David Rytman Slavitt (born 1935) is a writer, poet, and translator; the author of more than 100 books.

In addition to serious novels and numerous Greek and Latin translations, Slavitt wrote a number of popular novels under the pseudonym Henry Sutton, starting in the late 1960s. The Exhibitionist (1967) was a bestseller and sold over 4 million copies. He has also published popular novels under the names of David Benjamin, Lynn Meyer (the name of his first wife), and Henry Lazarus.[1][2][3][4]

His first work, a book of poems titled Suits for the Dead, was published in 1961. He worked as a writer and film critic for Newsweek from 1958 to 1965.[2][5]

Henry S. Taylor, winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, has written, "David Slavitt is among the most accomplished living practitioners" of writing, "in both prose and verse; his poems give us a pleasurable, beautiful way of meditating on a bad time. We can't ask much more of literature, and usually we get far less."[6]

Biography

Personal life

Slavitt was born in White Plains, New York on March 23, 1935, the son of Samuel Saul Slavitt (a lawyer) and Adele Beatrice Slavitt (a paralegal).

Slavitt attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where his first writing teacher was Dudley Fitts.[7] He received an undergraduate degree from Yale University (where he studied under Cleanth Brooks[7] and Robert Penn Warren and was elected class poet, "Scholar of the House," in 1956[8]), graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (magna cum laude), and then a Master's degree in English from Columbia University in 1957.[9]

He was married to Lynn Nita Meyer on August 27, 1956. They had three children: Evan Meyer, Sarah Rebecca Slavitt Bryce, and Joshua Rytman Slavitt; while raising their young children, the Slavitts lived for some years in Miami, Florida. David and Lynn were divorced on December 20, 1977.[9]

Slavitt was not divorced from his children, however, and boasted in a 2011 interview: "What amazes me is not the 100 books, but the fact that I am 76 and have nine grandchildren."[1]

Slavitt married Janet Lee Abrahm (a physician) on April 16, 1978.[9]

Politically, he has identified himself as an Independent. He and his first wife are Jewish and raised their children in that faith.[9]

He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[10]

Writing career

Before becoming a full-time free-lance writer in 1965, Slavitt worked at various jobs in the literary field. These included a stint in the personnel office of Reader's Digest in Pleasantville, New York; teaching English at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta (1957-1958); and a variety of jobs at Newsweek in New York. Slavitt began there as a mailroom clerk, was promoted to the positions of book reviewer and film critic, and earned the position of associate editor from 1958 to 1963. He edited the movies pages from 1963 to 1965.

Okla Elliott, a professor and Illinois Distinguished Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, has written of Slavitt that he "served as an associate editor at Newsweek until 1965, teaching himself Greek on his 35-minute commute. In his last two years at Newsweek, he had a reputation as an astute, sometime cranky, but always readable 'flicker picker' and gained some notoriety for his film reviews there."[1]

Slavitt taught as an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1977, and at Temple University, in Philadelphia, as associate professor from 1978 to 1980. Slavitt was a lecturer at Columbia University from 1985 to 1986, at Rutgers University in 1987, and at the University of Pennsylvania in 1991. He has served as a visiting professor at the University of Texas at El Paso and other institutions. He has given poetry readings at colleges and universities, at the Folger Shakespeare Library, and at the Library of Congress.[9]

In the 1960s, Slavitt was approached by Bernie Geis & Associates to write a big book, a popular book, which he agreed to if he could use a pseudonym. As Henry Sutton, in 1967 he published The Exhibitionist, which sold more than 4 million copies. He followed this with The Voyeur in 1968 and three more novels as Henry Sutton. In the 1970s, he also used the pen names of Lynn Meyer and Henry Lazarus for novels written for the popular market.[1]

Slavitt has published numerous works in translation, especially classics, from Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Spanish and French.[8]

Writing routine

Slavitt described a typical writing day in an essay entitled: "A Day in the Life of David R. Slavitt" (1999):

"Do you write with a fountain pen?" is an inevitable question one gets at readings and such public appearances. The assumption is that if only one picked the right tool, one could do that! ... But to get that out of the way, I write on a computer (an ancient Mac Performa I'm about to replace) and correct drafts with a fountain pen (Pelikan, Mont Blanc, Cross, Waterman, Parker, Sheaffer - I have a pleasing array of them). I wake sometime between seven and nine, depending on how late I was up reading the night before. I pour my coffee and bring it to the computer in the small study that was originally a dressing room. I turn on the CD player (at the moment, the Shostakovich preludes and fugues are playing), check the email, reply to whatever's urgent, play a few games of solitaire, and then get to what I'm working on. There is almost always a longish project to which I can repair for entertainment and occupation. But I will put that aside, whatever it is, if a poem presents itself to me. ... I write until noon and then have a light lunch. The mail usually comes in around midday, and I'll look through that. I may read a little (in connection with some project or other, or in search of one, or just for entertainment) or look at newspapers or magazines (the usual ones, but The Georgia Review, Pequod, and Shenandoah are on the nightstand at the moment). If the work has been going well, I may put in another hour in the afternoon. Or I will run errands and shop. Or cook, which is pleasant to do after a session with words because it's physical and tactile, and the payoff is immediate. I generally exercise for half an hour (on a stationary bicycle, usually watching Inside Politics on CNN, which is the best — or least bad — thing on then). My wife gets home around 6:30 PM, and inasmuch as the main purpose of writing is to get through the day until drinks-time, I can pop a cork and declare the day a success.[11]

Politics

In 2004, Slavitt unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, losing to longtime incumbent Timothy J. Toomey, Jr..[12] He explored the race in his 2006 non-fiction book Blue State Blues: How a Cranky Conservative Launched a Campaign and Found Himself the Liberal Candidate (And Still Lost).[13][14] Jonathan Yardley, reviewing the book, said that Slavitt "was challenged by his son Evan -- a Republican activist" to run, and that Slavitt described himself as "economically conservative and socially moderate."[14]

Bibliography

Title Year Publisher Notes
Suits For the Dead 1961 Scribner Poetry.[15][16] (Scribner series: Poets of today, vol. 8)
The Carnivore 1965 University of North Carolina Press Poetry. Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winner Henry S. Taylor praises one poem, Elegy for Walter Stone, as one of Slavitt's "most ambitious."[6]
Rochelle, or, Virtue Rewarded 1966 Chapman & Hall A novel. Printed in the USA by Delacorte Press in 1967.
The Exhibitionist 1967 Bernard Geis Associates A novel about "a prominent actress and her prominent father,"[2] written under the name Henry Sutton.[17] Slavitt told an interviewer, "The book sold 4,000,000 copies and put my kids through college."[18]
King Saul 1967 The American Place Theatre A play.
The Voyeur 1968 Bernard Geis Associates An erotic novel, written under the name Henry Sutton. Advertised with a New York Times Square billboard, a first in New York book promotions.[8]
Feel Free 1968 Delacorte Press Novel.
Day Sailing and Other Poems 1969 University of North Carolina Press Poetry.
The Cardinal Sins 1969 The Playwright's Unit A play.
Anagrams 1970 Hodder & Stoughton Novel. Republished in New York by Doubleday, 1971.
Vector 1970 Random House A science fiction novel, written as Henry Sutton.
Eclogues of Virgil 1971 Doubleday Translated from the Latin, the Eclogues of Virgil.
ABCD: A Novel 1972 Doubleday Novel.
The Eclogues and the Georgics of Virgil 1972 Doubleday Translated from the Latin, the Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil.
Child's Play 1972 Louisiana State University Press Poetry.
The Outer Mongolian 1973 Doubleday A tragicomic novel of alternate history, tinged with science fiction, in which a child with Down syndrome becomes a genius and an Éminence grise, eventually helping Richard Nixon to win the 1968 presidential election in order to bring an end to the Vietnam War.
The Liberated 1973 Doubleday Novel.
The Killing of the King 1974 Doubleday / W.H. Allen Novel.
Vital Signs: New and Selected Poems 1975 Doubleday Henry S. Taylor wrote that this collection "established Slavitt as one of the most interesting poets in the country."[6]
Paperback Thriller 1975 Avon A mystery novel, written under the pseudonym Lynn Meyer. Honors: Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel (1976). ISBN 0-380-31336-7.
King of Hearts 1976 Arbor House Novel. ISBN 0877951535.
That Golden Woman 1976 Fawcett Publications Novel, written as Henry Lazarus. ISBN 0-449-13518-7.
Understanding Social Life: An Introduction to Social Psychology 1976 McGraw-Hill Co-authored with Paul F. Secord and Carl W. Backman, a treatise on social psychology.
Jo Stern 1978 Harper & Row Novel. Okla Elliott described it as "a literary novel," based loosely on Jacqueline Susann, "about a writer who cranks out trashy materials to make a living" and "which takes a more serious and literary approach to the world of high-money publishing and the people who make up the lit biz."[1] ISBN 978-0-06-013994-0.
The Sacrifice: A Novel of the Occult 1978 Grosset & Dunlap Novel, written as Henry Sutton. ISBN 044814719X.
Rounding the Horn 1978 Louisiana State University Press Poetry.
The Idol 1979 Putnam A novel about Hollywood, written under the pseudonym David Benjamin.[19] A young actress "captivates the imagination of a nation and goes on to become the most glamorous movie star in the world."[20]
Cold Comfort 1980 Methuen Publishing Novel.
The Proposal 1980 Charter Books An erotic novel about swinging, written as by Henry Sutton.
Dozens 1981 Louisiana State University Press Slavitt wrote that these poems were "in memory of my father."[21] ISBN 0-8071-0787-5.
Ringer 1982 E. P. Dutton "A novel based on the German landing on Eastern Long Island in 1942."[22]
Big Nose 1983 Louisiana State University Press Taylor writes that many of the poems in this collection are characterized by "wicked enjoyment."
Alice at 80 1984 Doubleday A novel based on the relationship between Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell. Sandor G. Burstein of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America described it as "a revisionist view of Lewis Carroll's relations with his child friends. Mr. Slavitt sees Carroll (Dodgson) through the narrow focus of Freudian glasses."[23] ISBN 978-1937402235.
The Elegies to Delia of Albius Tibillus 1985 Bits Press Translation of the Latin poetry of Tibullus.
The Agent 1986 Doubleday A novel co-authored with Bill Adler. A suspicious and varied cast of characters become suspects when someone tries to kill Leonard Castle, one of New York's most distinguished and powerful literary agents.[24]
The Walls of Thebes 1986 Louisiana State University Press Poetry.
The Tristia of Ovid 1986 Bellflower Press Taylor writes that Slavitt's translation of "these long, self-pitying poems" is "in a class with the best translations of the century."[6]
The Cock Book, or, The Child's First Book of Pornography 1987 Bits Press Publishers Weekly writes that this is "the Slavitt book that fetches the highest price today ... It's a children's book, #36 The Cock Book, a send up of Dr. Suess's One Fish, Two Fish. 'It's just impish, as indeed I am. It's not shocking,' says Slavitt, who is pleased that its value has held up on the used book market. Unlike the Sutton novels that go for a penny, it fetches between $500 and $600."[2]
The Hussar 1987 Louisiana State University Press Novel.
Physicians Observed 1987 Doubleday Religious Publishing Group Non-fiction.[25] The book was the basis of a filmed discussion, "Medicine and Matrimony: Patterns of Impairment," featuring Slavitt, his wife Janet Abrahm, and Dr. Karen Dembeck Poehailos of Charlottesville, VA. It was produced by the University of Virginia as part of a series entitled "Medical Center Hour", filmed on April 12, 1989. The panel discusses the unique stresses brought on marriage by the socialization process of medicine. Slavitt draws upon his experience being married to a physician (Dr. Abrahm) and into a multi-physician family.[26]
Salazar Blinks 1988 Atheneum A novel about 20th century Portugal in the days of dictator António de Oliveira Salazar.
Equinox and Other Poems 1989 Louisiana State University Press Poetry.
Ovid's Poetry of Exile 1989 Johns Hopkins University Press A collection of epistolary poems translated from the Latin of Ovid.[27]
Lives of the Saints 1990 Atheneum A novel in which the "saints" are "the victims of a shopping-mall mass murder, and their hagiographer a seamy, nameless narrator assigned by his editor at the Star ... to write a story on them. Still numb from his own bereavement--a drunk driver killed his wife and daughter--the narrator tries to connect himself to his subjects..."[28]
Eight Longer Poems 1990 Louisiana State University Press Poetry.
Short Stories Are Not Real Life 1991 Louisiana State University Press Short story collection. ISBN 9780807116654.
Virgil 1992 Yale University Press Slavitt puts Virgil's poems in their biographical and historical context and provides analyses of the "Eclogues", the "Georgics", and the "Aeneid". He also looks at Virgil's continuing popularity and at the legends that grew up about him in the Middle Ages as a magician or necromancer.[29]
Seneca: The Tragedies, Volume I 1992 Johns Hopkins University Press Translated from the Latin plays about classical mythology by Seneca the Younger.
Turkish Delights 1993 Louisiana State University Press Novel.[30] ISBN 978-0-8071-1813-9.
The Fables of Avianus 1993 Johns Hopkins University Press Translations of 42 fables by Avianus show a world in flux in which humor and cunning provide the means of survival for animals.[31]
Crossroads 1994 Louisiana State University Press Poetry. Arthur Mortensen compared some of the work with W. H. Auden's and praised "Slavitt's unrelenting ear and eye" and the many "strong pieces (and sometimes very funny poems as well)." He called it "highly recommended": "This book is not easy... Crossroads is a clear example of how poets can address tragedy not as a matter of personal therapy but of public meaning."[32]
The Metamorphoses of Ovid 1994 Johns Hopkins University Press Written between AD 2 and 8, Ovid's poem, the "Metamorphoses", gave a great number of Greek and Roman myths the form in which they are known today. Slavitt offers a new English verse translation of Ovid's "Metamorphoses".[33]
The Cliff 1994 Louisiana State University Press A comedic novel in which a problem-laden adjunct assistant professor, Jack Smith, accidentally receives an invitation intended for a more famous Jack Smith, to spend time at a writer’s colony in Italy. Publishers Weekly called it "witty and playful."[34] Magill Book Reviews wrote, "Slavitt's fiftieth book offers a satiric look at the cosseted world of creative and scholarly retreats, their beneficiaries, staffs, and administrators, as well as creative and academic life more generally."[35]
Seneca: The Tragedies, Volume II 1995 Johns Hopkins University Press This volume presents renditions into contemporary English of five of the surviving tragedies of Seneca the Younger. It brings together a group of translators in a second and final volume that brings to completion this collection of Seneca's extant tragedies.[36]
A Gift: The Life of Da Ponte 1996 Louisiana State University Press A poetical biography of Lorenzo Da Ponte.
Hymns of Prudentius: The Cathemerinon, or, The Daily Round 1996 Johns Hopkins University Press Translation of Prudentius from the Latin. A pioneer in the creation of a Christian literature, Prudentius is generally regarded as the greatest of the Christian Latin poets, and his legacy informed the work of future poets, among them George Herbert and John Donne. Prudentius wrote two collections of hymns: the Cathemerinon Liber and the Peristephanon. The former, a collection of twelve songs - in English, "The Daily Round"—is translated here by Slavitt.
Sixty-One Psalms of David 1996 Oxford University Press Translation of the Psalms of David from Hebrew. He told an interviewer that he chose sixty-one psalms because he had had his 61st birthday.[7]
Epic and Epigram: Two Elizabethan Entertainments 1997 Louisiana State University Press Free-form translations from the Latin epigrams of Welsh poet John Owen. Includes Duessa's version: a dirge in seven canticles.[37] ISBN 0807121517.
The Oresteia of Aeschylus 1999 University of Pennsylvania Press Translations from the Greek of Aeschylus on the stories of Orestes and Agamemnon, and the rest of the cursed family.
Broken Columns: Two Roman Epic Fragments 1997 University of Pennsylvania Press Slavitt translates works by Publius Papinius Statius: The Achilleid, an unfinished epic poem by Publius Papinius Statius that was intended to present the life of Achilles from his youth through his death at Troy.
Epinician Odes and Dithyrambs of Bacchylides 1998 University of Pennsylvania Press Slavitt brings new life to the surviving fifteen epinician odes and five dithyrambs of Bacchylides.
PS3569.L3 1998 Louisiana State University Press Poetry. The joke hidden in Slavitt's title is that these letters and numbers represent the Library of Congress Classification for Slavitt himself. Librarians would laugh, then sigh, and then try to work out a new "library call number" for the novel's title. It is all intended in good fun.
Solomon Ibn Gabirol's A Crown For the King 1998 Oxford University Press Text in English and Hebrew, with Hebrew on opposite pages. ISBN 0195119622 .
A New Pleiade: Seven American Poets 1998 Louisiana State University Press An anthology of poems by seven American poets: Fred Chappell, Kelly Cherry, R. H. W. Dillard, Brendan Galvin, George Garrett, David R. Slavitt, and Henry Taylor. ISBN 9780807123294.
Aristophanes, 1: The Acharnians, Peace, Celebrating Ladies, Wealth 1998 University of Pennsylvania Press The Acharnians / translated by Jack Flavin. Peace / translated by Fred Beake. Celebrating ladies / translated by David R. Slavitt. Wealth / translated by Palmer Bovie.
Three Amusements of Ausonius 1998 University of Pennsylvania Press Translations of Latin epigrams. Ausonius, the most famous of the learned poets active in the second half of the fourth century, was born at Bordeaux and taught school there for thirty years before being summoned to court to teach the future emperor Gratian. He subsequently held important public offices, returning to Bordeaux and private life after Gratian's death in 383.
Aeschylus. 2: The Persians, Seven against Thebes, The Suppliants, Prometheus Bound 1998 University of Pennsylvania Press Edited by Slavitt and Smith Palmer Bovie. Translations by David R. Slavitt, Stephen Sandy, Gail Holst-Warhaft, and William Matthews. A volume of the tragedies of Aeschylus which relates the historic defeat and dissolution of the Persian Empire on the heels of Xerxes disastrous campaign to subdue Greece, the struggle between the two sons of Oedipus for the throne of Thebes, the story of fifty daughters who seek asylum from their uncle, the king of Egypt. (Penn Greek Drama Series) ISBN 0812216717.
The Poem of Queen Esther by Joao Pinto Delgado 1999 Oxford University Press This is a translation of a Spanish poem based on the biblical book of Esther. The author, Joao Pinto Delgado (c. 1585-1653), was born in Portugal and settled with his parents in Rouen, where he and his father were leading figures in the crypto-Jewish Marrano community.
Get Thee to a Nunnery: Two Shakespearean Divertimentos 1999 Catbird Press This collection consists of two novellas, which Slavitt humorously referred to as "an accident": "I'd written a play about Romeo and Juliet which never quite got out of workshop. And I turned that into a novella, which publishers really hate because they're hard to sell. George Garrett suggested that I write another to go with it, and I did this batty version of Measure for Measure set as a western, which was kind of fun (but no one seems to have read Measure for Measure, so there were few readers who could get the joke.)"[1]
The Voyage of the Argo: The Argonautica of Gaius Valerius Flaccus 1999 Johns Hopkins University Press Translated from the Latin story of Jason and the Argonauts by Gaius Valerius Flaccus. "With The Voyage of the Argo, poet and translator David Slavitt recovers for modern readers the only surviving work of this little-known writer. The result is an engaging rendition of Jason's adventures, of particular interest when compared to the Greek version of the story. While Apollonius's tale offers a subtle [psychological] study of Medea, Valerius Flaccus's achievement is to present Jason as a more complete and compelling heroic figure."[38]
The Book of the Twelve Prophets 2000 Oxford University Press Oxford UP writes, "This is a glittering new translation of the portion of the Hebrew Bible known as the Book of the Twelve Prophets, or the Twelve "Minor" Prophets. ... At the time when all biblical books were written on scrolls, these twelve brief prophetic texts were traditionally written on a single scroll, and so came to be considered a single book. "Minor" with respect to length only, they are from the literary point of view some of the most interesting texts in the Bible — passionate, visionary, and written with genuine literary sophistication. David Slavitt's brilliant modern translation breathes fresh life into these powerful ancient texts."[39]
The Latin Odes of Jean Dorat 2000 Orchises Translated from the French of Jean Daurat.
Falling From Silence: Poems 2001 Louisiana State University Press Poetry.
The Book of Lamentations: a Meditation and Translation 2001 Johns Hopkins University Press The Book of Lamentations is a collection of poetic laments for the destruction of Jerusalem. In the Hebrew Bible it appears in the Ketuvim ("Writings"); in the Christian Old Testament it follows the Book of Jeremiah, as the prophet Jeremiah is its traditional author.
Sonnets of Love and Death of Jean de Sponde 2001 Northwestern University Press "This bilingual edition of Sonnets of Love & Death introduces today's readers to the intriguing world of Jean de Sponde, a neglected sixteenth-century poet who has at last taken his proper place in the pantheon of French poets..."
Propertius In Love: The Elegies 2002 University of California Press "These ardent, even obsessed, poems about erotic passion are among the brightest jewels in the crown of Latin literature. Written by Propertius, Rome's greatest poet of love, who was born around 50 b.c., a contemporary of Ovid, these elegies tell of Propertius' tormented relationship with a woman he calls "Cynthia." Their connection was sometimes blissful, more often agonizing, but as the poet came to recognize, it went beyond pride or shame to become the defining event of his life. Whether or not it was Propertius' explicit intention, these elegies extend our ideas of desire, and of the human condition itself."
Poems of Manuel Bandeira 2002 Sheep Meadow Press "A superb translation of one of Brazil's great Modernist poets," translated by Slavitt. English and Portuguese on facing pages.
Aspects of the Novel: A Novel 2003 Catbird A "new kind of narrative for the new century. Slavitt adroitly blends the comic monologue, the essay, and the conventional story line into an innovative form. Aspects's theme is universal: a mature man, struggling with depression, assesses his life. The book is funny and sad. It is written in Slavitt's inimitable vernacular style that makes all his work a delight."[40] ISBN 0-945774-56-7.
The Phoenix and Other Translations 2004 New American Press Translations from Latin, French, and Sanskrit.
The Regrets of Joachim du Bellay 2004 Northwestern University Press Jonathan Yardley wrote, "Apart from [Slavitt's political] campaign, the major event in his life during 2004 was the publication of a translation of The Regrets of Joachim du Bellay, "a Pleiade poet and a friend of Ronsard," a distinguished 16th-century French poet known now only to students of the Renaissance. The book may well be an "exquisite bibelot..."[14]
Re Verse: Essays on Poets and Poetry 2005 Northwestern University Press "David R. Slavitt does not believe in literary criticism so much as in "remarks," and in this witty and unusual work, he remarks on the life of the poet: how it was - and how it is - to be an American writer in our time. Combining personal reminiscence with deft literary analysis, incisive biographical sketches, and, sometimes, literary gossip, the essays in Re Verse give new perspectives on the famous, including Harold Bloom, Robert Penn Warren, Robert Frost, and Stephen Spender, and recover the charms of the nearly forgotten, such as Dudley Fitts, Winfield Townley Scott, Merrill Moore, and John Hall Wheelock."--Book Jacket.
Change of Address: Poems, New and Selected 2006 Louisiana State University Press Poetry.
Blue State Blues: How a Conservative Launched a Campaign and Found Himself The Liberal Candidate (And Still Lost) 2006 Wesleyan University Press Memoir. "In this memoir, David R. Slavitt recounts his day-to-day life on the campaign trail, describing the often surreal experience of being a pro-choice, pro-gay-marriage GOP candidate running against a pro-life Democrat. When Slavitt decided to make a run for the Massachusetts State Legislature in 2004, he knew the odds were against him. Though a well-respected writer, he was a political novice and a moderate Republican in a district where defeating any Democrat was next to impossible. But in the grandest of American traditions, hoping for the best and wanting to do some good, he threw his hat into the ring - and the result was a circus he could never have anticipated. From fundraising and door-knocking to angling for good press and mixing with nationally known candidates and officials, Slavitt navigates the choppy waters of state politics, learning as he goes."—Book Jacket.
William Henry Harrison and Other Poems 2006 Louisiana State University Press Poetry.
The Theban plays of Sophocles 2007 Yale University Press "...Slavitt presents a fluid, accessible, and modern version for both newcomers to the plays and established admirers. Unpretentious and direct, Slavitt's translation preserves the innate verve and energy of the dramas, engaging the reader or audience member directly with Sophocles' great texts. Slavitt chooses to present the plays not in narrative sequence but in the order in which they were composed: Antigone, Oedipus Tyrannos, Oedipus at Colonus; he thereby underscores the fact that the story of Oedipus is one to which Sophocles returned over the course of his lifetime. This arrangement also lays bare the record of Sophocles' intellectual and artistic development." -- WorldCat
De Rerum Natura = The Nature of Things : a Poetic Translation 2008 University of California Press "Elaborates Greek Epicurean physics and psychology. This is a readable translation of a poem that is crucial to the history of ancient thought. It argues that the soul is mortal, that pleasure is the object of life, and that humanity has free will, among other ideas." -- WorldCat
The Consolation of Philosophy 2008 Harvard University Press This translation from the Latin of Boethius was praised by the Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine.[41]
The Seven Deadly Sins and Other Poems 2009 Louisiana State University Press Poetry. "...veteran poet David R. Slavitt touches on topics from the mundane to the mysterious with his signature wit and intelligence. In "Stupid," for instance, he transforms a simple head cold into an appreciation for the richness of consciousness, and in "Waking," the very effort of rising from bed becomes something like a miracle..." -- WorldCat
Orlando Furioso: a new verse translation 2009 Belknap Press of Harvard University Press Translation of Ludovico Ariosto's masterpiece. "Characterized by satire, parody, and irony, the poem celebrates a new humanistic Renaissance conception of man in an utterly fantastical world. Slavitt's translation captures the energy, comedy, and great fun of Ariosto's Italian."—Jacket.
George Sanders, Zsa Zsa, and Me: Essays on the Movies 2009 Northwestern University Press "Part memoir and part moving meditation on the price of fame, Slavitt looks back to the world of 1950s Hollywood to write a chronicle of the costs of the modern celebrity culture." -- WorldCat
The Latin Eclogues 2010 Johns Hopkins University Press Translation of the eclogues by Giovanni Boccaccio.
La Vita Nuova 2010 Harvard University Press Translation of the poems which Dante Alighieri wrote about Beatrice Portinari. "Freed from the customary shackles of academic apparatus, the poetic quality of its lyrics freshly reinstated, the Vita Nuova's signature hybrid texture is here elegantly conveyed."[42]
Poems From The Greek Anthology 2010 Sheep Meadow Press Translations of Greek poems.
Milton's Latin Poems 2011 Johns Hopkins University Press "While John Milton is recognized as one of the most learned English poets in history, his Latin poetry is less well known. This title brings Milton's Latin poems - many written in his late teens - into the present. It is suitable for poetry lovers, Milton fans, and scholars." -- WorldCat
The Gnat and Other Poems of the Appendix Virgiliana 2011 University of California Press (Series: Joan Palevsky imprint in classical literature) "Covers the translations of the poems attributed to Virgil. This title captures the tone and style of the originals while conveying a lively sense of fun."—WorldCat
The Duke's Man 2011 Northwestern University Press A novel about Louis de Bussy d'Amboise, who was a gentleman at the court of French king Henri III, a swordsman, dandy, and a lover of both sexes. He was one of the favourites, or "mignons", of Monsieur, brother of the king. Slavitt told an interviewer in 2011, "I wrote it some ten years ago when I was still writing novels. It took me all this time to find a publisher for it. Lots of editors liked it but shied away ... I don't remember much about the conception of the novel, but I think the germ of the idea was to take a novel that was 'out there' (in the public domain and available online) and futz with it. If I could do that, I could save myself a good deal of typing, which is always the tedious part of novel writing. Eventually, I settled on La Dame de Monsoreau of [Alexandre] Dumas [père], and began playing with it."[1] ISBN 9780810127005.
Love Poems, Letters, and Remedies of Ovid 2011 Harvard University Press "...esteemed translator David R. Slavitt here returns to Ovid, once again bringing to the contemporary ear the spirited, idiomatic, audacious charms of this master poet. The love here described is of the anguished, ruinous kind, like a sickness, and Ovid prescribes cures."—WorldCat
Sonnets and Shorter Poems 2012 Harvard University Press Translations from Petrarch. "Slavitt renders the sonnets in Il Canzoniere, along with the shorter madrigals and ballate, in a sparkling and engaging idiom and in rhythm and rhyme that do justice to Petrarch's achievement."—Jacket.
The Metabolism of Desire: The Poems of Guido Cavalcanti 2012 Athabasca University Translated poetry.
Overture 2012 Outpost19 Novel. "Overture, Slavitt's latest novel, is a kaleidoscopic work about Proust and prostate cancer, slipping through memory and genres as a writer grapples with the proper response to mortality."[8] ISBN 9781937402228
The Crooning Wind: Three Greenlandic Poets 2012 New American Press Translations from the Greenland poets Torkilk Mørch, Gerda Hvisterdahl, and Innunquaq Larsen, by Nive Grønkjær and David Slavitt.
The Dhammapada of the Buddha 2012
Procne by Gregorio Correr; a new translation by David R. Slavitt 2012 Outpost19 "Procne is often compared to Medea, and the tragic turn here is no less fierce. When Procne learns her husband, Tereus, has dishonored her sister, she turns to their son, Itys, for her gruesome revenge. Gregorio Correr (1409-1464) penned the drama following Renaissance interest in Classical-era writing. David R. Slavitt's new verse translation, with a brief Foreword, sheds fresh light on this surprising and overlooked work."[43]
Bottom of the Barrel: The Herring Poems 2012 Outpost19 Poetry. "A tribute to kreplach and great literature. 36 demonstrations of what salty fish can contribute to our relationship with literature. ... In Bottom of the Barrel, David R. Slavitt inserts 'something homely, something aggressively unpoetic' into fragments of great works. The result is irreverent and refreshing, a literary amuse gueule with a side of sour cream." R.H.W. Dillard wrote, "This collection of startling appearances of pickled herrings in great or somewhat less than great poetic works goes far beyond the idea of 'jeu d'esprit' into a realm where the mind boggles, reconsiders how poetic language works, while laughing all the way."[44]
L'Heure bleu 2013 Broadkill River Press Scott Whitaker wrote, "David R. Slavitt's post-modern romp through Clarice Lispector's world of Rio and her last novel, A Hora da estrela, will leave readers smiling at Slavitt's breadth and wit. He posits that it is Lispector we are reading about, and her sophisticated world of Rio, but Slavitt, like the great Oz, remains behind the curtain pulling the strings, booming through the microphone, reminding us that, in literature not all is what it seems."[45] ISBN 978-0-9837789-1-2.
The Lays of Marie de France 2013 Athabasca University Poetry.
Civil Wars: Poems 2013 Louisiana State University Press Poetry. ISBN 978-0807151808.
The Other Four Plays of Sophocles: Ajax, Women of Trachis, Electra, and Philoctetes 2013 The Johns Hopkins University Press Translations of the tragedies Ajax, Women of Trachis, Electra, and Philoctetes.
Odes 2014 University of Wisconsin Press Translations from Horace.
Shiksa 2014 C&R Press "A Jewish young man and a gentile girl fall deeply in love in the fifties but he lacks the character (or else has too much) to contemplate intermarriage. This short, vivid novel describes how, over the years, he comes to realize that this may have been the great mistake of his life."[46]
From the Fragrant East by Pietro Bembo 2014 Miracolo Translation of Pietro Bembo.[47]
The Jungle Poems of Leconte de Lisle 2014 New American Press Poetry.[47]
Walloomsac: A Week on the River, a.k.a. Walloomsac: A Roman Fleuve 2014 Anaphora Literary Press R. H. W. Dillard wrote, "David Slavitt has (herein) written a book about or for which it is impossible simply to write a blurb... The text itself is indescribably (deliciously?) itself. Like the Waloomsac River, it just keeps rolling along, taking the reader irresponsibly with it — laughing out loud again and again and again; marveling at its rapid wit (white water?), the wide breadths of its erudition, the dangerous shallows of its overt and covert cheekiness; marking the vertiginous depths of its, yes, wisdom. To make a long blurb short, I haven't had this kind of significant fun since I stayed up 'til dawn one night in 1962 breathlessly reading Pale Fire for the very first time."[48][49] ISBN 978-1-937536-90-9.

Adaptations

Reception

Henry S. Taylor, a winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, wrote in 1992:

It has been twenty-five years since David R. Slavitt invented Henry Sutton and embarked on a series of schlock novels under that pseudonym, but it is still fun to recall people's outrage when they learned that The Exhibitionist was the work of someone who had also written more serious fiction, and even poetry. On one hand, people of Jacqueline Susann's ilk were irritated because someone had done easily and laughingly what they worked hard to do; on the other hand, purveyors of solemn literature were offended at the success of this prostitution of talent. Even Tom Wolfe, who had no reason to feel either envious or superior, took a cheap shot at Slavitt's next serious novel, saying in a review that it was not as good as The Exhibitionist.[6]

Taylor adds:

From the beginning, Slavitt's poetry has been characterized by profound wit, neoclassical attention to form, and generous erudition. Slavitt is also a master of tonal variety; within the same poem he can make shifts of tone that most poets would find too risky. ... Part of his success lies in his ability to deal with formal restrictions that are too much for most poets; though his stanza forms are often intricate, they never prevent, or even impede, the explorations of a mind that takes suggestions as they come, weaving them into the pattern.[6]

R. H. W. Dillard, a noted critic at Hollins University, writes, "David Slavitt is one of the most prodigious writers working today. In book after book after book after book after book, he engages, amuses, delights, shocks, astounds, annoys, rouses, arouses, and generally awakens readers from the torpor that the works of too many (unnamed here) writers have cast them into."

In a lengthy review of Orlando Furioso: A New Verse Translation, critic Steve Baker writes admiringly that "David R. Slavitt has been playing fast and loose with the literary classics since the early 70s when he brought us free adaptations of the Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil, both of which present the original masterworks as filtered through – to put it in his words – the 'radically improvisational' lens of the translator. In fact, Slavitt openly refers to these early works not as translations per se, but rather as 'verse essays', in which he riffs playfully on the original texts. As renderings into English of Virgil's Latin, his translations of both the Eclogues and the Georgics represent an act of reading, a lively engagement with the original poems, as he transposes them from the distant and antique to the conversational and everyday. They do more to escort us through a reading of the poems than they do to present us with the original texts to read on our own. Shot through with the translator's commentary, dominated by paraphrase and dressed with satirical discussions of the propositional content of the originals, Slavitt's creations are not translations in any traditional sense. In bringing the uninitiated into uniquely colloquial contact with these timeless classics, they do, however, actually amount to pleasantly entertaining romps with the bucolic Virgil."[54]

Awards and honors

Tributes

Novelist Henry Sutton of Norwich, England, used the name David Slavitt for his protagonist, "a genial crime writer trying to boost his sales,"[57] in his novel My Criminal World (2013).[58]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Elliott, Okla (9 November 2011). "What David R. Slavitt Knows", Inside Higher Ed
  2. ^ a b c d Rosen, Judith (29 August 2011). "David Slavitt Joins the 100 Club at 76", Publishers Weekly
  3. ^ O'Brien, Ellen (13 October 1994). "Author's Friends Get The Last Word", Philadelphia Inquirer
  4. ^ Doughty, Roger (21 February 1969). "Poet Hits Pay Dirt", Tuscaloosa News
  5. ^ Brady, Thomas J. (22 December 1996). "At Home With Hymns, Psalms, Potboilers", Philadelphia Inquirer
  6. ^ a b c d e f Taylor, Henry S. (1992). "David R. Slavitt: The Fun of the End of the World". Compulsory Figures: Essays on Recent American Poets. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. pp. 224–244. ISBN 978-0-8071-1755-2.
  7. ^ a b c Kotzin, Miriam N. (Fall 2010). "David R. Slavitt, The Per Contra Interview". Per Contra: An International Journal of the Arts, Literature, and Ideas. Retrieved November 24, 2014. ((cite web)): Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ a b c d Outpost 19 (2012). "Operating A Circus Without A License: An Introduction to David R. Slavitt". Outpost 19. Retrieved November 23, 2014.((cite web)): CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ a b c d e Sams, Amanda D., ed. (2008). "Slavitt, David R. 1935- (David Benjamin, Henry Lazarus, Lynn Meyer, David Rytman Slavitt, Henry Sutton)". Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale Research Co.
  10. ^ David R. Slavitt, poetryfoundation.org, Retrieved 21 January 2014
  11. ^ Slavitt, David R. (July 1999). "A Day in the Life of David R. Slavitt". The Cortland Review. New York. Retrieved November 23, 2014.
  12. ^ Peguero, Robin M. (3 November 2004). Harvard Affiliates Lose in Local Races, Harvard Crimson
  13. ^ Beam, Alex (19 December 2006). "'Blue State' author has a blue past"d, Boston Globe
  14. ^ a b c Yardley, Jonathan (14 May 2006). Blue State Blues (review), The Washington Post
  15. ^ OCLC. "Poets of today. VIII: Albert Herzing. The mother of the Amazons, and other poems.--John M. Ridland. Fires of home: poems.--David R. Slavitt. Suits for the dead: poems". OCLC. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  16. ^ Suits For the Dead is widely and generally referred to as Slavitt's first book of poems, so an OCLC listing for a 1952 title, A Cheater's Dozen: Eleven Poems, might be erroneous. OCLC. "A Cheater's Dozen: Eleven Poems". OCLC. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  17. ^ LC Online Catalog. "The exhibitionist; a novel by Henry Sutton". Library of Congress. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  18. ^ Elliott, Okla (November 9, 2011). "What David R. Slavitt Knows". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved November 24, 2014. ((cite web)): Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  19. ^ Bartholomew, David (January 15, 1979). "The Idol, by David Benjamin". Library Journal. 104 (2): 207. ((cite journal)): |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  20. ^ "The Kokomo Tribune from Kokomo, Indiana". Kokomo Tribune. Kokomo, Indiana. June 27, 1979. p. 20. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  21. ^ Hudzik, Robert (February 15, 1981). "Dozens (Book)". Library Journal. 106 (4): 456. ((cite journal)): |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  22. ^ WorldCat. "Ringer". OCLC. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  23. ^ Burstein, Sandor G. (February 1985). "Full text of "Knight Letter No. 22"". Lewis Carroll Society of North America. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  24. ^ OCLC. "The Agent". WorldCat. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  25. ^ Blanchard, Christina G. (October 1, 1988). "Physicians Observed (Book)". Annals of Internal Medicine. 109 (7). Philadelphia: American College of Physicians: 601. ((cite journal)): |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  26. ^ WorldCat. "Medicine and Matrimony". OCLC. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  27. ^ Anderson, William Scovil (1991). "Book Review: Ovid's Poetry of Exile". The Classical World. 84 (5). Pittsburgh, PA: Classical Association of the Atlantic States / Johns Hopkins University: 413–414. ((cite journal)): |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  28. ^ "Lives of the Saints, by David Slavitt". Kirkus Reviews. January 1, 1989. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  29. ^ WorldCat. "Virgil". OCLC. ((cite web)): |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  30. ^ "Turkish Delights". Publishers Weekly. 1993. Betrayals, sexual revenge and the havoc that family members wreak on one another reverberate through this intriguing novel, in which Slavitt (Alice at 80) splices together three stories with vastly different settings. The first tale recreates the exotic, treacherous world of a Turkish sultan's seraglio--a gilded prison from which Selim, the sultan's son, plans his escape, aided by a black eunuch slave. The second narrative features Pietro, the callow son of a 19th-century Venetian noble family, who tries to elope with his obnoxious brother's treacherous fiancee. In the third tale, set in Cambridge, Mass., in 1975, Asher, a Yale-educated Jewish writer, mulls over his psychoanalysis, impending divorce, vasectomy and guilt over failing to meet his parents' expectations. ((cite journal)): |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  31. ^ WorldCat. "Fables of Avianus". OCLC. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  32. ^ Mortensen, Arthur. "Crossroads". Expansive Poetry & Music Online Poetry Review. ((cite web)): |access-date= requires |url= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  33. ^ WorldCat (1994). "The Metamorphoses of Ovid". OCLC. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  34. ^ Rochman, Hazel (July 25, 1994). "Forecasts: Fiction: The Cliff". Publishers Weekly. 241 (30): 34. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  35. ^ Humphrey, Theodore C. (July 1995). "The Cliff". Magill Book Reviews. Salem Press. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  36. ^ WorldCat. "Seneca: the tragedies. Vol. 2". OCLC. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  37. ^ NC Cardinal Catalog. "Epic and Epigram". Buncombe County Public Libraries Catalog. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  38. ^ Schulte, Rainer. "The Voyage of the Argo". School of Arts & Humanities, University of Texas at Dallas. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  39. ^ Oxford University Press (2000). "The Book of the Twelve Prophets, Translated by David R. Slavitt". Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  40. ^ Nissenson, Hugh (2003). "Aspects of the Novel: A Novel". Catbird Press. Retrieved November 28, 2014.
  41. ^ Shapiro, Leon N. and Laurie Rosenblatt (February 6, 2009). "The Consolation of Philosophy". Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine. Retrieved December 14, 2014. ((cite web)): Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  42. ^ Kay, Tristan (2010). "La Vita Nuova". The Times Literary Supplement. Retrieved December 14, 2014. ((cite web)): Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  43. ^ "Procne". Outpost19. 2012. Retrieved November 28, 2014.
  44. ^ Outpost19 (2012). "Bottom of the Barrel". Outpost19. Retrieved November 28, 2014.((cite web)): CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  45. ^ Whitaker, Scott (2013). "L'Heure bleu by David R. Slavitt". Broadkill River Press. Retrieved November 28, 2014.
  46. ^ "Shiksa". C&R Press. 2014. Retrieved November 28, 2014.
  47. ^ a b "David R. Slavitt '56". Yalie.com. 2014. Retrieved November 28, 2014.
  48. ^ Dillard, R. H. W. (2014). "David R. Slavitt". Anaphora Literary Press. Retrieved November 28, 2014.
  49. ^ Faktorovich, Anna (2014). "David Slavitt's Absurdist Novel, Walloomsac, Has Been Released with Anaphora". Anaphora Literary Press: press release. ((cite web)): |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  50. ^ Brown, Dennis (September 17, 2003). "Ch-ch-ch-changes: Metamorphoses is a wet dreamscape..." Riverfront Times. Retrieved December 14, 2014. As translated by contemporary poet David Slavitt and distilled by Zimmerman, the text here is almost always crystal-clear. But Zimmerman is not content with clarity; she insists on dumbing down the legends. When, for instance, King Midas wants to turn all he touches into gold, Bacchus replies, "That's a really, really bad idea." Some viewers will find this populist spin amusing; others might find it a really bad idea. ((cite web)): Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); line feed character in |title= at position 19 (help)
  51. ^ Brown, Dennis and Deanna Jent (April 20, 2005). "Capsule Reviews". Riverfront Times. Retrieved December 14, 2014. ((cite web)): Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  52. ^ Brown, Dennis (October 13, 2010). "Throwdown! Sophocles vs. Mamet: May the best playwright win!". Riverfront Times. Retrieved December 14, 2014. Many a mystery has borrowed from Sophocles and employed variations on the theme of a policeman or journalist forced to solve a crime that leads back to himself. But most mysteries leave that extra wrinkle about sleeping with your own mother to the Greeks. And indeed, Sophocles knew what he was doing. He unravels his clues with the meticulousness of a Hitchcock thriller. But there's a second dramatist at work here. The translation by David R. Slavitt is a deft balancing act that retains Sophocles' sense of formality and ritual while telling this fateful story in a conversational, accessible manner. "Let it go, drop it," Jocasta (Amy Loui) implores her husband as his relentless pursuit of the truth hones home. [sic] Slavitt's informal approach repositions the relationship between man and God. Apollo is discussed as casually as if he were a nearby neighbor. ... Even without the aid of an onstage swimming pool, this current meticulous offering from Upstream Theater is a gift to the gods. ((cite web)): Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  53. ^ Gay, Malcolm (October 15, 2014). "Antigone: Upstream Theater Delivers an Academic Telling of Sophocles' Classic". Riverfront Times. Retrieved December 14, 2014. ((cite web)): Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  54. ^ Baker, Steve (2010). "Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso: A New Verse Translation by David R. Slavitt, Harvard University Press". Italian Poetry Review. p. 355. Retrieved November 28, 2014. ((cite web)): Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  55. ^ The Bellagio Center (1989). "David R. Slavitt". Rockefeller Foundation. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  56. ^ Newmark, Judith (March 29, 2011). "Actress Ely wins twice at Kevin Kline Awards". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Retrieved November 28, 2014.
  57. ^ Feay, Suzi (18 May 2013). "My Criminal World by Henry Sutton – review". The Guardian. London: Guardian News and Media. Retrieved December 14, 2014.
  58. ^ Sutton, Henry (2013). "My Criminal World". Henry Sutton. Retrieved December 14, 2014. My Criminal World introduces us to struggling crime writer, David Slavitt. In awe of his academic wife, patronised by her colleagues and living in constant fear that his editor might drop him in favour of the next new talent, David juggles house work and child care alongside plot twists and character development. But as his wife grows increasingly distant and his agent insists that his new book needs more blood and guts – a lot more blood and guts – David is getting worried. He needs to do something.

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