John Ashbery American poet Date of Birth: 28.07.1927 Country: USA

Biography of John Ashbery

John Ashbery was an American poet, known for his postmodernist complexity and ambiguity. He was born in Rochester, New York, to Chester Frederick Ashbery, a farmer, and his wife Helen, a biology teacher. Ashbery grew up on a farm near Lake Ontario. He developed a love for poetry during his school years, particularly the works of W. H. Auden and Dylan Thomas. He began writing poetry and even had one of his works published in a school magazine, although it was submitted by a classmate without permission or credit.

In 1949, Ashbery graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts degree. His senior thesis focused on the poetry of W. H. Auden. During his time at Harvard, Ashbery befriended several prominent writers, including Kenneth Koch, Barbara Epstein, Frank O'Hara, and Edward Gorey. He later studied at New York University before receiving his master's degree from Columbia University in 1951.

From 1951 to 1955, Ashbery worked in New York, earning a living through translating French detective novels, working as an art editor for the New York Herald Tribune, and serving as an art critic for Art International. In the fall of 1963, Ashbery met Andy Warhol at a poetry reading at the Literary Theatre in New York. He had written positive reviews of Warhol's work, and in the same year, Ashbery reviewed Warhol's flower exhibition in Paris. They developed a close friendship, and Ashbery also became friends with one of Warhol's protégé, Gerard Malanga.

In the early 1970s, Ashbery began teaching at Brooklyn College, where one of his students was future poet John Yau. In 1983, he became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Ashbery later moved to Bard College in the 1980s, where he worked until 2008. He received numerous awards throughout his career, including the Yale Younger Poets Prize in 1956 and the Pulitzer Prize in 1975. In that same year, he also received the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, making him the recipient of all three major American poetry awards.

Ashbery's works skillfully played with the possibilities of the English language and embraced rational humor. He often explored the games of the human mind and aimed to create poetry that would leave critics speechless.