A
Louis Zukofsky Chronology (1904-1978)
Thanks
to Mark Scroggins for help with the following (see appended note below).
1904
January 23: LZ born on
the Lower East Side of Manhattan, NYC; the youngest child of Pinchos
(c.1860-1950) and Chana Pruss (c.1962-1927), married 1887, Yiddish speaking
immigrants from Lithuania (now Belarus), then part of Russia. Pinchos
immigrated alone in 1898 and then brought the rest of his family in 1903. LZ
was the only child born in the US, and there were five older siblings: two died
in infancy, two sisters, Dora (1888-1913) and Fanny (1890-1972), and a brother,
Morris Ephraim (1892-1966). LZ was born and grew up at 97 Chrystie Street, a
block east of the Bowery. Around 1914 the family would move uptown to 57 E.
111th Street, where LZ lived more or less through the 1920s.
1916
June: LZ graduates from
primary school.
1920
January: LZ graduates
from Stuyvesant High School, which specializes in math and science, then
located on East 15th Street.
Enrolls
in Columbia University. Among LZ’s classmates, several of whom would remain
life-long friends, were Irving Kaplan, Whittaker Chambers, Samuel Theodore
Hecht, John Waldhorn Gassner, Clifton Fadiman, Meyer Shapiro, Mortimer J. Adler
and Lionel Trilling.
November: First poetic
publications in Columbia student journals and will continue to publish
frequently during his university years.
1924
June: Graduates from
Columbia with an M.A. in English, thesis on Henry Adams.
1927
January 29: Death of
LZ’s mother (mentioned in “A”-5, -6 and Arise, arise).
October: Works for the
National Industrial Conference Board, NYC (until March 1928).
1928
Spring: “Poem beginning
‘The’” (written 1926) published by Ezra Pound in The Exile.
April 1: LZ first meets
William Carlos Williams at Pound’s instigation.
April 5: LZ attends
performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at Carnegie Hall, which becomes the
setting for “A”-1 written the same year.
Composes “A”-1 and -2.
1929
Meets Jerry Reisman
(1913-2000), one of his students when teaching part-time at Stuyvesant High
School. They will remain close friends until 1947, collaborating on various
literary works, although Reisman’s primary interests are in science and
engineering, which will have their impact on LZ’s work as well.
Summer: Composes “A”-3
and -4.
September: Finishes
“A”-5.
1930
Throughout the 1930s up
until his marriage in 1939, LZ lived in many short-term apartments mostly in
Brooklyn and lower Manhattan, but also in the Bronx and Queens.
July: meets Basil
Bunting when the latter is in NYC during the latter half of the year.
July-September: Travels
west via the Mid-West and Nevada to spend part of summer in Berkeley with
Columbia classmate Irving Kaplan (details appear in “A”-6.32-35). In August
while staying with Kaplan will compose “A”-6 and -7.
September: Instructor in
English and Comparative Literature at University of Wisconsin, Madison (until
May 1931).
1931
February: Publication of
the “Objectivists” issue of Poetry edited by LZ. In response to the “Objectivists”
issue, Lorine Niedecker begins correspondence with LZ.
August 19: LZ gives talk
at the Gotham Book Mart, NYC, “‘Recencies’ in Poetry,” which will become
introduction to An “Objectivists” Anthology (1932).
September: LZ draws a
stipend as editor of To Publishers, owned and paid for by George Oppen (until
Aug. 1932).
1932
An “Objectivists”
Anthology
edited by LZ published by To, Publishers based in France.
April 21-June 21: Trip
West with Jerry Reisman via Arizona and Mexico to San Francisco where he stays
with Irving Kaplan.
1933
June 30-September 15:
Trip to Europe. Spends a week in Normandy and Brittany with René Taupin. In
Paris in July where he meets Fernand Léger, Constantin Brancusi, Hilaire Hiler
and Walter Lowenfels. Arrives in Budapest 7 August where he sees Tibor Serly.
Visits Pound and Bunting in Rapallo, Italy in August for two and a half weeks,
where he meets James Laughlin.
Late in the year
Niedecker visits LZ in NYC.
1934
January: Works for Works
Projects Administration (WPA), Columbia University projects until March 1935.
Meets Celia Thaew
(1913-1980) while working for WPA (Thaew is pronounced Tave, Scroggins Bio 142).
Le Style Apollinaire, written in
collaboration with and translated by René Taupin, is published in Paris.
1935
March: Works for WPA,
WNYC Radio (until Jan. 1936).
August: Begins “A”-8 (finished July 1937).
1936
January: Works for WPA,
Federal Arts project, Index of American Design (until July 1939;
research essays dated August 27, 1938 to April 28, 1939).
June: Finishes Arise,
arise.
September: Visits
Niedecker at Black Hawk Island, Wisconsin with Jerry Reisman.
1938
August: Begins first
half of “A”-9 (finished April 1940).
October 24: Gives 15
minute reading on WQXR radio, NYC.
1939
August 20: LZ and CZ
marry in Wilmington, Delaware.
September: Works for
WPA, NYC Arts project, WNYC Radio scripts (until Jan. 1941; radio scripts dated
November 16, 1939 to April 4, 1940).
September 15: Zukofskys
move to 1088 East 180th Street, Bronx, NYC (until end of June 1942; details
described in “It Was”).
1940
June-July: Composes “A”-10.
November: First Half of “A”-9 privately published.
1941
January-February: Editor
with René Taupin of La France en Liberté, a journal of free French writing that
never materialized.
March: Final period of
work for WPA, NYC Arts Project (until April 1942).
October: 55 Poems published by James A.
Decker (Prairie City, Illinois).
1942
Summer: At Diamond
Point, Lake George, NY where LZ revises first seven movements of “A”.
October 1: Zukofskys
move to 202 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn (until Sept. 1, 1944).
November: LZ does
substitute teaching in NYC high schools (until June 1943).
1943
June: LZ works for
Hazeltine Electronics Corp., Little Neck, Queens, NY editing instruction
manuals (until Oct.
1944).
October 22: PZ born.
1944
Zukofskys living at 163rd
Street, Flushing, NY.
October: LZ works for
Jordanoff Aviation Corp., editing instruction manuals, which involves periods
in Cambridge, Mass. and Towson/Baltimore, Maryland (until March 1946).
1946
May 1: Zukofskys move to
30 Willow Street, Brooklyn (until June 1957).
March: Anew published by James A.
Decker (Prairie City, Illinois).
March: LZ works for
Techlit Consultants, NYC (Jerry Reisman’s company) editing instruction manuals
(until Jan. 1947).
1947
January-February: LZ
does substitute teaching at Brooklyn Technical High School.
February: LZ begins
teaching at Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn as instructor, where he will
remain until his retirement as an Associate Professor in 1966.
Summer: Teaches summer
courses on Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at Colgate University,
Hamilton, NY; begins writing essay on Shakespeare that will evolve into Bottom (finished 1960).
September: Teaches
evening course in creative writing at Queens College, Flushing, NY (until June
1948).
Winter: Reading
performance of Arise, arise by the Dramatic Workshop directed by Erwin
Piscator, at the New School for Social Research.
1948
Begins second half of “A”-9 (finished 1950).
Summer: Zukofskys begin
spending summers at Lyme and Old Lyme, Conneticut where they buy a cottage (see
Little).
September: A Test of
Poetry
(compiled 1935-40) published by The Objectivist Press.
1949
September 1: Promoted to
Assistant Professor at Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.
1950
April 11: Death of LZ’s
father, Pinchos (mentioned in “A”-12).
Summer: Composes “A”-11.
Begins “A”-12 (finished Oct.
1951).
December 29: Receives
Lola Ridge Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America.
1952
Summer: first of two
summers Zukofskys spend in upstate NY at Elizabethtown near Lake Champlain
while PZ attends summer program at nearby Meadowmount School of Music
established by PZ’s violin teacher, Ivan Galamian (see Little).
1953
Christmas: Niedecker
visits the Zukofskys in NYC.
1954
Summer: July 11 the
Zukofskys visit Pound at St. Elizabeths; PZ plays at Pound’s request (mentioned
in “A”-13). The Zukofskys continue on a trip to the South and West, including
western Canada, via a visit to Niedecker at Black Hawk Island, Wisconsin; LZ
records reading for KPFA in San Francisco on Aug. 6 (details mentioned in “A”-13).
1955
May: LZ promoted to
Associate Professor at Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.
1956
September: Some Time published by Jonathan
Williams.
November 30: PZ’s first
solo concert at Carnegie Hall (an account appears in Little).
1957
June: Zukofskys move to
135 Willow Street, Brooklyn Heights.
June 18-September 18:
Zukofskys travel to Europe via ship, visiting England, France, Italy and
Switzerland (recorded in “4 Others Countries”); stay with Gael Turnbull in
Worcester and Basil Bunting in Northumbria; meets Olga Rudge in Sienna and Cid Corman in Florence. Also visit St.
Michel, Chartres, Poitiers, Périgueux, the caves at Lascaux., Lake Como,
Verona.
1958
CZ and LZ begin
“translating” Catullus (finished 1966).
June 23-August 1: At
Robert Duncan’s instigation, poet in residence at San Francisco State College. 5
Statements for Poetry published June 25 as part of his teaching materials by SFSC.
September: Barely and
widely
published by Celia Zukofsky.
November: Oppens visit
in NYC.
1959
February 30: PZ’s second
Carnegie Hall concert (an account appears in Little).
June 29-July 16: Trip to
Mexico driving cross-country with the Oppens, visit pyramids at Teotihuacán near
Mexico City and return by airplane (see “Jaunt”)
December: “A” 1-12 published by Cid
Corman’s Origin Press in Japan.
1960
May: LZ finishes Bottom.
July-September: Composes
“A”-13.
December: Longview
Foundation Award from Poetry magazine for section of Bottom.
1961
November: It Was published by Origin
Press in Japan (includes “It Was,” “A Keystone Comedy” and Ferdinand, all written in the
early 1940s, plus “Thanks to the Dictionary,” written in the 1930s).
1962
February: Zukofskys move
to 160 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn.
September: 16 Once
Published
by The Wild Hawthorn Press (Edinburgh).
October 21-24: Attends
50th celebration of Poetry magazine at the Library of Congress, Washington
D.C., mentions meeting Mark Van Doren, Allen Tate, Delmore Schwartz, Henry
Rago.
1963
Receives Longview
Foundation Award from Poetry magazine.
March: Composes “A”-17 in response to
William Carlos Williams’ death on March 4.
May: I’s (pronounced
eyes)
published by Trobar Press (NY).
May: Composes “A”-16.
October: Composes “A”-20 for PZ’s 20th
birthday.
December 14: Gives
reading at Harvard.
1964
February: Bottom: On
Shakespeare published by the Humanities Center of the University of Texas,
Austin (although dated Sept. 1963).
Receives the Union
League Civic and Arts Foundation Prize from Poetry magazine for “A”-17.
June: Zukofskys move to
77 Seventh Avenue, NYC.
August-September:
Composes “A”-14.
September: After I’s published by Boxwood
Press/Mother Press (Pittsburgh).
October-December:
Composes “A”-15.
December: Begins “A”-18 (finished 1966).
December: Reprint of A
Test of Poetry published by Jargon/Corinth.
1965
April: ALL: The
Collected Poems 1923-1958 published by W.W. Norton.
August: Retires from
Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.
August: Performance of Arise,
arise
at the Cinémathèque Theatre in NYC.
September 27-30: gives
reading and lectures at the University of Kentucky a the invitation of Guy
Davenport.
December 14: At Yaddo
writers’ colony (until March 1, 1966) where LZ and CZ finish work on Catullus (February 1, 1966).
1966
February 12: Composes “A”-19 (finished May 29).
Receives Oscar
Blumenthal-Charles Leviton Prize from Poetry magazine for “A”-14 and
-15.
March 8: Continues with
“A”-18 (finished April 28).
August 15: Begins “A”-21
(finished May 14,1967).
November: ALL: The
Collected Poems 1956-1964 published by W.W. Norton.
1967
June: Prepositions:
The Collected Critical Essays published by Rapp & Carroll (London);
American edition appears March 1968.
August: LZ returns to
the novel Little, which he began in 1950 (finished July 28, 1969).
1968
January 30: Reads at the
Guggenheim Museum, NYC sponsored by the Academy of American Poets.
March:
CZ presents LZ with L.Z. Masque, which becomes “A”-24 (CZ began work on
this in 1966).
March: Attends Second
Buffalo (NY) Festival of the Arts Today, where he gives a reading broadcast
live over radio on the 4th.
May 16: At the
University of Wisconsin, Madison for a reading and interview with L.S. Dembo as
part of a series on the “Objectivist” Poet. Sees Niedecker for the last time
the following day.
1969
“A” 13-21 published by Jonathan
Cape and Doubleday.
Catullus published by Cape
Goliard and Grossman.
CZ’s A Bibliography
of Louis Zukofsky published by Black Sparrow Press.
May: Trip to London with
CZ for two weeks; meets Tom Pickard and David Jones; reads at U.S. Embassy on
May 21 (see “On the Gas Age”).
October 16: Reads at the
University of Texas, Austin.
November 20-22: Attends
International Festival of Poetry in Austin, Texas also attended by Creeley,
Duncan, Czeslaw Milosz, Octavio Paz and Jorge Luis Borges.
1970
February: Begins “A”-22 (finished April
1973).
April: Autobiography, a selection of short
poems set to music by CZ, published by Grossman.
September: Little published by Grossman.
1971
March 31: Autobiography performed at the
Lincoln Center Library and Museum of the Performing Arts, NYC.
April 29: Reading and
lecture at the Eighth Annual Wallace Stevens program, University of
Connecticut, Storrs (lecture transcribed and revised as “Wallace Stevens”).
October 13-November 10:
Guest Professorship at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, giving a series
of weekly seminars, “Poetics as Autobiography” (described in Butterick).
1972
January: Family trip to
Bermuda (details appear at the end of “A”-22).
Summer: Zukofskys move
to 240 Central Park South, NYC.
“A”-24 published by Grossman.
November 9-December 14:
with CZ in Bellagio, Italy on Lake Como at the Villa Serbelloni as a
Rockefeller Foundation fellow (details appear at the end of “A”-22).
1973
April: Begins “A”-23 (finished Sept. 21,
1974).
April: Arise, arise published by Grossman
(written 1936).
Summer: Performance of Arise,
arise
and “A”-24 at the Cubiculo in NYC, attended by LZ.
October: LZ and CZ move
to 306 East Broadway, Port Jefferson, Long Island, NY.
1974
December: Begins
composing 80 Flowers (finished Jan. 1978).
1975
September: “A” 22
& 23
published by Grossman.
June 15-17: Attends and
reads at Symposium on Ezra Pound, University of Maine, Orono.
1977
June 4: LZ receives
Honorary D.Litt, from Bard College, NY.
1978
February: Composes
opening and only poem of Gamet: 90 Trees.
May 12: Death of LZ at
Port Jefferson.
July: 80 Flowers published in limited
edition by Stinehour Press, Vermont.
December: “A” (complete edition)
published by the University of California Press.
1979
CZ publishes American
Friends,
printed by Stinehour Press, Vermont.
1980
November 18: Death of CZ
in Port Jefferson.
Note:
The above chronology has been compiled from various sources, largely in the
public domain, not all of which are consistent with each other on specific
details. Mark Scroggins has generously shared some information he used in
writing his biography, which itself has supplied further details and
refinements. Also I have relied on Scroggins for more precise identification of
composition dates and occasional corrections of the primary source for such
dates in Booth and Henderson.
