Anthony S. Abbott

Last updated
Anthony "Tony" S. Abbott
Born (1935-01-07) January 7, 1935 (age 88)
San Francisco, California
Died(2020-10-03)October 3, 2020
Occupation(s)professor , writer
Years active1959-

Anthony "Tony" S. Abbott was an American college professor and writer. He taught at Davidson College for over 41 years. [1] He received the North Carolina Award for Literature in 2015, the highest award bestowed to a civilian by the State of North Carolina. In November 2018, the Town of Davison, North Carolina awarded him the G. Jackson Burney Community Service Award. [2] In 2020, he was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Abbott was born on January 7, 1935, in San Francisco, California. He graduated from Princeton University in 1957, and received a masters (1960) and doctorate (1962) degree at Harvard University.

Career

He taught at Bates College from 1961 to 1964. In 1964, he started teaching English at Davidson College and eventually became the Charles A. Dana Professor of English Emeritus. Davidson College recognized him with the Thomas Jefferson Award in 1969 and the Hunter-Hamilton Love of Teaching Award in 1997. [4]

He authored two novels and six books of poetry. The book of poetry The Girl in the Yellow Raincoat received a Pulitzer Prize nomination. [5] He was the recipient of the Sam Ragan Awards in 1996 and the Brockman-Campbell Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society in 2012. He served as the President of the North Carolina Writers Network and the Chairmen of the North Carolina Writers Conference. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Penn Warren</span> American poet, novelist, and literary critic

Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935. He received the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel for All the King's Men (1946) and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1958 and 1979. He is the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and poetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Dickey</span> American writer

James Lafayette Dickey was an American poet and novelist. He was appointed the eighteenth United States Poet Laureate in 1966. He also received the Order of the South award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eavan Boland</span> Irish poet, author, and professor (1944–2020)

Eavan Aisling Boland was an Irish poet, author, and professor. She was a professor at Stanford University, where she had taught from 1996. Her work deals with the Irish national identity, and the role of women in Irish history. A number of poems from Boland's poetry career are studied by Irish students who take the Leaving Certificate. She was a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randall Jarrell</span> American writer (1914–1965)

Randall Jarrelljə-REL was an American poet, literary critic, children's author, essayist, and novelist. He was the 11th Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—a position that now bears the title Poet Laureate of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Hecht</span> American poet (1923–2004)

Anthony Evan Hecht was an American poet. His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the Second World War, in which he fought, and the Holocaust being recurrent themes in his work.

Samuel Talmadge Ragan was an American journalist, author, poet, and arts advocate from North Carolina.

George Palmer Garrett was an American poet and novelist. He was the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2002 to 2004. His novels include The Finished Man, Double Vision, and the Elizabethan Trilogy, composed of Death of the Fox, The Succession, and Entered from the Sun. He worked as a book reviewer and screenwriter, and taught at Cambridge University and, for many years, at the University of Virginia. He is the subject of critical books by R. H. W. Dillard, Casey Clabough, and Irving Malin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al Young</span> American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter (1939–2021)

Albert James Young was an American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and professor. He was named Poet Laureate of California by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from 2005 to 2008. Young's many books included novels, collections of poetry, essays, and memoirs. His work appeared in literary journals and magazines including Paris Review, Ploughshares, Essence, The New York Times, Chicago Review, Seattle Review, Brilliant Corners: A Journal of Jazz & Literature, Chelsea, Rolling Stone, Gathering of the Tribes, and in anthologies including the Norton Anthology of African American Literature, and the Oxford Anthology of African American Literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Morris Meredith Jr.</span> American poet

William Morris Meredith Jr. was an American poet and educator. He was Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1978 to 1980, and the recipient of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Donald Bruce Dawe was an Australian poet and academic. Some critics consider him one of the most influential Australian poets of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Hoagland</span> American poet (1953–2018)

Anthony Dey Hoagland was an American poet. His poetry collection, What Narcissism Means to Me (2003), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His other honors included two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a 2000 Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry, and a fellowship to the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. His poems and criticism have appeared in such publications as Poetry Magazine, Ploughshares, AGNI, Threepenny Review, The Gettysburg Review, Ninth Letter, Southern Indiana Review, American Poetry Review and Harvard Review.

Guy Owen was a professor of English who produced many different types of literary works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Dana</span> American poet

Robert Dana was an American poet, who taught writing and English literature at Cornell College and many other schools, revived The North American Review and served as its editor during the years 1964–1968, and was the poet laureate for the State of Iowa from 2004 to 2008.

Scott Owens is an American poet, teacher, and editor living in Hickory, North Carolina.

Elizabeth "Betty" Sharp Adcock is an American poet and a 2002–2003 Guggenheim Fellow. Author of six poetry collections, she has served as a faculty member in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers in Asheville, North Carolina and in the Writer-in-Residence program at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has also held residencies at Lenoir-Rhyne College, Kalamazoo College, and Duke University, and has twice served as Visiting Distinguished Professor at North Carolina State University.

Robert Pack is an American poet and critic, and Distinguished Senior Professor in the Davidson Honors College at the University of Montana - Missoula. For thirty-four years he taught at Middlebury College and from 1973 to 1995 served as director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. He is the author of twenty-two books of poetry and criticism. Pack has been called, by Harold Bloom, an heir to Robert Frost and Edwin Arlington Robinson, and has himself published a volume of admiring essays on Frost's poetry. He has co-edited several books with Jay Parini, including Writers on Writing: A Breadloaf Anthology.

Alex Grant is a Scottish-born American poet and instructor.

Grace Beacham Freeman was an American poet, columnist, short story writer and educator. She wrote a syndicated column "At Our House" from 1954 to 1964 and was named by Governor Richard Wilson Riley as the fourth South Carolina Poet Laureate from 1985 to 1986.

Jim Wayne Miller was an American poet and educator who had a major influence on literature in the Appalachian region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vievee Francis</span> American poet

Vievee Elaure Francis is an American poet. She is an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College. She earned an MFA from the University of Michigan in 2009, and she received a Rona Jaffe Award the same year. Vievee is the author of three collections of the poetry, the third of which, Forest Primeval, won the 2016 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for poetry and the 2017 Kingsley Tufts poetry award.

References

  1. Taylor, Hannah. "Anthony Abbott: More Than Words", Charlotte Magazine online, March 19, 2014. Retrieved April 24, 2021.
  2. Williams, Marguerite. "Remembering Anthony S. "Tony" Abbott", News of Davison website, October 4, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2021.
  3. "Anthony S. Abbott", North Carolina Writers' Network. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  4. Hurley, Madeline. "Remembering Tony Abbott: Poet, Beloved Professor and Founder of the Abbott Honors Program", Davidson College website, October 7, 2020 (originally published October 17, 2016). Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  5. "Former professor is honored for poetry", The Charlotte Observer , July 1, 2012, page 1N and 7N.
  6. "Professor to speak at poets' meeting", Rocky Mount Telegram , volume 90, number 319, August 31, 2000, page 5B.