Minneapolis (AP) — Robert Bly, one of the most prominent American poets of the last half century and author of the best-selling male movement classic “Iron John,” has died. He was 94 years old.
According to her daughter Mary Blee, an active poet, writer, editor and prominent translator of the work of international poets for over 50 years, Blee has suffered from dementia for 14 years. He died on Sunday at his home in Minneapolis.
“Dad didn’t have any pain … How much can you do because his whole family was around him?” She told The Associated Press.
Bree published his first collection of poems, “Silence in the Snowy Fields,” in 1962. He won the National Book Award in 1968 for “The Light Around the Body,” a collection of protest poems from the Vietnam War. Bree donated a $ 1,000 prize to the Draft Resistance movement.
However, a native of Madison, a town in western Minnesota, gained his greatest fame for his prose work called “Iron John: A Book about Men.” His meditation on modern masculinity was released in 1990 and spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list.
This book helped start a new male movement, but by offending some feminists, summoning images of naked-chested businessmen gathering in the woods, hitting drums, and barking on the moon. I drew a mockery.
“The media rejected all this work as drums and runs in the woods, which reduced it to ridiculous,” Bree told the Paris Review in a 2000 interview. “I don’t think the men’s seminar threatened the women’s movement at all, but many of the Iron John critics missed that point.”
Born in 1926 on a family farm near Madison, Bree said he later began writing poetry in high school and impressed beautiful high school English teachers. After a brief mission in the Navy, he landed in Harvard in 1947 and became one of the major lights of the country’s literary scene, including his classmate Adrian Rich, who became a prominent feminist poet and writer. I noticed that I was surrounded.
From there I went to New York City — sometimes slept at Grand Central Station when he couldn’t find a crashing apartment — and a year at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Bree returned to Minnesota and spent most of her life.
Returning to Madison, Bree and another local poet started a poetry magazine they named “Fifties” (later renamed “60s” and “70s”). Inside the cover was a warning that “most of the poems published in the United States today are too old”, indicating the intention of rattling the establishment of literature.
“Until then, there was a sort of academic rock in mainstream poetry. Thomas R. Smith, a longtime friend of Bree, a longtime assistant, and co-author of several books about him. “He went against the convention that all important poetry came from the coast and university campuses, and opened up some new spaces for the Midwestern American poetry. “
In addition to writing poems influenced by his predecessors and peers in other countries, Bree strove to bring their original work to American readers. Over the years, with the help of native speakers, Bree has translated dozens of poets from many languages. Several poets he translated and defended, such as Pablo Neruda in Chile and Thomas Transtron in Sweden, received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
“Translation work is an amazing part of his legacy in itself,” said Jeff Shotts, editor-in-chief of Graywolf Press, based in Minneapolis, and published some of Bly’s translations and other work.
With his tall, muscular physique and the thick impact of wild hair-turning white in his later years-Bree cut an impressive figure. The reading of his poems was often noisy. He often wore masks and colorful shawls, broke jokes and made rough gestures, and had the habit of reading the same poem twice in a row.
“He would say that the poetry got stuck in my head the first time, but the second time it fell in my heart,” said the poet James Renfesti, who was a neighbor of Bree in Minneapolis.
George Volchart, his agent for decades, recalled one of his readings in New York City.
“I remember it was packed and people really stuck to every word. He was a great reader,” said the agent.
Borchardt also remembered as a joy to represent Bly.
“He wasn’t the kind of author who needed guidance in his writing,” he said.
Bree and his first wife, Carroll, divorced in 1979. He soon moved to Minneapolis. Bree is surviving by his second wife, Ruth, who married in 1980, four children (Mary, Brigitte Noah, Mikaburi, and stepdaughter Wesleadatta) and nine grandchildren.
Over the years, Bree has published over 20 poetry books, multiple translations of the works of other poets, and several non-fiction books best known for “Iron John.”
According to Smith, “Iron John” has its roots in understanding Bree’s relationship with his father, a reticent Norwegian peasant.
“It led to an investigation into what it was to be human,” Smith said. “He saw an American man at a crossroads. He was worried that he would lose their inner life, their emotional life, and their connection to stories, traditions and literature. But the caricature came to be John Wayne, where he had a drum. That’s the opposite of what he was. “
Mary Bree said the funeral would be private. She urged fans to send a commemorative donation to their favorite poetry association.
“He was a great poet and a great father,” she said.
“And a wonderful husband,” said Ruth Bree.
This story has been modified to indicate that Bree died at the age of 94 instead of 95.
Former Associated Press writer Patrick Condon contributed to this obituary.
Copyright 2021 AP communication. all rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission.
The famous poet Robert Bly, the author of “Iron John”, dies at the age of 94 | Nationwide
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