Field, Edward, 1924-

Field, Edward. Counting Myself Lucky: Selected Poems 1963–1992. Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1992. Meanor, Patrick, ed. American Short Story Writers Since World War II. 130. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993.

American author Alfred Chester was born in Brooklyn on September 7, 1928, to immigrant parents. At age seven he lost nearly all the hair on his body to a childhood disease. The event colored his life perceptibly, as mocking peers caused him to withdraw from society and he become more introspective. His mental anguish can also be seen in many of his works, in which characters often feel themselves to be outsiders in one way or another.

Chester entered Washington Square College of New York University in 1945, where he made frequent contributions to NYU publications. After receiving his B.A. in English, he matriculated at Columbia University. He left before receiving a graduate degree and sailed for France in 1950 after a short trip to Mexico. Throughout most of the 1950s, Chester remained in Paris. The city was then a haven for great literary minds, and Chester established friendships with such people as Carson McCullers and James Baldwin. During that time, many of his short stories and essays were published in prominent French magazines; in 1955 Here Be Dragons, a collection of four short stories, was published by a small press in Paris. The next year the work was published in London, followed by Chester’s first novel, Jamie Is My Heart’s Desire .

By the time Jamie Is My Heart’s Desire was published in New York in 1957, Chester’s literary reputation was recognized in the United States. Chester won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1957, and his short stories were chosen for inclusion in Prize Stories 1956: The O. Henry Awards and The Best American Short Stories of 1957 . The sale of the story “A War on Salamis” to the New Yorker provided Chester with the funds to return to New York in 1959. Back in the United States, Chester found himself at the center of the literary scene. His short stories continued to be published, mostly by small literary magazines such as the Transatlantic Review . In contrast to his fiction, his critical works appeared in the most prestigious New York publications, such as the Partisan Review and Commentary . Chester was in constant demand during this time; editors continually hounded him for stories and particularly reviews, which were always much talked-about for their direct attacks on such esteemed writers as J.D. Salinger. Chester resented the demand for his criticism over his fiction, which he felt was the more important avenue for his creative energies.

Wishing to escape the New York literary scene and concentrate on his fiction, Chester moved to Morocco in 1963. He could not completely separate himself from New York literary circles, however, as his poverty forced him to continue doing reviews. His fiction met with even less praise than previously. Disappointment in poor reviews of his fiction increased Chester’s determination to continue writing the way he saw fit. He refused to compromise his ideals and temper his more outrageous work, and he denounced his more conventional works.

While in Morocco, Chester’s mental health suffered. Chester was at the time involved with a bisexual Moroccan, Driss B. L. El Kasri. When Chester’s friend Susan Sontag, then famed for her Notes on Camp, announced her plans to visit Chester, he feared the beautiful writer would steal Driss away from him. (Chester had temporarily lost his companion Arthur Davis in a similar manner in 1959.) For the first time, he began to experience serious conflict over his homosexuality; dealing with it drove him mad. When antisocial and threatening behavior brought on by his madness was called to the attention of the Moroccan authorities, Chester was expelled from the country in 1965. He returned to New York, where his literary production declined along with his mental health. He wrote only one work during that time, The Foot, and refused to write reviews or even to see friends.

Chester did not stay in New York for long, but soon returned to the Morocco he perceived as paradise. He was again expelled. He spent the remaining years of his life wandering from country to country in search of a substitute paradise. He eventually settled in Jerusalem, where he was found dead in 1971. Israeli authorities reported that his death was the apparent result of the alcohol and drugs he took to combat his dementia.

American poet and editor Edward Field was born in Brooklyn on June 7, 1924. For a short time he attended New York University, where he first met the then fledgling writer Alfred Chester. After his stint at the university, Field went to Europe and began his writing career. Many of his poems were published in literary magazines, and his first book, Stand Up, Friend, With Me (1963), won the Lamont Award in 1962. That success was soon followed by others, such as a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Prix de Rome, and the Shelley Memorial Award.

Besides becoming an accomplished poet, Field has also edited anthologies of poetry and produced the narration for the documentary film To Be Alive, which won an Academy Award in 1965. Another of his literary endeavors has been to champion his friend Alfred Chester’s works for reprint and to revive Chester’s literary reputation. He is now the editor of The Alfred Chester Newsletter and collaborates on fiction with Neil Derrick.

From the guide to the Edward Field Alfred Chester archives, 1950–1994, (University of Delaware Library - Special Collections)

American poet and editor Edward Field was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 7, 1924. Field, one of six children, was reared in Lynbrook, Long Island, by his Russian- and Polish-born parents, Louis and Hilda Field. Field’s experiences as a child of Jewish ancestry growing up during the 1930s and early 1940s in this working class neighborhood are reflected in his poetry.

As a member of the Army Air Force during World War II, Field flew more than twenty-five missions as a navigator in heavy bombers. His poem “World War II” narrates his survival of a crash in the North Sea during one of his missions over Europe. Although Field dabbled with poetry during his wartime duty, it was during his return to Europe from 1946 to 1948 that he seriously worked at writing poetry. Field’s association with expatriate American poet Robert Friend and his introduction to the work of Greek poet Constantine Cavafy influenced his development as a poet.

After briefly attending New York University, where he first met writer Alfred Chester, whose literary legacy he continues to champion, Field worked at a variety of jobs. In 1956 he began studying the method-acting technique with Russian emigre Vera Soloviova. Since his training and work as an actor encouraged him to explore his emotions, Field considers it a factor in his development as a poet. The techniques were particularly applicable to reading his poetry in public, providing him with a livelihood during the 1960s and 1970s. He has read his poetry at the Library of Congress and universities throughout the United States, and taught workshops at the Poetry Center (New York YMHA) and several colleges.

Prior to his first published collection of poetry, Field’s poems appeared in such literary magazines as Botteghe Oscure, Evergreen Review, Kenyon Review, The New York Review of Books, Exquisite Corpse, Partisan Review, Poetry, and American Poetry Review .

Edward Field’s first book, Stand Up, Friend, With Me (1963), won the Lamont Poetry Selection award in 1962. The success of Stand Up, Friend, With Me prompted further publications and reading tours, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship (1963–1964). Field has also been honored with the Shelley Memorial Award (1975), the American Academy in Rome Fellowship in Creative Writing (1981), and the Lambda Literary Award in Poetry (1993).

Other published collections of Field’s poetry include Variety Photoplays (1967 and 1979), A Full Heart (1977), Stars in My Eyes (1977), New and Selected Poems from the Book of My Life (1987), and Counting Myself Lucky: Selected Poems, 1963–1992 (1992). Field also edited A Geography of Poets and co-edited, with Gerald Locklin and Charles Stetler, a revision titled A New Geography of Poets in 1992.

Besides being an accomplished poet, Field has edited anthologies of poetry, translated Eskimo songs and stories, and written the narration for the documentary film To Be Alive, which won an Academy Award for best documentary short subject in 1965. His editing has included the work of Alfred Chester, whose literary reputation he continues to revive. Field is the editor of The Alfred Chester Newsletter and has edited Black Sparrow Press’s publications of Head of a Sad Angel: stories, 1953–1966 (1990) and Looking for Genet (1992).

Field’s literary talents also extend to fiction. Using the pseudonym “Bruce Elliot,” he has collaborated with his companion, Neil Derrick, in writing three popular novels, The Potency Clinic (1978), Village (1982), and The Office (1987).

Although Field makes regular trips to Europe, his permanent residence is New York City.

Gwynn, R. S. (ed.) American Poets Since World War II. Second Series. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Volume 105. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1991. pp. 95-103. Some biographical information is derived from the collection.

From the guide to the Edward Field papers, 1943–1994, (University of Delaware Library - Special Collections)