Oppen, Mary, 1908-1990

Poet, artist, and spouse of Pulitzer Prize winning poet George Oppen. She is perhaps best known for MEANING A LIFE (1978), an account of George's and her marriage. She died in 1990.

A writer, artist, and wife of Pulitzer Prize winning poet George Oppen.

Mary Oppen was born in 1908 in Kalispell, Montana, and was raised in rural Oregon. In 1928 she met George Oppen at Oregon State University. The two left the university before finishing their first years, were soon married, and began a life long journey that led them to New York City, where they became associated with the Objectivists poets and active in the communist party during the 1930s, to France in the mid-1930s where they published a handful of avant-garde literary works, to Mexico in the 1950s in flight from the FBI who were persecuting the Oppens for their leftist activities, and back to New York and then San Fransciso, where the Oppens finally began to thrive as members of the artist community. The details of her life are recorded in Meaning a life (1978), Mary Oppen's account of her life before and with George Oppen. Mary Oppen died in 1990, six years after her husband.

Biography

The story of Mary Oppen's life is told in an autobiography entitled Meaning A Life. Born Mary Colby in Kalispell, Montana, Oppen was raised in the Pacific Northwest. She met George Oppen in 1928 while both were students at Oregon State University. Together they travelled extensively and finally took up residence in New York City. There they joined a circle of artists and writers, among whom were the poets Charles Reznikoff and Louis Zukofsky. During the 1930s the Oppens involved themselves in leftist political movements and joined the Communist Party U.S.A in 1935 after the seventh World Congress of the Communist Parties called for intellectuals to join in a united front against fascism and war. After the second World War, in which George Oppen was wounded while serving in the European theater, the Oppens were persecuted by the US government for their leftist activities during the depression. Rather than testify against friends and associates, the Oppens decided to flee to Mexico in 1950, where they found their way to Mexico City's United States emigre and refugee circle. In the late 1950s George Oppen began writing again after a 25 year hiatus and the Oppens soon relocated to New York City. In the later part of the 1960s, the Oppens took up residence in the San Francisco Bay area, which is where George's family was largely located. For a time, they summered at Deer Isle, Maine, where they entertained a number of east coast writers such as Ted Enslin, Rachel DuPlessis, and John Taggart. George Oppen died in 1984; Mary died six years later, on 14 May 1990. Both are survived by a daughter, Linda Oppen Morelatos.