Horace Gregory

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Gregory, Horace [Victor] (1898–1982), born in Milwaukee and educated at the University of Wisconsin, began his poetic career with Chelsea Rooming House (1930), which illustrates the reaction of a romantic nature swept from the surroundings of home and the academic world into the tough, vital life of Manhattan. Later collections of poetry include No Retreat (1933) and Chorus for Survival (1935), exhibiting his belief that life is bitter and destructive but must be challenged by the will to survive, and Medusa in Gramercy Park (1961). His Collected Poems (1964) was followed by a final volume of poetry, Another Look (1976). Other works include translations of Catullus (1931) and Ovid (1964); Pilgrim of the Apocalypse (1933), a critical study of D.H. Lawrence; The Shield of Achilles (1944), essays on poetry and art; a portrait of Amy Lowell (1958); The World of James McNeill Whistler (1959); and Dorothy Richardson (1967). The Dying Gladiators (1961) collects essays. The House on Jefferson Street (1971) is a memoir. With his wife Marya Zaturenska he wrote a History of American Poetry, 1900–1940 (1946). He taught at Sarah Lawrence College (1934–60) and received the Bollingen Prize (1964).

Horace Gregory 1898–1982, American poet and critic, b. Milwaukee, Wis., grad. Univ. of Wisconsin, 1923. His poetry is noted for its dramatic structure and penetrating insights into the harshness of contemporary life. Among his volumes of poetry are Chelsea Rooming House (1930), Poems, 1930–1940 (1941), and Another Look (1976). As a critic, Gregory was the author of Pilgrim of the Apocalypse (1933), a study of D. H. Lawrence; The Shield of Achilles (1944), essays on poetry; A History of American Poetry, 1900–1940 (1946), written with his wife, the poet Marya Zaturenska; The Dying Gladiators (1961), essays; and Dorothy Richardson: An Adventure in Self-Discovery (1967). He also made translations of the poems of Catullus and of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Bibliography: See his reminiscences (1971) and his collected essays (1973).