Randall Jarrell was born in Nashville,
Tennessee, on May 16, 1914. His family soon moved to California, his parents
were divorced, and he spent a year or so in Hollywood with grandparents and a
great-grandmother. He then returned to Nashville, where he spent a somewhat
drab Depression childhood. His refuge was books and the local public library.
Jarrell
studied at Vanderbilt University, moving from psychology to English. In
1937-39 he taught at Kenyon College, and his friends there --- John Crowe
Ransom, Robert Lowell, and the novelist Peter Taylor --- have all written of
his gaiety, learning, and bright assurance. In 1942 he enlisted in the Army
Air Corps. He washed out as a pilot, then served as a control tower operator
working with B-29 crews.
After the war in
1946 Jarrell taught at Sarah Lawrence and served as acting literary editor of
the Nation; from 1947 until his death he taught at the Women's College
of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and occasionally visited
other colleges and universities. In 1965 he was struck by a car and died.
__________
Ellmann, Richard and Robert O'Clair. Modern Poems: An
Introduction to Poetry.
New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1973, p. 324.
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ARTICLE - 1
Selected Poems
MODERN POEMS
An Introduction to Poetry
edited by Richard Ellmann & Robert O'Cair
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