Robert Lax

Robert Lax ( born November 30, 1915 in Olean, New York, † September 26, 2000 ) was an American poet and journalist. He was the child of Jewish immigrants from Austria, but converted in 1943 to the Roman Catholic faith. He is known for his ascetic lifestyle as well as for its minimalist poetry.

Life

During his studies from 1934 to 1938 at Columbia University in New York City with Mark Van Doren to Lax befriended Thomas Merton, the famous Trappist monk and religious philosopher. To her friends at college were Edward Rice, Ad Reinhardt, Bob Gibney, Seymour Freedgood and Nancy Flagg. Ad Reinhardt, an eminent painter of the New York School, was a friend from high school days. John Berryman was a fellow student at Columbia, Jack Kerouac (Columbia 1944), Allen Ginsberg (born 1948), William S. Burroughs, and Paul Bowles acquaintances.

After studying Lax taught until the end of 1941 English at St. Bonaventure Catholic private college near his hometown of Olean. In 1941 he worked for the New Yorker magazine and in the social institution Friendship House in New York City. In 1943 he taught English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He began there in 1944, a Ph.D. program in philosophy; His doctoral thesis was Thomas Aquinas. 1945 Lax wrote film reviews for Time Magazine, and even moved to Hollywood. From 1946 to 1948 he was Writer in the Samuel Goldwyn film studio.

After another short time as an English teacher Lax moved in the summer of 1949 with the Cristiani Family Circus by the Canadian west. 1950/51 he lived in Paris, where he worked for the short-lived New Story magazine, and in Marseilles, in the summer of 1951 he visited Rome and traveled with a circus through Italy. From 1953 to 1967 he was an editor ( " roving editor" ), founded in New York by his friend Ed Rice magazine Jubilee: A Magazine or the Church And Her People.

In 1955 appeared the first volume of poetry with Tree of Robert Lax. In 1956 he began the publication of Pax, a "small literary magazine "; spending 1-18 appeared in the years 1956-1962, several additional books for 1985.

Lax visited in 1962 for the first time Greece. In the spring of 1964 he settled on the island of Kalymnos and began his lonely life. After ten years there, he moved to Patmos. He lived there in the harbor town of Skala. Only shortly before his death and ill, he returned to his hometown of Olean. His estate shall hold the Lax Archive of nearby St. Bonaventure University.

Reception

On Patmos was built from 1993 to 1999, the Community Working Three Windows. According to the specifications of the poet, the filmmakers Nicolas Humbert and Penzel Wener realized black and white movies. In the video installation, the films are shown on three screens at the same time from adjacent.

The German journalist Hartmut Geerken and Sigrid Hauff engaged intensively with Lax and produced several reports for the Bayerischer Rundfunk.

In the late 1990s, the artist inspired the Berlin band Vono, published in his honor Album LaxMania (1999).

Works

English editions

  • Tree. The Hand Press, New York 1955
  • The Circus of the Sun. Journeyman, New York in 1959
  • New Poems. Journeyman, New York 1962
  • Thought. Journeyman, New York 1966
  • A Poem for Thomas Merton. Journeyman, New York 1969
  • Three Poems. Journeyman, New York 1969
  • Fables. Journeyman, New York 1970
  • A Guide for the Perplexed. Journeyman, New York 1970
  • A Moment. Journeyman, New York 1971
  • Mostly Blue. Journeyman, New York 1971
  • Red Circle Blue Square. Journeyman, New York 1971
  • A Catch of Anti- Letters ( with Thomas Merton ). Sheed, Andrews and McMeel, Kansas City, 1978; Reprint 1994, ISBN 155612712X
  • New poems from 1962 to 1985. Coracle, London / Ottenhausen, Aachen, 1986, ISBN 3-922760-07-4
  • 27th & 4th. Stride, Exeter 1994, ISBN 1873012667
  • Love had a compass. Grove, New York, 1996, ISBN 0-8021-1587- X
  • A Thing did is. New Poems. Overlook, Woodstock 1997, ISBN 0879518855
  • Circus Days & Nights. Overlook, Woodstock 2001, ISBN 1585670413

German or multilingual editions

  • Water - Water - L' eau. Pendo, Zurich 1973, ISBN 3-85842-007-7 (Text German, English and French; . Photos by Bernhard Moosbrugger )
  • Circus - Circus - Cirque - Circo. Pendo, Zurich 1981, ISBN 3-85842-033-6 (German, English. , French and Spanish)
  • Episodes - episodes. Pendo, Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-85842-073-5 (German and English).
  • Fables - Fables. Pendo, Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-85842-074-3 (German and English).
  • 21 pages - 21 pages. Pendo, Zurich 1984, ISBN 3-85842-090-5 (German and English).
  • 33 poems. Meyer, Stuttgart 1987
  • Journal B - diary as Pendo, Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-85842-156-1
  • Psalm & homage to Wittgenstein. Pendo, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-85842-193-6 (German and English).
  • Mogador 's book for Mogador. Pendo, Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-85842-237-1 (German and English).
  • Journal D - Diary D. Pendo, Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-85842-249-5
  • Dialogues - Dialogues. Pendo, Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-85842-284-3
  • Notes - notes. Pendo, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-85842-295-9
  • Journal E. Hollywood journal - diary E. Pendo, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-85842-312-2
  • Journal F - Diary F. Pendo, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-85842-312-2
  • The hill - The Mountain. Pendo, Zurich 1999, ISBN 3-85842-338-6
  • Moments. Pendo, Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-85842-385-8
  • Peacemaker 's handbook - Handbook for peacemakers. Pendo, Zurich 2001, ISBN 3-85842-414-5
  • With Robert Lax, the dreams begin. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2006, ISBN 3-451-05705-0
  • Poetry of deceleration. A reading book. Edited by Sigrid Hauff. Pendo, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-86612-156-0
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