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.
1913
January 21: Celia Thaew born in NYC.
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
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).
July-August: Composes the
second half of “A”-9, although LZ indicates it was begun in 1948.
December 29: Receives Lola
Ridge Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America.
1951
April-May: Composes “A”-11.
June-October: Composes
“A”-12.
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 Ezra 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—Oppen, Reznikoff and Rakosi had made
their visits in the preceding month. 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.
