John Robinson Jeffers (January 10, 1887–January 20, 1962) was an American poet, known for his work about the central California coast. Most of Jeffers' poetry was written in classic narrative and epic form, but today he is also known for his short verse, and considered an icon of the environmental movement. Robinson Jeffers US stamp File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Robinson Jeffers US stamp File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... January 10 is the 10th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1887 is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar). ... January 20 is the 20th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Poets are authors of poems, or of other forms of poetry such as dramatic verse. ... State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Senators Dianne Feinstein (D) Barbara Boxer (D) Official language(s) English Area 410,000 km² (3rd)  - Land 404,298 km²  - Water 20,047 km² (4. ... In non-technical terms, no matter what the context (whether scientific, philosophical, legal, etc) a narrative is a story, an interpretation of some aspect of the world that is historically and culturally grounded and shaped by human personality (per Walter Fisher). ... Epic can mean: Epic poetry, a style of poetry EPIC, an abbreviation Epic Age, a time period in Indian history Epic, a series of wargames Epic Records, a record label Epic Comics, an imprint of Marvel Comics Epic Illustrated, an anthology series published by Marvel Comics Epic Games, a computer... Environmentalism is the support or involvement with the environmental movement by environmentalists. ...

Life

Jeffers was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a seminary dormitory, the son of a Presbyterian minister, Reverend Dr. William Hamilton Jeffers, and Annie Robinson Tuttle. His brother was Hamilton Jeffers, who became a well-known astronomer, working at Lick Observatory. His family was supportive of his interest in poetry. He traveled through Europe during his youth and attended school in Switzerland. He was a child prodigy, interested in classics and Greek and Latin language and literature. At sixteen he entered Occidental College. At school, he was an avid outdoorsman, and active in the school's literary society. (This article is about the city. ... Presbyterianism is part of the Reformed churches family of denominations of Christian Protestantism based on the teachings of John Calvin which traces its institutional roots to the Scottish Reformation, especially as led by John Knox. ... The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California. ... For other meanings, see Classics (disambiguation) Classics, particularly within the Western University tradition, when used as a singular noun, means the study of the language, literature, history, art, and other aspects of Greek and Roman culture during the time frame known as classical antiquity. ... Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Occidental College, located in Los Angeles, California, is a small, coeducational, liberal arts college. ...

After he graduated from Occidental, Jeffers went to the University of Southern California to study medicine. He met Una Call Kuster in 1906; she was three years his senior, a graduate student, and the wife of a Los Angeles attorney. She and Jeffers began an affair that became a scandal, reaching the front page of the Los Angeles Times. Jeffers left the Los Angeles area and found refuge as a forestry student at the University of Washington. He and Una eloped, and ended up in Monterey County, California. The University of Southern California (also known as USC, SC, Southern Cal, and Southern California), Californias oldest private research university, is located in the urban center of Los Angeles, California. ... The Los Angeles Times (also known as the LA Times) is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California and distributed throughout the western United States. ... The University of Washington, founded in 1861, is a major public research university in the Seattle metropolitan area. ... Location in the state of California Formed 1850 Seat Salinas Area  - Total  - Water 9,767 km² (3,771 mi²) 1,163 km² (449 mi²) 11. ...

Una fell ill with cancer and died in 1950. She had played many roles for him: lover, wife, muse, protectress, and his ears and eyes on the social world he shunned. Jeffers's last volume, Hungerfield and Other Poems (1954), contains a moving eulogy to Una, who for him may have come closest to embodying Inhumanism, his philosophy that the non-human was more important than the human in the cosmos. Jeffers died in Carmel, California; a posthumous collection, The Beginning and the End and Other Poems, appeared in 1963. These five broad types of question are called analytical or logical, epistemological, ethical, metaphysical, and aesthetic respectively. ... Carmel-by-the-Sea is a city located in Monterey County, California. ...

Poetic career

In the 1920s and 1930s, at the height of his popularity, Jeffers was famous for being a tough outdoorsman, living in relative solitude and writing of the difficulty and beauty of the wild. He spent most of his life in Carmel, California, in a granite house that he had built himself called "Tor House". He later built a large four-storey stone tower on the site called Hawk Tower, based on similar structures he had seen traveling through Ireland. Construction on Tor House continued into the late 1950s and early 1960s, and was completed by his eldest son. The completed residence was used as a family home his until descendants decided to turn it over to the Tor House Foundation, formed by Ansel Adams, for historic preservation. The romantic gothic tower was named after a hawk that appeared while Jeffers was working on the structure, and which disappeared the day it was completed. Carmel-by-the-Sea is a city located in Monterey County, California. ... The Tetons - Snake River (1942) by Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American photographer born in San Francisco. ...

During this time Jeffers published volumes of long narrative verse that shook up the national literary scene. These poems, including Tamar and Roan Stallion, introduced Jeffers as a master of the epic form, reminiscent of ancient Greek poets. These poems were full of controversial subject matter like incest, murder and parricide. Jeffers' short verse includes "Hurt Hawks", "The Purse-Seine", and "Shine, Perishing Republic". His intense relationship with the physical world is described in often brutal and apocalyptic verse, and demonstrates a preference for the natural world over what he sees as the negative influence of civilization. Jeffers did not accept the idea that meter is a fundamental part of poetry, and, like Marianne Moore, claimed his verse was not composed in meter, but "rolling stresses". He believed meter was imposed on poetry by man, not a fundamental part of its nature. In an essay titled "Robinson Jeffers & the Metric Fallacy" [[1]], poet and critic Dan Schneider echoes Jeffers' sentiments: "What if someone actually said to you that all music was composed of just 2 notes? Or if someone claimed that there were just 2 colors in creation? Now, ponder if such a thing were true. Imagine the clunkiness & mechanicality of such music. Think of the visual arts devoid of not just color, but sepia tones, & even shades of gray." Marianne Moore photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1948 Marianne Moore (November 15, 1887 - February 5, 1972) was a Modernist American poet and writer. ... Dan Schneider (born 1965) is a United States poet, critic, essayist, and fiction writer best known for his criticism and literary website Cosmoetica. ...

Initially, Tamar and Other Poems received no acclaim, but when East Coast reviewers discovered the work and began to compare Jeffers to Greek tragedians, Boni & Liveright reissued an expanded edition as Roan Stallion, Tamar and Other Poems (1925). In these works, Jeffers began to articulate themes that contributed to what he later identified as Inhumanism. Mankind was too self-centered, he complained, and too indifferent to the "astonishing beauty of things". Jeffers's longest and most ambitious narrative, The Women at Point Sur (1927), startled many of his readers, heavily loaded as it was with Nietzschean philosophy. The balance of the 1920s and the early 1930s were especially productive for Jeffers, and his reputation was secure. In Cawdor and Other Poems (1928), Dear Judas and Other Poems (1929), Descent to the Dead, Poems Written in Ireland and Great Britain (1931), Thurso's Landing (1932), and Give Your Heart to the Hawks (1933), Jeffers continued to explore the questions of how human beings could find their proper relationship (free of human egocentrism) with the divinity of the beauty of things. These poems, set in the Big Sur region (except Dear Judas and Descent to the Dead), enabled Jeffers to pursue his belief that the natural splendor of the area demanded tragedy: the greater the beauty, the greater the demand. As Euripides had, Jeffers began to focus more on his own characters' psychologies and on social realities than on the mythic. The human dilemmas of Phaedra, Hippolytus, and Medea fascinated him. This article refers to the literary work. ... Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 - August 25, 1900) was a highly influential German philosopher. ... These five broad types of question are called analytical or logical, epistemological, ethical, metaphysical, and aesthetic respectively. ... Egocentrism is the practice of regarding oneself and ones own opinions or interests as most important. ... Euripides (c. ... In Greek mythology, Phaedra was the mother of Demophon and Acamas by Theseus. ... In Greek mythology, Hippolytus was a son of Theseus and either Antiope or Hippolyte. ... Medea by Evelyn De Morgan In Greek mythology Medea was the daughter of King Aeetes (Georgian Ayeti) of Colchis (Georgian Kolkheti, now a territory of modern Georgia) and niece of Circe, and later wife to Jason. ...

Many books followed Jeffers' initial success with the epic form, including an adaptation of Euripides' Medea, which became a hit Broadway play starring Dame Judith Anderson. D.H. Lawrence, Edgar Lee Masters, Benjamin De Cassseres, and George Sterling were close friends of Jeffers, Sterling having the longest and most intimate relationship with him. Jeffers was an inspiration to western U.S. photographers of the early twentieth century, including Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. While living in Carmel, Jeffers became the focal point for a small, but devoted group of admirers. Dame Judith Anderson, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1934 Judith Anderson (February 10, 1897 – January 3, 1992) was an Australian stage and film actress. ... D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 - 2 March 1930) was one of the most important, certainly one of the most controversial, English writers of the 20th century, who wrote novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, travel books, and letters. ... Edgar Lee Masters (August 23, 1868 - March 5, 1950) was an American poet, biographer and dramatist. ... George Sterling (1869-1926), was born in Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York, and moved to California in 1890. ... The Tetons - Snake River (1942) by Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American photographer born in San Francisco. ... Edward Weston (March 24, 1886 - January 1, 1958) was an American photographer, and co-founder of Group f/64. ...

At the peak of his fame he was one of the few poets to be featured on the cover of Time Magazine. He was also asked to read at the Library of Congress, and was posthumously put on a U.S. Stamp. His poems have been translated into many languages and published all over the world. He is most popular in Japan and the Czech Republic. William Everson, Edward Abbey, and Mark Jarman are just a few recent authors who have been influenced by Jeffers. He was also an influence on the poetic work of Polish poet Czeslaw Milosc. (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ... Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is the unofficial national library of the United States. ... William Everson (September 10, 1912- June 3, 1994), also known as Brother Antoninus, was a poet during the beat generation and was also an author and fine-press printer. ... Edward Paul Abbey (January 29, 1927 - March 14, 1989) was an American author and essayist noted for his criticism of public land policies and advocacy of environmental issues. ...

The largest collections of Jeffers' manuscripts and materials are in the Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas and in the libraries at Occidental College, the University of California, and Yale University. A collection of his letters has been published as The Selected Letters of Robinson Jeffers, 1887–1962 (1968). Other books of criticism and poetry by Jeffers are: Poetry, Gongorism and a Thousand Years (1949), Themes in My Poems (1956), Robinson Jeffers: Selected Poems (1965), The Alpine Christ and Other Poems (1974), What Odd Expedients" and Other Poems (1981), and Rock and Hawk: A Selection of Shorter Poems by Robinson Jeffers (1987). The University of Texas System comprises fifteen educational institutions in Texas, of which nine are general academic universities, and six are health institutions. ... The University of California (UC) is a public university system within the State of California. ... Yale University is a private university in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

Biographical studies include George Sterling, Robinson Jeffers: The Man and the Artist (1926); Louis Adamic, Robinson Jeffers (1929); Melba Bennett, Robinson Jeffers and the Sea (1936) and The Stone Mason of Tor House (1966); Edith Greenan, Of Una Jeffers (1939); Mabel Dodge Luhan, Una and Robin (1976; written in 1933); Ward Ritchie, Jeffers: Some Recollections of Robinson Jeffers (1977); and James Karman, Robinson Jeffers: Poet of California (1987). Books about Jeffers's career include L. C. Powell, Robinson Jeffers: The Man and His Work (1940; repr. 1973); William Everson, Robinson Jeffers: Fragments of an Older Fury (1968); Arthur B. Coffin, Robinson Jeffers: Poet of Inhumanism (1971); James Karman, ed., Critical Essays on Robinson Jeffers (1990); and Robert Zaller, ed., Centennial Essays for Robinson Jeffers (1991). The Robinson Jeffers Newsletter, ed. Robert Brophy, is a valuable scholarly resource.

Quotations

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Robinson Jeffers

• "There is no reason for amazement: surely one always knew that cultures decay, and life's end is death" (The Purse-Seine, 1937)
• "Long live freedom and damn the ideologies" (The Stars Go over the Lonely Ocean 1940)
• "Corruption never has been compulsory; when the cities lie at the monster's feet there are left the mountains" (Shine, Perishing Republic, 1941)
• "I'd sooner, except the penalties, kill a man than a hawk" (Hurt Hawks, 1926)

Image File history File links i would like to see some quotations by or about goebbels. ... Wikiquote logo Wikiquote is a sister project of Wikipedia, using the same MediaWiki software. ...

Bibliography

• Flagons and Apples. Los Angeles: Grafton, 1912.
• Californians. New York: Macmillan, 1916.
• Tamar and Other Poems. New York: Peter G. Boyle, 1924.
• Roan Stallion, Tamar, and Other Poems. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1925.
• The Women at Point Sur. New York: Liveright, 1927.
• Cawdor and Other Poems. New York: Liveright, 1928.
• Dear Judas and Other Poems. New York: Liveright, 1929.
• Thurso's Landing and Other Poems. New York: Liveright, 1932.
• Give Your Heart to the Hawks and other Poems. New York: Random House, 1933.
• Solstice and Other Poems. New York: Random House, 1935.
• Such Counsels You Gave To me and Other Poems. New York: Random House, 1937.
• The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers. New York: Random House, Be Angry at the Sun. New York: Random House, 1941.
• Medea. New York: Random House, 1946.
• The Double Axe and Other Poems. New York: Random House, 1948.
• Hungerfield and Other Poems. New York: Random House, 1954.
• The Beginning and the End and Other Poems. New York: Random House, 1963.
• Robinson Jeffers: Selected Poems. New York: Vintage, 1965.

External links

• Robinson Jeffers at the Academy of American Poets.
• Robinson Jeffers - Pantheist Poet
• Robinson Jeffers - brief biographical notes.
• Robinson Jeffers bio at Modern American Poetry
• The Answer
• Shine, Perishing Republic
• Review of Robinson Jeffers, Poet of California
• Robinson Jeffers, & The Metric Fallacy
• The Tor House Foundation (Historical site of Jeffers self-built home)
• Poetry landmark: Tor House
• Jeffers Studies
• Centennial Exhibition An online Jeffers' exhibit at Occidental College