John Berryman (1914-1972)

A selective list of critical articles on American poet John Berryman, favoring signed scholarly articles and books, peer-reviewed sources, sources supervised by (named) editors, and web sites that adhere to the MLA Guidelines for Web Sites.

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Literary criticism

Beach, Christopher. "The Confessional Moment." On the challenge to New Criticism raised by poets Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton, and John Berryman. In The Cambridge Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Poetry (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003). Preview at Google Books.

Clifford, C.E. "'Blazing Like Disease': John Berryman and the Dis-Ease of Suicide." In The Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, no date

Francescato, Simone. "Lost Voices of the Trans-Atlantic Journey: Three Texts by John Berryman, Robert Hayden and J.M. Coetzee," published in 49th Parallel (e-journal)

Galassi, Jonathan. John Berryman: Sorrows and Passions of His Majesty the Ego, in Poetry Nation 2, 1974

Haffenden, John, ed. Berryman's Shakespeare: Essays, Letters and Other Writings (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Reviewed in the Boston Globe, 3/7/99 by William H. Pritchard

Mancini, Joseph, Jr. "A Hearing Aid for Berryman's 'Dream Songs.'" First page of article only. Modern Language Studies, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Winter, 1979-1980), pp. 52-59

Meredith, William. "In Loving Memory of the Late Author of the Dream Songs." The Virginia Quarterly Review, no date

Meyers, Jeffrey. John Berryman and the Thirties. On Berryman's letters to his mother. In National Review, June 24, 1988

Moss, Robert F. "Berryman's Last Hurrah," on The Freedom of the Poet. By John Berryman. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1976). In The Virginia Quarterly Review, Autumn 1976

Provost, Sarah. "Erato's Fool and Bitter Sister: Two Aspects of John Berryman." First page of article only. Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring, 1984), pp. 69-79

Siegel, Muffy E.A. "'The Original Crime': John Berryman's Iconic Grammar." First page of article only. In Poetics Today, Vol. 2, No. 1a, Roman Jakobson: Language and Poetry (Autumn, 1980), pp. 163-188

Smith, Ernest J. John Berryman's short fiction: elegy and enlightenment, in Studies in Short Fiction, Summer, 1993

Smith, Ernest J. A substantial introduction to John Berryman from the Literary Encyclopedia, 7/7/01

Travisano, Thomas J. Midcentury Quartet: Bishop, Lowell, Jarrell, Berryman, and the Making of a Postmodern Aesthetic [Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, Randall Jarrell, John Berryman] (Univ. of Virginia Press, 1999). Preview at Google Books.

Wojahn, David. "'In All Them Time Henry Could Not Make Good': Reintroducing John Berryman." On the rise and fall of poets' reputations, particularly Berryman's. In Blackbird, Virginia Commonwealth Univ., 4,2 (Fall 2005)

Introduction, overview

An introduction to John Berryman, plus excerpts of critical discussions of some of his poems, from Modern American Poetry Site (Univ. of Illinois), Edward Brunner and Cary Nelson. Sections on: Berryman's Life and Career; On The Dream Songs; On "Dream Song 1"; On "Dream Song 4"; On "Dream Song 5"; On "Dream Song 14"; On "Dream Song 22"; On "Dream Song 29"; On "Dream Song 45"; On "Dream Song 46"; On "Dream Song 55"; On "Dream Song 76"; On "Dream Song 384"; On "Negro Minstrelsy" in The Dream Songs

An introductory article on John Berryman's career, includes list of works and a secondary reading list, from the Poetry Foundation

John Berryman Paris Review Interview: The Art of Poetry No. 16 Interviewed by Peter A. Stitt , Issue 53, Winter 1972

The dreamer wakes: John Berryman, by Steve Healey, City Pages, 9/9/98

Laurence Lieberman remembers personal encounters with Berryman. "Hold the Audience: A Brief Memoir of John Berryman," WebdelSol (web site).

Brief news article on a 1997 reading in John Berryman's honor, from The Columbia University Record

W.D. Snodgrass talks about his encounters with John Berryman in an interview by Philip Hoy in Between the Lines

"John Berryman." An introduction to Berryman. Also "A Brief Guide to Confessional Poetry." Academy of American Poets.

A succinct summary of modern American poetry discusses John Berryman's importance, from the Academy of American Poets site

A search of the Virginia Quarterly Review on John Berryman's name produces results from the VQR vault, including typescripts of rejection letters and of some of the Dream Songs

main page | 20th-century literature | 20th-century poetry | confessional poetry | about literaryhistory.com

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