Giuseppe Ungaretti in Oklahoma: The Old Captain’s Last Voyage, by Ivar Ivask

The Once Over Ivar Ivask John Ciardi, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Luciano Rebay, and Ivar Ivask after presentation of the award certificate, Norman, Oklahoma, March 14, 1970 / Photo by Jim Lucas Today (June 1) marks the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888–1970), the legendary Italian poet who traveled to the University of Oklahoma in March 1970 to be fêted as the very first laureate of what would come to be known as the Neustadt Prize. The following recap by Ivar Ivask, then-editor of Books Abroad and the visionary behind the prize, will be reprinted in Dispatches from the Republic of Letters: Fifty Years of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, forthcoming from Deep Vellum Publishing in October. The anthology, edited by WLT’s current editor in chief, Daniel Simon, gathers the acceptance speeches by the first twenty-five laureates of the prize along with tributes by the jurors who nominated them. Balugina da un faroVerso cui va tranquilloIl vecchio capitano. G.U. Vacationing amidst the solitary Finnish woods and lakes, I am trying to order my impressions of the dramatic events that occurred in connection with Giuseppe Ungaretti between 7 February and 4 June of this year [1970], and in which I was to a certain degree involved. True, I had very briefly met the Italian poet on 17 April 1969 after his highly successful reading at the Poetry Center in New York, where he was presented by Professor Luciano... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'

[ World Literature Today | 2020-06-01 15:51:20 UTC ]

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