Aaron Kramer

Aaron Kramer
Born (1921-12-13)December 13, 1921
Brooklyn, NY
Died April 4, 1997(1997-04-04) (aged 75)
Oakdale, New York
Occupation poet, translator, literary critic
Language English
Nationality American
Alma mater Brooklyn College, New York University
Period 1937-1996
Notable works Seven Poets in Search of an Answer (1944), The Poetry and Prose of Heinrich Heine (1948), The Prophetic Tradition in American Poetry (1968), Melville's Poetry: Toward the Enlarged Heart (1972)
Spouse Katherine
Children Carol, Laura
Website
aaronkramer.com

Aaron Kramer (13 December 1921 – 7 April 1997[1]) was an American poet, translator, and social activist. A lifelong poet of political commitment, he wrote 26 volumes of poetry, three of prose, and ten of translations between 1938 and (published posthumously) 1998. Kramer taught English at Dowling College in Oakdale, Long Island, New York.[2]

Biography

Aaron Kramer was born in Brooklyn, New York. He received his B.A. (1941) and M.A. (1951) from Brooklyn College and Ph.D. (1966) from New York University.[3] Kramer wrote his first protest poems in the mid-1930s when he was barely a teenager, through his pointed critiques of the 1983 war in Grenada and Ronald Reagan's 1985 visits to Nazi graves in Bitburg.[1] Kramer wrote poems about the Holocaust for four decades. In the 1930s, He started writing poems about the Spanish Civil War and continued throughout most of his life. He also had an interest on writing in and commitment to testify about African American history. .[1] His first poems about exploited labor appeared in 1934 and his last were published in 1995. Kramer’s 1937 poem “The Shoe-Shine Boy” published when he was only fifteen years old.[1] He adopted traditional meters—favoring iambic trimeters, tetrameters, and pentameter—in part to install a radical politics within inherited rhythms. His earliest poems about the suppression of freedoms in the United States date from 1938 and continued writing them through the 1980s. Kramer wrote his first pamphlet in 1938 titled The Alarm Clock, it was funded by a local Communist Party chapter. .[1] Kramer also produced translations of “Rilke: Visions of Christ” and “Der Kaiser von Atlantis”, the opera composed by Viktor Ullmann in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1943. Kramer was one of the few American writers to produce one a series of poems about McCarthyism, from satiric "The Soul of Martin Dies" (1944) to "Called In" (1980), his poem of outrage against those compelled to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).[1] Kramer first gained national prominence with Seven Poets in Search of An Answer (1944) and The Poetry and Prose of Heinrich Heine (1948). His masterpiece is his 26 poems compromising the 1952 sequence “Denmark Vesey", about plans for aborted 1822 slave revolt in Charleston, South Carolina.[1]

In addition to poetry, Kramer published collections of translations. These include several works on Heine, Rilke, Yiddish poets, and poems on the Holocaust. Lifelong pen friend Sohail Adeeb (poet, critic, literary editor) translated some of Kramer's works into Urdu.[1]

"From "The Murdered Dreams of Aaron Kramer: A Marxist Poet in the 'American Century'"

Kramer was... the widower of a lost Communist faith who never truly remarried, an artist haunted by dreams murdered by Hitler and Stalin.

The alternatingly celebratory, stoic, and melancholic poetry of Aaron Kramer might be seen, among other ways, as the overlooked and divided love child of Pablo Neruda and Howard Zinn.[4]

Kramer was moved by the support he received by writers around the world who rallied to support him in his stand against McCarthyism.[1]

Kramer held various jobs until obtaining started teaching English at Dowling College in 1961, where he taught until 1996.[1][5][6]

Private life and death

Kramer married Katherine and had two daughters, Carol and Laura.[2]

He died April 7, 1997, age 75 at his home in Long Island.[2]

Outook

Kramer's artistic identity took shape in New York City during the late 1930s and early 1940s, where he moved in left-wing literary circles and absorbed many of their attitudes and ideals. Although never affiliated with a party or ideology, Kramer consistently pursued progressive political themes in his poetry. He often wrote passionately about the injustices he perceived. Slavery and abolition were frequent themes of his early work ("Denmark Vesey," "The Ballad of August Biondi"). Racism, war and imperialism, and economic inequality were also repeated motifs in his poetry. On the other hand, Kramer frequently wrote about private, personal experiences. Both sides of his work display an idealism and optimism concerning the human capacity for endurance and compassion.[3]

Published works

Kramer's critical books include The Prophetic Tradition in American Poetry (1968) and Melville’s Poetry (1972).[1] Kramer collaborated with artists on The Tune of the Calliope: Poems and Drawings of New York and edited the 1972 anthology On Freedom’s Side: American Poems of Protest.[1] He wanted to radicalize root and branch the American literary tradition, not abandon it for alternative forms. He translated and edited the work 135 Yiddish poets were published as part of “A Century of Yiddish Poetry”.

Drawing largely from the records of Dowling College[7] and his obituary in the New York Times,[2] Kramer's published works include:

Recordings:

Scholarly Works:

Anthologies:

Poetry:

Collection:

Essays:

Translations:

Edited and translated:

Editing:

"In later years, Kramer co-edited West Hills Review: a Whitman Journal, and edited or co-edited numerous other anthologies."[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Aaron Kramer". (unknown). 17 March 2006. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Aaron Kramer, Poet And Translator, 75". The New York Times. 12 April 1997. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 "Biography". University of Michigan. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
  4. ↑ Wald, Alan (April 2016). "The Murdered Dreams of Aaron Kramer: A Marxist Poet in the "American Century"". Science & Society. pp. 147–169. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
  5. ↑ Wannermeyer, Teresa. "In Memoriam: Aaron Kramer". Dowling College. Archived from the original on 14 September 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
  6. ↑ "Aaron Kramer Collection". Connetquot Public Library. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
  7. ↑ "A Guide to Materials on Aaron Kramer" (PDF). Dowling College. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
  8. ↑ "Wicked Times: Selected Poems". University of Illinois Press. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
  9. ↑ Nelson, Cary. "About Aaron Kramer". Illinois University - Modern American Poetry. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
  10. ↑ Kramer, Aaron (13 April 1945). "The Death of President Roosevelt" (PDF). English 88, Modern & Contemporary American Poetry, Al Filreis, University of Pennsylvania (Fall 2010). Retrieved 3 April 2016.
  11. ↑ "Wicked Times: Selected Poems". University of Illinois Press. 2004. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
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