Edward Field | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 7, 1924 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Other names | Bruce Elliot (pseudonym with Neil Derrick) |
| Occupation(s) | Poet, author |
| Partner | Neil Derrick (died 2018) |
| Awards | Lamont Poetry Prize (Academy of American Poets) |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch | United States Army Air Forces |
| Rank | Officer |
| Unit | 8th Air Force |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
Edward Field (born June 7, 1924) is an American poet, novelist, memoirist, and anthologist.
Field was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to a family of Ashkenazi immigrants. He grew up in Lynbrook, New York, and, being Jewish, [1] [2] he and his family faced antisemitism and discrimination. He played cello in the "Field Family Trio", which had a weekly radio program on WGBB in Freeport.
Field served in World War II with the Eighth Air Force in England and France as a navigator in heavy bombers, flying 25 missions over Germany. In February 1945, he took part in a raid on Berlin. His B-17 was crippled by flak and crash-landed in the North Sea. All ten crew members reached the life rafts, but only seven survived until rescued by a British air-sea vessel hours later.
In 1959, Field met Neil Derrick. As Field later recalled: "I was working in the typing pool of an advertising agency, and the supervisor assigned the typewriter next to me to a new temp, a terrific-looking young man from California named Neil Derrick. It was a case of immediate attraction between WASP and Jew." [3] In 1972, the couple moved to the nonprofit artists' housing Westbeth Artists Community in New York City's West Village. [4] Derrick died on January 5, 2018. Field continues to reside at Westbeth and is regarded as one of the building’s notable residents. [5]
Field began writing poetry during World War II, after a Red Cross worker gave him an anthology of poetry. His 1963 debut, Stand Up, Friend, With Me, won the Lamont Poetry Prize and was published by Grove Press. William Carlos Williams called it "clean, straight writing that knows what a poem could be made of," and judge Mark Van Doren praised it as "one of the best I have read in years." In 1964, Field received a Guggenheim Fellowship.
In 1966, a film for which Field wrote the narration, To Be Alive! , won an Academy Award in that category.
In 1978, Field and his partner Neil Derrick (1931–2018), [6] began publishing novels under the pseudonym "Bruce Elliot." Their first was The Potency Clinic. Their historical novel Village, set in 1845 Greenwich Village, became a bestseller and included cameo appearances by Walt Whitman, Henry James, Mabel Dodge, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and others. It was later revised and reissued as The Villagers.
In 1979, Field edited the anthology A Geography of Poets. He later co-edited A New Geography of Poets (1992) with Gerald Locklin and Charles Stetler.
In 1992, Field received a Lambda Literary Award for Counting Myself Lucky: Selected Poems 1963–1992. [7]
In 2003, editor Harvey Shapiro included Field's poem "World War II" in the Poets of World War II anthology (Library of America).
In 2005, Field received the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from Publishing Triangle. That same year, the University of Wisconsin Press published his memoir The Man Who Would Marry Susan Sontag and Other Intimate Literary Portraits of the Bohemian Era, referring to the writer Alfred Chester. [8] Publishers Weekly described the book as "very charming" and "of serious interest to anyone intrigued by New York literary life of the 1950s and '60s." [9]
Field’s next collection, After the Fall: Poems Old and New (2007, University of Pittsburgh Press), was praised by Publishers Weekly as "direct, likable, modest, charming, a storyteller." [10] The Brooklyn Rail called it “accessible and urgent,” while Booklist wrote that Field’s new poems, written after 9/11, may be “the best 9/11 protest poems yet.”
In 2011, British editor Diana Athill published Instead of a Book: Letters to a Friend (Granta Books), a collection of her correspondence with Field spanning over thirty years. [11] [12]
In 2019, Field’s niece Diane Weis produced the animated short Minor Accident of War, inspired by his wartime experiences. The film, designed by Piotr Kabat, features Field narrating his poem "World War II". [13]
Throughout his career, Field has given readings at the Library of Congress and the 92NY’s Unterberg Poetry Center, and taught workshops there as well as at Sarah Lawrence College and Hofstra University. His honors include the Shelley Memorial Award, the Prix de Rome (American Academy of Arts and Letters), and the Lamont and Lambda prizes. He also edits The Alfred Chester Society Newsletter.
Field turned 100 on June 7, 2024. [14] Publishers Weekly has called him “irreplaceable in the history of gay American writing.” [10]
Field's poetry and essays have appeared in, among others, The New Yorker , The New York Review of Books , Gay & Lesbian Review , Partisan Review , The Nation , Evergreen Review , The New York Times Book Review , Michigan Quarterly Review , Raritan Quarterly Review , Parnassus , and The Kenyon Review .
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