The Philolexian Society of Columbia University
John Hollander
Yale Sterling Professor; Rhyme's Reason; Yale Series of Younger Poets selection.
From Notable Alumni · Foundation editorial
Yale Sterling Professor; Rhyme's Reason; Yale Series of Younger Poets selection. John Hollander (CC 1950) belonged to the most intimidating Columbia cohort of the postwar period (Ginsberg, Howard, Epstein, Gottlieb — with Trilling and Van Doren on the lectern) and, under the mentorship of Trilling and Van Doren, emerged from it as that cohort's most disciplined craftsman. Rhyme's Reason, his short verse-form primer, is the rare prosody manual that working poets actually keep on the shelf; Types of Shape turned the page itself into the poem. Yale eventually retained him as Sterling Professor; the MacArthur Foundation, less surprisingly, awarded him a fellowship.
Vital
- Full name
- John Hollander
Columbia & the Society
- Columbia
- Class of 1950 (Columbia College)
- Society role
- Former President of the Philolexian Society (per CCT v.29). One of the mid/late-1940s revivers of the Philolexian Society.
Works (45)
- 1958 A Crackling of Thorns · Yale Series of Younger Poets
- 1961 The Untuning of the Sky: Ideas of Music in English Poetry, 1500–1700 · Criticism
- 1961 The Wind and the Rain: An Anthology of Poems for Young People · Editor, with Harold Bloom
- 1962 Movie-Going and Other Poems · Atheneum
- 1964 Philomel · Text for Milton Babbitt's electronic cantata
- 1965 Visions from the Ramble · Atheneum
- 1966 The Quest of the Gole · Illustrated verse-fable
- 1967 Jiggery-Pokery: A Compendium of Double Dactyls · Co-edited with Anthony Hecht
- 1968 Modern Poetry: Essays in Criticism · Editor
- 1969 Types of Shape · Original
- 1970 Images of Voice: Music and Sound in Romantic Poetry · Criticism
- 1971 The Night Mirror: Poems · Atheneum
- 1972 Town and Country Matters: Erotica and Satirica · Limited edition (5,000 copies)
- 1973 The Oxford Anthology of English Literature · Co-editor, with Frank Kermode
- 1974 The Head of the Bed · Godine chapbook, with commentary by Harold Bloom
- 1975 Tales Told of the Fathers · Atheneum
- 1975 Vision and Resonance: Two Senses of Poetic Form · Criticism
- 1976 Reflections on Espionage: The Question of Cupcake · Book-length poem
- 1978 Spectral Emanations: New and Selected Poems · Atheneum
- 1979 Blue Wine and Other Poems · Johns Hopkins University Press
- 1981 Rhyme's Reason · Criticism
- 1981 The Figure of Echo · Criticism
- 1983 Powers of Thirteen · Original
- 1986 In Time and Place · Johns Hopkins University Press
- 1986 Some Fugitives Take Cover · Limited edition
- 1988 Harp Lake · Knopf
- 1988 Melodious Guile: Fictive Pattern in Poetic Language · Criticism, Yale UP
- 1990 The Essential Rossetti · Editor
- 1991 William Bailey · New York: Rizzoli, 1991
- 1993 American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century · Editor, two-volume anthology
- 1993 Selected Poetry · Retrospective selection
- 1993 Tesserae and Other Poems · Knopf
- 1994 Animal Poems · Editor
- 1995 The Gazer's Spirit: Poems Speaking to Silent Works of Art · Criticism/anthology
- 1996 Committed to Memory: 100 Best Poems to Memorize · Editor
- 1997 The Work of Poetry · Criticism, essay collection
- 1998 The Poetry of Everyday Life · Criticism
- 1999 Christmas Poems · New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999
- 1999 Figurehead and Other Poems · Knopf
- 2001 Sonnets: From Dante to the Present · Editor
- 2003 American Wits: An Anthology of Light Verse · Editor
- 2003 Picture Window · Knopf
- 2005 Poems Bewitched and Haunted · Editor
- 2008 A Draft of Light · Knopf
- 2016 The Substance of Shadow: A Darkening Trope in Poetic History · Criticism, based on his 1999 Clark Lectures
Primary sources
The Columbia Daily Spectator
1947-04-22 Prize Winners Announced For Boar's Head Reading announced prize winners
Prize Winners Announced For Boar's Head Reading Coman Leavenworth, Allen Ginsberg, and Theodore Melnechuk are the winners of the $lOO Boar's Head Poetry Contest sponsored jointly by Philolexian and the Columbia Review, it was announced yesterday by John Hollander, outgoing editor of Review. Leavenworth, Ginsberg, and Melnechuk, who are the recipients of a fifty dollar and two twentyfive dollar prizes respectively, will read their verse along with seven other finalists in the contest tonight at 8 o'clock in Earl Hall. W. H. Auden, renowned British poet, will be present at the Boar's Head Poetry Reading, along with many students and members of the faculty. The final group of poems was submitted for the consideration of the judges, Professors Andrew J. Chiappe and Lionel Trilling, who commented upon the generally high quality of the Boar's Head Poetry this year. All of the verse read…
1948-05-04 Prize Poetry Will be Read prize winner
Prize Poetry Will be Read Stephen Spender, noted English poet now lecturing at Sarah Lawrence College, will attend as guest speaker and will lead an informal discussion of the poetry read at the annual Boar's Head Poetry Reading tonight at 8:30 in the Browsing Room of the Library. Free to all who are interested in poetry, the Reading is sponsored jointly by the Columbia Review and the Philolexian Society, and will feature a reading and discussion of the winning poems in the recent Boar's Head Poetry Contest. The winners of the contest, who will recite their poetic creations this evening were announced last week by Norman Kelvin and Donald Friedman, co-chairmen of the competition. Sharing first place were John Hollander and Allen Ginsberg, while Ted Melnechuk captured second prize. The three winners will divide the $5O award. The judges of the contest, Professors Mark Van Doren and…
1949-05-06 Boar's Head Winners Meet Blackmuir Tonight prize winner reading poem
Boar's Head Winners Meet Blackmuir Tonight The annual Boar's Head meeting, sponsored jointly by Columbia Review and the Philolexian Society, will be held at 8 P. M. tonight in the Browsing Room of Butler Library. John Hollander and Robert Laguardia, first prize winners, and Paul Schacter, third prize winner in the Boar's Head poetry contest, will read their winning poems. R. P. Blackmuir, eminent poet and critic, is to be the guest speaker. After his address he will lead an informal discussion and answer questions from the audience. The Boar's Bead issue of the Review will be distributed at the meeting. Only 300 copies will be available, and every one who wishes to be sure of getting a copy is advised to come to the meeting.
Columbia College Today & other articles
Columbia College Today — vol. 43 (2002), Philolexian bicentennial dinner report
Poet and Yale professor John Hollander '50 received the first Philolexian Award for Alumni Literary Achievement and delivered the keynote address, in which he recounted his student days and the group's history. "Whatever discontinuities in the nature of Philolexian we may observe between then and now — of letter and spirit, form and function, ceremony and belief — any institution in modern life that has survived for two centuries without noticeably having contributed to human misery can surely celebrate its bicentennial without embarrassment," he said.
Hollander was the inaugural recipient of the Philolexian Award for Alumni Literary Achievement (2002 bicentennial) and delivered the keynote address at the black-tie dinner in Low Library. Also confirmed as attending the bicentennial in the Class of 1950 class notes.
Columbia College Today — vol. 29 (Spring/Summer 1987), 'The sentimental hero' by Thomas Vinciguerra '85
John Hollander '50, a professor of English at Yale who is also an eminent poet and former Philolexian president, sums up current attitudes toward Kilmer's writings when he calls them 'sentimental journalism.'
Former President of the Philolexian Society.
Columbia College Today — vol. 41 (~2001), Class of 1948 alumni class notes — reminiscence by Ted Melnechuk '48 about Sylvain Bromberger
Sylvain Bromberger, back in our student days at Columbia, was one of the literary bunch who revived the Philolexian Society and edited or wrote for the Columbia Review; others included Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Gold '46, Daniel G. Hoffman '47, John Hollander '50, Norman Kelvin, Louis Simpson '49GS, and me.
One of the mid/late-1940s revivers of the Philolexian Society.
The Foundation's research archive
alumni_1925_1985
full entry added by hand in the right-hand column; X in blue · Confidence: CERTAIN
External references
Community-maintained record
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