Mezey, Robert

Robert Mezey, writer, was born in 1935 in Philadelphia. Winner in 1960 of the Lamont Award for The Lovemaker, he has published many poetry collections, coedited Naked Poetry (1969), and was one of several translators for Poems from the Hebrew (1973). Evening Wind , a book of poems, appeared in 1987. His poems, prose, and translations have been appearing since 1953 in many journals, including The Hudson Review, The New Criterion, The Partisan Review, and the Yale Review among others. His books of poetry include The Lovemaker, White Blossoms, A Book of Dying, and The Mercy of Sorrow. In 1982, Syracuse University Press published his annotated translation of Caesar Vallejo's novel, Tungsteno. In 1987, Evening Wind won a P.E.N. prize and the Bassine Citation. His Collected Poems were published by University of Arkansas Press in 2000. He edited, with Donald Justice, the Collected Poems of Henri Coulette. He has also published in the last few years his editions of Thomas Hardy: Selected Poems (Penguin) and The Poetry of E. A. Robinson (Modern Library). His awards include the Robert Frost Prize, the Lamont Selection (for The Lovemaker), an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a fellowship from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, one from the Guggenheim Foundation, and from the National Endowment of Arts.

From the description of Robert Mezey Collection ca. 1952. (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis). WorldCat record id: 319490609

Robert Mezey was born in 1935 in Philadelphia. He attended Kenyon College where he became acquainted with James Wright and Tony Stoneburner. He served in the U.S. Army before earning his B.A. from the University of Iowa in 1959. He worked as a probation officer, advertising copywriter, and social worker, did graduate study at Stanford, and began teaching English at Case Western Reserve University in 1963.

After a year as poet-in-residence at Franklin and Marshall College, he joined the English department of California State University, Fresno, spent three years at the University of Utah, and settled in 1976 at Pomona College in Claremont, California where he has been a professor and poet-in-residence.

Winner in 1960 of the Lamont Award for The Lovemaker, he has published many poetry collections, coedited Naked Poetry (1969), and was one of several translators for Poems from the Hebrew (1973). Evening Wind, a book of poems, appeared in 1987. His poems, prose, and translations have been appearing since 1953 in many journals, including The Hudson Review, The New Criterion, The Partisan Review, and the Yale Review among others.

His books of poetry include The Lovemaker, White Blossoms, A Book of Dying, and The Mercy of Sorrow . In 1982, Syracuse University Press published his annotated translation of Caesar Vallejo's novel, Tungsteno . In 1987, Evening Wind won a P.E.N. prize and the Bassine Citation. His Collected Poems were published by University of Arkansas Press in 2000. He edited, with Donald Justice, the Collected Poems of Henri Coulette . He has also published in the last few years his editions of Thomas Hardy: Selected Poems (Penguin) and The Poetry of E. A. Robinson (Modern Library).

His awards include the Robert Frost Prize, the Lamont Selection (for The Lovemaker ), an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a fellowship from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, one from the Guggenheim Foundation, and from the National Endowment of Arts.

Biographical information from The Alsop Review and The Bedford/St. Martin's Press websites.

From the guide to the Robert Mezey Collection, ca. 1952, (University of Minnesota Libraries. Literary Manuscripts Collection, Manuscripts Division [mss])