John Ciardi: Measure of the Man

Vince Clemente

University of Arkansas Press, Jan 1, 1987 - Biography & Autobiography - 246 pages

Some men make so indelible a mark on the lives of others that a place in time is reserved for them. In this memorial volume, some whose lives have been touched by such a man share their thoughts and memories of the poet, translator, editor, teacher, student, father, son, and husband they knew as John Ciardi.

X.J. Kennedy and Lewis Turco discuss Lives of X, a neglected American classic, which chronicles the years Ciardi spent growing up in Medford, Massachusetts, studying at Tufts, and serving as a gunner in World War II.

Richard Eberhart remembers Ciardi's unforgettable presence, while John Holmes and Roy W. Cowden remember him as a brilliant student and poet at Tufts and at Michigan, where he won the Avery Hopwood Award. Others remember him as a teacher at Harvard and Rutgers. Dan Jaffe writes, "If John Ciardi held to any cause, it was the notion of precision, to an uncompromising excellence, to the notion that to strive was in itself not enough that one needed to judge honestly, to assess courageously, and to respond without flinching."

William Heyden and Norbert Krapf tell how the books I Marry You and How Does a Poem Mean? influenced them as young men. In "john Ciardi: the Many Lives of Poetry," John Nims claims Ciardi as our Chaucer. John Williams, Maxine Kumin, Diane Wakoski, and John Stone write about the Ciardi they knew at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.

Gay Wilson Allen describes the list of contributors to Measure of the Man as a "Who's Who" in American literature. Certainly it is an impressive gathering of poets, critics, and friends who have been touched by John Ciardi. "We are all in his debt," Norman Cousins writes in his essay "Ciardi at The Saturday Review," "and it is important that we say so."

Contents

• It Is for the Waking Man to Tell His Dreams: 1
• About Being Born and Surviving It: 3
• The Many Gifts: 20
• John Ciardis Early Lives: 24
• Thanks John for Being: 32
• Ciardi the Taler: 34
• Teachers of a Teacher: 40
• John Ciardi Tufts Poet: 42
• A Note on John Ciardi at Michigan: 49
• English C 1947: 52
• Letter to an Old Friend: 55
• The Joy of Knowing John Ciardi: 61
• The MidCentury Fifteen a Memoir: 68
• Ciardis Dante: 71
• Form and Style in Ciardis Dante: 74
• John Ciardi and Treat It Gentle: 79
• A Letter to Vince Clemente: 82
• A Blade: 84
• Heart Like a Halfback: 86
• John Ciardi and Jabberwocky in the Indiana Cornfields: 87
• The Many Lived of Poetry: 91
• Ciardi at The Saturday Review: 114
• National Treasure: 117
• Seeing Ciardi Plain: 119
• In Praise of Humor: 123
• Looking for John Ciardi at Bread Loaf: 126
• John Ciardi and the Witch of Fungi: 131
• Dionysian Memories: 133
• Ciardi Remembered: 135
• His Wit and Witness: 141
• A Trentasei for John Ciardi 19161986: 148
• John Ciardis Poems for Children: 150
• A Note on John Ciardi: 153
• A Note on Ciardis Dialogue with Children: 155
• Ciardis Dialogue with Children: 157
• John CiardiNothing Is Really Hard but to Be Real: 162
• Some Clerihews for John: 178
• John Ciardi Science Fiction Writer: 180
• John Ciardi and the White Line under the Snow: 185
• Random Thoughts: 188
• Some Oblique Noted on a Southern Education: 192
• The Good Influence of John Ciardi: 199
• The Last Photograph of John Clardi: 211
• A Conversation with John Ciardi: 213
• Noted on Contributors: 229
• Selected Bibliography: 233
• Index: 239

Bibliographic information

• Title: John Ciardi: Measure of the Man
• Editor: Vince Clemente
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: University of Arkansas Press, 1987
• ISBN: 0938626809, 9780938626800
• Length: 246 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Literary Figures