Garden'' (1955)

[[Category:1920 births|Nemerov, Howard]]

*''Mirrors and Windows'' (1958)

[[Category:1991 deaths|Nemerov, Howard]]

*''The Next Room of The Dream: Poems and Two Plays'' (1962)

[[Category:U.S. poets|Nemerov, Howard]]

*''The Blue Swallows'' (1967)

Howard Nemerov was born on March 1, 1920, in New York City. His parents were David and Gertrude (Russek) Nemerov.

*''The Winter Lightning: Selected Poems'' (1968)

The elder Nemerov's talents and interests extended to art connoisseurship, painting, and philanthropy--talents and interests undoubtedly influential upon his son.Young Howard was raised in a sophisticated New York City environment where he attended the Society for Ethical Culture's Fieldstone School. Graduated in 1937 as an outstanding student and second string team football fullback, he commenced studies at Harvard University where, in 1940, he was Bowdoin Essayist and he received bachelor's degree at this university. Throughout World War II, he served as a pilot in the Royal Canadian unit of the U. S. Army Air Force. He married in 1944, and after the war, having earned the rank of first lieutenant, returned to New York with his wife to complete his first book. He then began teaching, first at Hamilton College and later at Bennington College, Brandeis University, and Washington University, where he was Distinguished Poet in Residence from 1969 until his death.

*''Gnomes & Occasions: Poems'' (1973) University of Chicago Press {{ISBN|0-226-57252-8}}

*''The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov'' (1977) {{ISBN|978-0-226-57259-8}} — winner of the National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize, and Bollingen Prize

*''Sentences'' (1980) {{ISBN|978-0-226-57262-8}}

*''Inside the Onion'' (1984) {{ISBN|0-226-57244-7}}

*''War Stories: Poems about Long Ago and Now'' (1987) {{ISBN|978-0-226-57243-7}}

*''Trying Conclusions: New and Selected Poems, 1961-1991'' (1992) {{ISBN|978-0-226-57263-5}}

*''Grace to be Said at the Supermarket''

*''The War in the Air''

===Prose===

Nemerov's numerous collections of poetry include Trying Conclusions: New and Selected Poems, 1961-1991 (University of Chicago Press, 1991); The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov (1977), which won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Bollingen Prize; The Winter Lightning: Selected Poems (1968); Mirrors and Windows (1958); The Salt Garden (1955); and The Image of the Law (1947). His novels have also been commended; they include The Homecoming Game (1957), Federigo: Or the Power of Love (1954), and The Melodramatists (1949). Nemerov received many awards and honors, among them fellowships from The Academy of American Poets and The Guggenheim Foundation, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and the National Medal of the Arts. He served as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress in 1963 and 1964, as a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets beginning in 1976, and as poet laureate of the United States from 1988 to 1990. Nemerov died of cancer in 1991 in University City, Missouri.

*''The Melodramatists'' (1949)

*''Federigo: Or the Power of Love'' (1954)

*''The Homecoming Game'' (1957)

*''The Commodity of Dreams and Other Stories'' (1959)

*''Journal of the Fictive Life'' (1965) {{ISBN|978-0-226-57261-1}}

*''Stories, Fables and Other Diversions'' (1971)

===Literary scholarship===

A Selected Bibliography

* ''The Oak in the Acorn: On ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and on Teaching Proust, Who Will Never Learn'' (1987) {{ISBN|978-0-8071-1385-1}}

===About Howard Nemerov===

Poetry

* Rodney Stenning Edgecombe. ''A Reader's Guide to the Poetry of Howard Nemerov'' (Poetry Salzburg, 1999) {{ISBN| 978-3-901993-07-7}}

==References==

Mirrors and Windows (1958)

{{reflist}}

The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov (1977)

The Image of the Law (1947)

==External links==

The Salt Garden (1955)

*{{cite news |last=Pace |first=Eric |title=Howard Nemerov, Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Recipient, Dies at 71 |work=The New York Times |date=July 7, 1991 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/07/obituaries/howard-nemerov-poet-laureate-and-pulitzer-recipient-dies-at-71.html?scp=3&sq=Howard%20Nemerov&st=cse&pagewanted=all}}

The Winter Lightning: Selected Poems (1968)

* [http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/222 Academy of American Poets - Biographical Sketch and Links to Poetry]

Trying Conclusions: New and Selected Poems, 1961-1991 (1991)

* [https://www.loc.gov/poetry/laureate-1961-1970.html Poet Laureate Timeline: 1961-1970]

* [http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=4968 Poetry Foundation - Biography and Links to Poetry]

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130105111327/http://library.wustl.edu/units/spec/manuscripts/nemerov.html The Howard Nemerov Papers at Washington University in St. Louis]

* [http://stlouiswalkoffame.org/inductee/howard-nemerov/ St. Louis Walk of Fame]

* [http://cdm15264.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16075coll3/id/11 Howard Nemerov "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Skylark" The Baltimore Museum of Art: Baltimore, Maryland, 1964] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130415115318/http://cdm15264.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16075coll3/id/11 |date=2013-04-15 }} Accessed June 26, 2012

* [http://stlouiswalkoffame.org/inductee/howard-nemerov/ St. Louis Walk of Fame]

{{Navboxes

| title = Awards for Howard Nemerov

| list =

{{National Medal of Arts recipients 1980s|state=autocollapse}}

{{PulitzerPrize PoetryAuthors 1976–2000}}

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{{LOC Poets Laureate}}

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Prose

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nemerov, Howard}}

Federigo: Or the Power of Love (1954)

[[Category:American poets laureate]]

The Homecoming Game (1957)

[[Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent]]

The Melodramatists (1949

[[Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent]]

[[Category:Jewish American poets]]

[[Category:Formalist poets]]

[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners]]

[[Category:Bollingen Prize recipients]]

[[Category:National Book Award winners]]

[[Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients]]

[[Category:Washington University in St. Louis faculty]]

[[Category:Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni]]

[[Category:Harvard College alumni]]

[[Category:Poets from Missouri]]

[[Category:Poets from New York City]]

[[Category:Writers from St. Louis County, Missouri]]

[[Category:Deaths from cancer in Missouri]]

[[Category:1920 births]]

[[Category:1991 deaths]]

[[Category:20th-century American poets]]

[[Category:Russek family]]

[[Category:Royal Canadian Air Force personnel of World War II]]

[[Category:Canadian World War II pilots]]

[[Category:United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II]]

[[Category:United States Army Air Forces officers]]

[[Category:Hamilton College (New York) faculty]]

[[Category:Bennington College faculty]]

[[Category:Brandeis University faculty]]

[[Category:Harvard Crimson football players]]