Alfred Kreymborg
Alfred Kreymborg was an influential American poet, editor, and playwright born on December 10, 1883, in New York City. The son of a German cigar roller, Kreymborg exhibited remarkable talent from a young age, teaching himself various instruments and excelling in chess. Despite experiencing challenges in formal education, including dropping out of high school, he dedicated himself to poetry, drawing inspiration from music. His early works included the 1908 collection "Love and Life, and Other Studies," and he played pivotal roles in several literary magazines, including "Musical Advance" and "American Quarterly." Kreymborg's innovative approach to poetry, particularly his use of free verse, was influenced by the Imagist movement. He gained further recognition through his editing of "Others, a Magazine of the New Verse," and his verse play "Lima Beans," which was well-received. His literary career took him to Europe, where he interacted with prominent avant-garde artists and writers, further enriching his contributions to modernist literature. Kreymborg's legacy is marked by his role in shaping the modernist movement in both the United States and Europe, continuing to write until his death in 1966.
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Alfred Kreymborg
Poet
- Born: December 10, 1883
- Birthplace: New York, New York
- Died: August 14, 1966
Biography
Alfred Kreymborg was born in New York City’s East Side on December 10, 1883, the son of Hermann Charles Kreymborg, a German-born cigar roller and shop owner, and Louise (Nascher) Kreymborg. The youngest of five children in a Roman Catholic family, he was by all accounts a prodigious child; by 1893, he had taught himself to play the mandolin and to play chess. He later taught himself to play piano, culminating in his passion for music. Despite his intelligence, he was forced to repeat his sophomore year at the public high school and eventually dropped out completely.
Though Kreymborg could not write musical scores, he instead wrote poetry informed by music. He struggled for more than a decade to get his poetry published and was unable to earn a living playing chess. Finally, in 1908, Kreymburg published a small collection of poetry, Love and Life, and Other Studies, and landed a managing editor job with Musical Advance. In 1913, he started his own literary magazine, American Quarterly, but that publication failed. Musical Advance also failed, unimproved by Kreymborg’s attempt to turn a music magazine into a literary one.
Undaunted, Kreymborg, who had been immersing himself in the bohemian ways of Greenwich Village, began a new literary publication, Glebe, in September, 1913.The new endeavor was both an art and literary review, funded by local bookstore owners Albert and Charles Boni. But Kreymborg’s appreciation for newly emerging American poets, specifically the Imagists, contradicted the tastes of the Boni brothers for the more ensconced European writers, and Kreymborg gave up the project. In 1914, he published Erna Vitek, a novella about a local waitress, and sought to publish a second story about a department store clerk. Frustrated, he gave up fiction writing for poetry, with poets Walt Whitman and Robert Browning as his mentors.
In 1915, he became editor of Others, a Magazine of the New Verse, and remained at that job for four years. That same year, Bruno Chap Books published his manuscript Edna, the Girl of the Streets, a story based on his actual meeting with a prostitute. The story was considered obscene and charges were brought against his publisher Guido Bruno, who eventually was acquitted.
Kreymborg also learned to write free verse, giving musical value to words and composing poems as one would compose musical scores; this was the style of Mushrooms: A Book of Free Forms, a poetry collection published in 1916. The book demonstrated the influence of the Imagist poets, with their minimalist approach to capturing the essence of an image in a concentrated form. Ever the diversified talent, Kreymborg joined the Provincetown Players, where he produced and directed his verse play, Lima Beans, to great success. Optimistic again, he wrote for, and performed in, traveling puppet theatre shows.
In 1920, Kreymborg published another collection of free verse. A year later, he moved to Europe to edit a new arts magazine, Broom, based in Rome. On his way to Rome in June, 1921, he visited Paris where, through artists Marcel Duchamps and Man Ray, whom he had known in New York, he met the Dadists Jean Cocteau, Valery Larbaud, and Tristan Tzara. He also met authors James Joyce and Gertrude Stein before he went to Rome to launch Broom in November, 1921. Kreymborg left Broom a year later due to disagreements with its publisher, and returned to the United States, where he remained until his death in 1966. He continued to write verse plays, poems, and literary criticism. Kreymborg is remembered as one of the writers who helped galvanize, shape, and support the modernist movement in the United States and Europe.