Turbyfill, Mark, 1896-1990

Chicago dancer, poet and painter.

From the description of Mark Turbyfill papers, 1911-1985. (Newberry Library). WorldCat record id: 317711431

Mark Turbyfill was born in Oklahoma in 1896 and educated in local schools there until he moved to Chicago at the age of 14. He attended high school in Chicago and remained in the city to pursue poetry and dancing. His early poems were somewhat in the Imagist style, but he also wrote satires in free verse. His most famous poems are Living Frieze, A Marriage with Space, for which he won the Levinson Prize in 1926, and Evaporation, On the Bias. Turbyfill was also awarded the Young Poets' Prize by Poetry in 1919, and was a contributor to Northwestern Essays on Contemporary Thought, edited by Baker Brownell. Though he was a member of Adolf Bolm's ballet in Chicago, Turbyfill is better known for his work as a dance critic. He served as dance critic of The Chicagoan, 1931--1933 and the Chicago Herald and Examiner in 1934, and Chicago correspondent of The Dance in 1931. In addition he served on the faculty of the Goodman Theater in Chicago from 1931 to 1932. He died in 1990.

From the description of Selected Mark Turbyfill letters, 1907-1966. (Southern Illinois University). WorldCat record id: 298240998