Robert Lax

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

Life

During his studies from 1934 to 1938 at Columbia University in New York City with Mark Van Doren , Lax became friends with Thomas Merton , the well-known Trappist monk and religious philosopher. Her college friends included Edward Rice, Ad Reinhardt , Bob Gibney, Seymour Freedgood, and Nancy Flagg. A major New York School painter, Ad Reinhardt, was a friend from high school . John Berryman was a fellow student at Columbia, Jack Kerouac (Columbia 1944), Allen Ginsberg (born 1948), William S. Burroughs and Paul Bowles were acquainted.

After graduating, Lax taught English at the private Catholic St. Bonaventure College near his home town of Olean until the end of 1941 . In 1941 he worked for The New Yorker magazine and at the Friendship House social institution in New York City. In 1943 he taught English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . He started a Ph.D. there in 1944. -Study of philosophy; The subject of his dissertation was Thomas Aquinas . In 1945, Lax wrote film reviews for Time Magazine and even moved to Hollywood . From 1946 to 1948 he was a screenwriter at the Samuel Goldwyn film studio.

After another brief stint as an English teacher, Lax traveled through western Canada with the Cristiani family circus in the summer of 1949 . In 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 through Italy with a circus. From 1953 to 1967 he was a publisher ("roving editor") of the magazine Jubilee founded by his friend Ed Rice in New York : A Magazine or the Church And Her People .

In 1955, Robert Lax's first volume of poetry was published, Tree . In 1956 he began publishing Pax , a "small literary magazine"; Issues 1–18 appeared in the years 1956 to 1962, some additional issues around 1985.

Lax first visited Greece in 1962. In the spring of 1964 he settled on the island of Kalymnos and began his hermit existence. After ten years there, he moved to Patmos . He lived there in the port city of Skala. Only shortly before his death and ill he returned to his hometown of Olean. The Lax Archives of the neighboring St. Bonaventure University keep his estate .

reception

The joint effort Three Windows was created on Patmos from 1993 to 1999 . Filmmakers Nicolas Humbert and Wener Penzel made black and white films based on the poet's specifications. In the video installation, the films run side by side on three screens.

The German authors Hartmut Geerken and Sigrid Hauff dealt intensively with Lax and produced several readings, radio plays and portrait programs for the BR radio play and media art .

  • Sigrid Hauff: is what - what is: Robert Lax . With Peter Fricke , Horst Raspe, Lorenz Meyboden. Director: Herbert Kapfer . BR 1990. As a podcast / download in the BR radio play pool.
  • Sigrid Hauff: The inner biography of Robert Lax . Three-part portrait. Circus / 21 Pages / Journals . With Rainer Buck, Robert Lax. Director: Herbert Kapfer. BR 1995. As a podcast / download in the BR radio play pool.
  • Sigrid Hauff: Memories of my last visit to Robert Lax . With Susanne Schröder. BR radio play and media art 2015. As a podcast / download in the BR radio play pool.

At the end of the 1990s, the artist inspired the Berlin band Vono , who released the album LaxMania (1999) in his honor .

Works

English editions

  • Tree . The Hand Press, New York 1955.
  • The Circus of the Sun . Journeyman, New York 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 1-55612-712-X .
  • New poems 1962–1985 . Coracle, London / Ottenhausen, Aachen 1986, ISBN 3-922760-07-4 .
  • the light - the shade. Pendo, Zurich 1989, ISBN 978-3-85842-166-1
  • 27th & 4th . Stride, Exeter 1994, ISBN 1-873012-66-7 .
  • Love had a compass . Grove, New York 1996, ISBN 0-8021-1587-X .
  • A thing that is. New poems . Overlook, Woodstock 1997, ISBN 0-87951-885-5 .
  • Circus Days & Nights . Overlook, Woodstock 2001, ISBN 1-58567-041-3 .
  • Hermit's Guide to Home Economics. New Directions, New York 2015, ISBN 978-0-8112-2329-4 .

German or multilingual editions

Audio pieces / readings

  • 21 pages . With Robert Lax. Production: BR 1994/99. As a podcast / download in the BR radio play pool.
  • sun ra notes & numbers . With Robert Lax. Production: BR radio play and media art 1999. As a podcast / download in the BR radio play pool.
  • the hill . With Robert Lax. Recording: Sigrid Hauff, production: BR radio play and media art 1999. As a podcast / download in the BR radio play pool.

literature

Books

Videos / DVD

  • Nicolas Humbert (Ed.): Robert Lax, Middle of the Moment. s. l., CineNomad, 1995 (1 videocass., VHS, 85 min.)
  • Nicolas Humbert, Werner Penzel: Why Should I Buy a Bed When All I Want Is Sleep? BR radio play and media art / CineNomad, 1999 (1 DVD, 53 min.)
  • Nicolas Humbert (Ed.): Middle of the Moment. A Cinepoem about Nomadic Life. Winter & Winter, Munich, 2003 (1 DVD)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Merton reported about this time in his memoir The Seven Storey Mountain .
  2. ↑ BR radio play Pool - Hauff, is was - what is
  3. ^ BR radio play Pool - Hauff, The inner biography of Robert Lax
  4. ^ BR radio play Pool - Hauff. Memories .
  5. ↑ BR radio play Pool - Lax, 21 pages
  6. ^ BR radio play Pool - Lax, sun ra notes & numbers
  7. ^ BR radio play Pool - Lax, the hill
personal data
SURNAME Lax, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author, poet, and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Olean , New York
DATE OF DEATH September 26, 2000
Place of death Olean , New York