Sol Funaroff

Sol Funaroff (May 1, 1911-October 29, 1942) was an American poet.

Biography

Funaroff was born in Beirut, to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants. ^[1] His family moved across several European countries before immigrating to New York. ^[2] He was educated at Franklin Lane High School in Brooklyn, where he edited the high school literary magazine, and he later took evening courses at City College. ^[3] At the beginning of his literary career he joined the John Reed Clubs, a group he later described as "instrumental in raising the battle-cry of proletarian art" ^[4]

He was a follower of the Dynamo school of poetry, along with Muriel Rukeyser and Kenneth Fearing. ^[5] In 1933, Funaroff founded Dynamo Press. ^[6] The first book Funaroff published in the Dynamo Press poetry series was his friend Edwin Rolfe's book To My Contemporaries. ^[7] In 1938, Funaroff worked on the Federal Writers' Project guidebook to New York City, collaborating on the book with Richard Wright and Maxwell Bodenheim. ^[8]

In his poetry, Funaroff avoided abstract themes and focused on modern society and the depictions of the working class. ^[9] In common with other poets of the Dynamo School, his works depict modern machinery as a symbol of progress and the improvement of humanity. ^[10] In many works, he used assemblage to depict the lives of the American workers. ^[11] Mike Gold described Funaroff's works as a combination of "abstract manifesto and personal lyricism". ^[12] Funaroff's works used modernist techniques influenced by the cinematic montage "to visualize the social and political themes" of his works. ^[13] Funaroff's Marxist politics made him critical of other prominent poets. Funaroff published "What the Thunder Said: A Fire Sermon", a 1938 parody of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land , that used montage techniques in its depiction of Communist revolution. ^[14] He also criticized the limited focus of William Carlos Williams, comparing him to a painter of miniatures, rather a muralist who could depict society on a large scale. ^[15] Funaroff wrote that Objectivism lacked a purpose and an understanding of the capitalist roots of poverty. ^[16]

Funaroff was active in the Keep America Out of War Committee, arranging a reading of anti-war poetry for the group. ^[17] He also wrote the poem for Anna Sokolow's solo dance The Exile. ^[18]

His funeral was organized by the International Workers Order and featured tributes from Samuel Sillen and Joy Davidman. ^[19] Kenneth Rexroth wrote about Funaroff in his poem "Thou Shalt Not Kill", along with other dead poets from the 1930s, asking "What became of Jim Oppenheim? Where is Sol Funaroff?" ^[20]

Bibliography

• The Spider and the Clock. New York: International Publishers, 1938.
• Exile From a Future Time: The Posthumous Poems of Sol Funaroff. New York: Dynamo, 1943.

References

1. Rood, Tim (2005). The sea! The sea! the shout of the ten thousand in the modern imagination. London; Woodstock, NY: Duckworth Overlook. p. 195. ISBN   978-1-58567-664-4.
2. Graham, Helen (2012). The War and Its Shadow: Spain's Civil War in Europe's Long Twentieth Century. Sussex Academic Press. p. 77. ISBN   9781845195106.
3. Wald, Alan M. (2012). Exiles From a Future Time: The Forging of the Mid-Twentieth-Century Literary Left. University of North Carolina Press. p. 205. ISBN   9781469608679.
4. Tilkin, Anita (November 1, 1938). "A Worker - An Extraordinary Poet". The Daily Worker. p. 7.
5. Kertesz, Louise (1980). The poetic vision of Muriel Rukeyser. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. p. 9. ISBN   978-0-8071-0552-8.
6. Nelson, Cary; Hendricks, Jefferson (1990). Edwin Rolfe: A Biographical Essay and Guide to the Rolfe Archive at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. University of Illinois Press. p. 19. ISBN   9780252061790.
7. Thurston, Michael (2003). Making something happen : American political poetry between the world wars. University of North Carolina Press. p. 2. ISBN   9780807875001.
8. Mangione, Jerre (1996). The dream and the deal : the Federal Writers' Project, 1935-1943. Syracuse University Press. p. 245. ISBN   9780815604150.
9. Brown, Leonard; Perrin, Porter G., eds. (1935). A Quarto of Modern Literature. Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 225.
10. Kertesz, Louise (1980). The poetic vision of Muriel Rukeyser. Louisiana State University Press. p. 9. ISBN   080710552X.
11. Goldstein, Laurence (1996). The movies : texts, receptions, exposures. University of Michigan Press. p. 76. ISBN   9780472066407.
12. Nelson, Cary (1989). Repression and recovery : modern American poetry and the politics of cultural memory, 1910-1945. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 151. ISBN   9780299123444.
13. Nelson, Emmanuel S. (2005). The Greenwood encyclopedia of multiethnic American literature. Vol. 2. Greenwood Press. p. 777. ISBN   0313330611.
14. Goldstein, Laurence (1995). The American poet at the movies : a critical history. University of Michigan Press. p. 75. ISBN   9780472083183.
15. Kalaidijan, Walter B. (1993). American culture between the wars : revisionary modernism & postmodern critique. Columbia University Press. p. 108. ISBN   9780231082792.
16. Marsh, John (2011). Hog butchers, beggars, and busboys : Poverty, labor, and the making of modern American poetry. University of Michigan Press. p. 230. ISBN   9780472071579.
17. Folsom, Franklin (1994). Days of anger, days of hope: a memoir of the League of American Writers, 1937 - 1942. Niwot, Colo: Univ. Press of Colorado. p. 193. ISBN   978-0-87081-332-0.
18. Warren, Larry (1991). Anna Sokolow: the rebellious spirit. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Book Co. p. 77. ISBN   978-0-87127-162-4.
19. "Funaroff's Death Mourned Here". The Daily Worker. November 2, 1942. p. 5.
20. Theado, Matt (2003). The Beats: A Literary Reference. Da Capo Press. p. 86. ISBN   9780786710997.