Louis Untermeyer (1885–1977)
Author of The Golden Treasury of Poetry
About the Author
Louis Untermeyer was born in 1885 in New York City. He was a poet, anthologist, and editor. Untermeyer was known for his wit and his love of puns. For a while, he held Marxist beliefs, writing for magazines such as The Masses. He advocated that the U.S. should stay out of World War 1. After the show more suppression of that magazine by the U.S. government, he joined The Liberator, published by the Workers Party of America. Later he wrote for the independent socialist magazine The New Masses. He was a co-founder of "The Seven Arts," a poetry magazine that is credited for introducing many new poets, including Robert Frost. In 1950, Untermeyer was a panelist during the first year of the What's My Line? television quiz program. According to Bennett Cerf, Untermeyer would sign virtually any piece of paper that someone placed in front of him, and Untermeyer inadvertently signed a few Communist proclamations. He was named during the hearings by the House Committee on Un-American Activities investigating communist subversion. At that point, the producers told Untermeyer that he had to leave the television series. The controversy surrounding Untermeyer led to him being blacklisted by the television industry. Louis Untermeyer was the author or editor of close to 100 books, from 1911 until his death in 1977. Many of his books and his other memorabilia are preserved in a special section of the Lilly Library at Indiana University. Schools used his Modern American and British poetry books widely, and they often introduced college students to poetry. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: English: American writer, poet, literary critic, and editor Louis Untermeyer (1885-1977)
Series
Works by Louis Untermeyer
Grimm's Fairy Tales (Collectors Edition) The 100 Greatest Stories Ever Written (1810) — Editor — 169 copies
A treasury of laughter,: Consisting of humorous stories, poems, essays, tall tales, jokes, boners, epigrams, memorable… (1946) — Editor — 164 copies
Makers of the modern world; the lives of ninety-two writers, artists, scientists, statesmen, inventors, philosophers,… (1955) 50 copies
The Golden Treasury of Children's Literature Volume 04: Old Friends and Lasting Favorites (1962) — Editor — 13 copies
Treasury of Great Humor; Including Wit, Whimsy and Satire from the Remote Past to the Present. (1972) 11 copies
Great Poems from Chaucer to Whitman 3 copies
The New Adam 3 copies
More Poems 3 copies
The Golden Trashery of Ogden Nash 2 copies
The Fireside Book of Verse 2 copies
Roses 2 copies
The Dog of Pompeii 2 copies
Collected parodies 2 copies
�sop's fables 1 copy
The Wonderful Adventures of Paul Bunyan, Now Retold...With Illustrations by Everett Gee Jackson. 1 copy
The Fireside Book of Verse 1 copy
The Poetry of Heinrich Heine 1 copy
GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES. Edited by Louis & Bryna Untermeyer. Illustrated by Lucille Corcos. (1980) 1 copy
Words of Wisdom 1 copy
Barchester Towers 1 copy
Lift Up Your Heart 1 copy
Ten Brothers {poem} 1 copy
The Boy and the Wolf {poem} 1 copy
The Heart 1 copy
"---and Other Poets," 1 copy
Hopi Indian Cradle Song 1 copy
First Love, a Lyric Sequence 1 copy
American Poems 1 copy
Your lucky stars 1 copy
Robert Frost's Poetry 1 copy
The Magic Circle 1 copy
New songs for new voices 1 copy
Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1 copy
Westwind Songs 1 copy
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám 1 copy
Food and drink 1 copy
Associated Works
The Complete Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe (Signet Classics) (1943) — Editor, some editions — 1,687 copies
Published and Perished: Memoria, Eulogies, and Remembrances of American Writers (2002) — Contributor — 37 copies
The Complete Household Tales of Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm (Volume II) — Editor, some editions — 4 copies
The Reviewer, Volume III, Numbers 1-12 (April 1922-July 1923) — Contributor — 1 copy
The Reviewer, Volume II, Numbers 1-6 (October 1921-March 1922) — Contributor — 1 copy
The Reviewer, Volume I, Numbers 1-12 (April-August 1921) — Contributor — 1 copy
McBride's Magazine, September 1915 — Contributor — 1 copy
The Golden Treasury of Ogden Nashery — Introduction, some editions — 1 copy
Saturday Review of Literature, Volume IX Number 38: Saturday, April 8, 1933 — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1885-10-01
- Date of death
- 1977-12-18
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- New York, New York, USA
- Place of death
- Newtown, Connecticut, USA
- Education
- left high school without graduating
- Occupations
- poet
critic
editor - Awards and honors
- U.S. Poet Laureate, 1961-1963
American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature ∙ 1941) - Short biography
- "Untermeyer ... continued to be active in campaigning for left-wing causes and as a result the FBI had been collecting a file of his activities. His name was also mentioned during the House of Un-American Activities Committee investigation into communist subversion. This was brought to the attention of the television industry and in 1951 Untermeyer was sacked from the television show and was blacklisted. Like many left-wing artists during this period, Untermeyer became a victim of McCarthyism.
"In his autobiography, Timebends - A Life (1987), Arthur Miller, explained how Untermeyer responded to this victimization: 'Louis went back to his apartment. Normally we ran into each other in the street once or twice a week or kept in touch every month or so, but I no longer saw him in the neighborhood or heard from him. Louis didn't leave his apartment for almost a year and a half. An overwhelming and paralyzing fear had risen him. More than a political fear, it was really that he had witnessed the tenuousness of human connection and it had left him in terror. He had always loved a lot and been loved, especially on the TV program where his quips were vastly appreciated, and suddenly, he had been thrown into the street, abolished.'"
Married four times, to Jean, Virginia, Esther, then Bryna.
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Statistics
- Works
- 177
- Also by
- 45
- Members
- 5,071
- Popularity
- #4,935
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 56
- ISBNs
- 161
- Languages
- 1
- Favorited
- 3
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