Norman Macleod
Norman Macleod was an American poet, editor, and novelist born in Oregon, who became prominent in the literary scene from a young age. He began publishing poetry in Western newspapers as a boy and went on to have a diverse literary career, including founding two literary magazines during his time at the University of New Mexico. His second magazine, *Morada*, caught the attention of notable poets such as Ezra Pound. Macleod served as the American editor for the avant-garde magazine *The Front* and contributed to various European publications.
After relocating to Paris in 1932, he became politically engaged, experiencing tumultuous events that led to his deportation and eventually a move to the Soviet Union, where he worked for the *Moscow Daily News*. Disenchanted with Stalinist policies, he returned to the U.S. and continued his writing and teaching career. Over the years, Macleod published numerous works, including poetry collections and novels, while also receiving accolades such as the Horace Gregory Award and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He spent his later years teaching at various institutions, culminating in a long tenure at Pembroke State University in North Carolina. His literary legacy includes ten published books, along with an autobiography reflecting on his life and experiences.
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Norman Macleod
Writer
- Born: October 1, 1906
- Birthplace: Salem, Oregon
- Died: June 5, 1985
- Place of death: Greenville, North Carolina
Biography
Born in Oregon, Norman Macleod began publishing poetry in Western newspapers while still a boy. He married his first wife, Catherine Herbert Stuart, at twenty; in all he would marry five times, be divorced five times, and have three children. Before leaving the University of New Mexico, Macleod would found two literary magazines; the second would become famous. Although short-lived, Morada, published from 1929 to 1930, was noticed by poets such as Ezra Pound and Harry Crosby, editor of the Black Sun Press in Paris, with whom Macleod began a correspondence. Within the year he’d also made friends with poet and future publisher Robert McAlmon.
By 1930, Macleod had become American editor of the multilingual avant-garde magazine The Front, which published works by writers such as Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, John Dos Passos, and McAlmon. In the same year, he began publishing poems of his own in the surrealist magazine transition 19/20 [sic]. He published in other European and French magazines such as the New Review, This Quarter, and Monde. By the time he traveled to Paris in 1932, he was already known as an editor and poet.
While in Paris, Macleod became socially active and more political; a fight with French police got him deported, and before long he was meeting with communists in Holland. He moved in 1933 to the Soviet Union and worked for the Moscow Daily News, but soon was dismayed by the tenure of Stalinist Russian and returned to New York, where he worked for Harper’s Magazine.
In 1934, his first collection of poetry, Horizons of Death, was published, and was noted for its wide range of subjects, covering life in the West, Paris, and socialism. In 1936, he received his master’s degree from Columbia and published his second book of poetry, Thanksgiving Before November. In 1939, he published his first novel, You Get What You Ask For; he would edit an anthology of poetry in 1940 titled Calendar, and in 1941 publish both a second novel (The Bitter Roots) and a third volume of poetry (We Thank You All the Time).
After a brief stint at Western State College of Colorado, Macleod began teaching at the University of Maryland (from 1942 to 1944), where he founded The Maryland Quarterly. Moving on to teach at Briarcliff, he took the magazine with him, retitling it the Briarcliff Quarterly, where he would publish writers such as William Carlos Williams. He continued to be prolific, publishing a book of poetry (A Man in Midpassage) in 1947 and in 1952 (Pure As Nowhere), all of them winning some acclaim and notoriety. With a few breaks at government jobs, Macleod continued to teach at various colleges throughout his life, spending the last eleven years of his life at Pembroke State University in North Carolina. Macleod won a Horace Gregory Award for poetry in 1972 and a National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship in 1974. He published ten books, including his autobiography, I Never Lost Anything in Istanbul (1978).