Cynthia MacDonald (1928–2015)
Author of Living Wills: New and Selected Poems
Cynthia MacDonald is Cynthia Macdonald (1). For other authors named Cynthia Macdonald, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Cynthia MacDonald was born in New York City on February 2, 1928. She was educated at the Brearley School, the Mannes School of Music, Bennington and Sara Lawrence College. She was an opera singer, who won the San Francisco Opera Auditions and sang on CBC Radio. After getting married, she became a show more poet. During her lifetime, she published six volumes of poetry including Alternate Means of Transport, Living Wills: New and Selected Poems, and I Can't Remember: Poems. She taught at Sarah Lawrence, Johns Hopkins University, and in 1979, she cofounded the University of Houston graduate creative writing program. She studied Freudian psychoanalysis at the Houston- Galveston Psychoanalytic Institute. She later joined the faculty of the Institute and maintained a psychoanalytic practice. She died on August 3, 2015 at the age of 87 after living with Alzheimer's for more than 10 years. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Cynthia Macdonald. UH Photographs Collection.
Works by Cynthia MacDonald
Associated Works
Cassandra: Florence Nightingale's Angry Outcry Against the Forced Idleness of Victorian Women (1979) — Epilogue, some editions — 84 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- MacDonald, Cynthia Lee
- Other names
- Lee, Cynthia (birth name)
MacDonald, Cynthia Lee - Birthdate
- 1928-02-02
- Date of death
- 2015-08-03
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- New York, New York, USA
- Place of death
- Logan, Utah, USA
- Places of residence
- New York, New York, USA
Houston, Texas, USA
Logan, Utah, USA
Yonkers, New York, USA - Education
- Houston-Galveston Psychoanalytic Institute
Sarah Lawrence College
Mannes School of Music
Bennington College (AB|English|1950) - Occupations
- poet
dramatic soprano
university professor
Freudian analyst - Organizations
- University of Houston
- Awards and honors
- American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award (Literature, 1977)
Members
Reviews
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 7
- Also by
- 5
- Members
- 100
- Popularity
- #190,120
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 1
- ISBNs
- 38
But though there are many poems here to sit back and admire, very few moved or excited me. I will say that I enjoyed the collection more as it went along: I couldn't get into the title sequence at all, with its puzzling obsession with hats, whereas I found the love poems in the last sequence much more engaging.
The little extract below was one I did enjoy, and it shows the wit and craft of Cynthia Macdonald's poetry to best effect:
But this is Hungary. Here M. and I live in Buda,
Looking at Pest across the river. Ginsberg
Came through last month and proclaimed himself the former,
But all the poets here agree that, sitting on a chair atop
A table, instructing them on instant meditation, he was
The latter.
(from "Letter to Richard from Budapest")
Cynthia Macdonald is a very accomplished poet, so don't let me put you off. But what can I say? This collection just didn't grab me.… (more)