John Ashbery

John Ashbery was a famous poet.

He wrote more than 20 books of poems. He grew up on a farm.

He also studied art when he was young.

John loved to play with words. His poems were very special. Some people thought they were hard to read. But he wanted many people to read them.

He won many big awards. One was the Pulitzer Prize. He also wrote about art. He lived in New York City. He was a very important writer.

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John Ashbery was a famous American poet.

He is known as a very important writer. He wrote more than 20 books of poetry. Some people thought his work was hard to understand. But he wanted many people to read his poems.

He loved to play with words and use humor. His poems often show how the human mind works.

Ashbery won many big awards. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He also won the National Book Award. One of his famous books is called Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror.

Before he was a poet, he wanted to be a painter. He took art classes when he was a boy. He also wrote about art for many magazines. He lived in France for many years. He even translated books from French to English. Ashbery lived in New York City for a long time. He died in 2017 at the age of 90.

John Ashbery was a very important American poet.

Many experts believe he was the most influential poet of his time. He wrote more than 20 books of poetry during his long life. Some people found his poems hard to understand or very complex. However, Ashbery wanted his work to be open to many people. He did not want his writing to be a private talk with himself. He loved to play with language and use humor in his work.

Ashbery's poetry has a very special way of working. He used a style that often felt free and flowing. His poems sometimes used strange or unexpected ways of putting words together. This is often called disjunctive syntax. He also used many different tones, sometimes sounding very flat or funny. A big part of his work was showing how the human mind thinks. He once said he wanted to write poems that critics could not even talk about.

His journey as a writer began with many different interests. As a young boy, he wanted to be a painter. He took art classes every week at a museum in Rochester. Later, he moved to France for about ten years. While living there, he worked as an art critic and a translator. He translated many French books, including mystery stories and poems. He also worked for magazines like Art International and ARTnews. This time in France helped shape his unique way of seeing the world.

Ashbery received many of the highest honors a writer can get. In 1975, he published Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. This famous book won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He also won the National Book Award for it. He also received the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2007, he became the first living poet in the Library of America series. He was also the poet laureate of New York State from 2001 to 2003.

His life connected many different parts of the art world. He was friends with the famous artist Andy Warhol. Ashbery even wrote reviews about Warhol's art exhibitions. His words were sometimes used in music by composers like Eric Salzman. In 1988, his "Bridge Poem" was put on a huge bridge in Minneapolis. The poem used metal letters on the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge. He lived in New York City and Hudson, New York, with his husband, David Kermani. He passed away in 2017 at the age of 90.

John Ashbery was a highly influential American poet and art critic.

Many literary experts consider him the most significant American poet of his era. Langdon Hammer, a professor at Yale University, noted that no other American poet possessed a more diverse vocabulary. Some critics, like Stephanie Burt from Harvard, have compared his impact to that of T. S. Eliot. While many poets saw him as a great model, others found his writing difficult to understand. This complexity is a central part of his legacy in modern literature.

Ashbery's poetic style is defined by postmodern complexity and opacity. He often used a free-flowing and disjunctive syntax, which means his sentence structures were sometimes broken or unexpected. His work frequently included extensive linguistic play and a sense of humor. He also utilized a prosaic tone, which can sound flat or like a parody of everyday speech. A major theme in his poetry is the movement of the human mind. Ashbery once joked that he wanted to create poems that critics could not even discuss.

His career involved many different roles within the arts. He was not only a poet but also a prolific art critic and translator. While living in France from the mid-1950s to 1965, he worked to make ends meet through various jobs. He translated French murder mysteries and works by authors like Arthur Rimbaud and Raymond Roussel. He also served as an art critic for publications such as Art International and ARTnews. These diverse experiences helped him develop a unique perspective on both language and visual art.

Ashbery's early life was shaped by a variety of interests. He was born in Rochester, New York, to a biology teacher and a farmer. Between the ages of 11 and 15, he studied weekly art classes at a museum. He eventually moved from wanting to be a painter to focusing on literature. He graduated cum laude from Harvard College in 1949. During his time at Harvard, he was active in the university's literary magazine, the Harvard Advocate. He later earned an M.A. from Columbia University in 1951.

His literary success reached a peak during the 1970s. In 1975, he published the collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. This specific work earned him three major honors: the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

His ability to balance tradition and innovation remained a constant throughout his life. In 2007, he achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first living poet to be included in the Library of America series.

Ashbery's life was deeply connected to the broader art community. In 1963, he met the famous artist Andy Warhol at a poetry reading. Ashbery had previously written positive reviews of Warhol's art exhibitions. He also had a close friendship with Gerard Malanga, who was Warhol's assistant. His poetry even crossed into the world of music. In 1968, his poem "Three Madrigals" was used by composer Eric Salzman in the work Nude Paper Sermon.

Throughout his later years, Ashbery remained an active figure in academia and public life. He taught at Brooklyn College and later served as a professor at Bard College until 2008. He held the title of poet laureate of New York State from 2001 to 2003. Even after retiring, he continued to win awards and participate in readings. In 1988, his "Bridge Poem" was installed on the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge in Minneapolis using metal letters.

He lived in New York City and Hudson, New York, with his husband, David Kermani, until his death in 2017 at age 90.