Description
Papers of Charles Reznikoff (1894-1976), American poet, writer, and chronicler of Judaism and the American Jewish experience.
He worked both as an editor and contributing author on
The Menorah Journal and
Family Chronicle, and was in close association with such noted writers as Ezra Pound, George Oppen, and William Carlos Williams. The correspondence,
which provides documentation of the literary community of 40s, 50s, and 60s America, as well as providing insights into Reznikoff's
personal life, includes letters from Robert Creeley, David Ignatow, Denise Levertov, George Oppen, John Perlman, William Carlos
Williams, and Louis Zukofsky.
Background
Charles Reznikoff's long and productive life began 31 August 1894 in Brooklyn, New York. His parents, Nathan Reznikoff and
Sarah Yetta Wolvovsky Reznikoff, were Russian Jews who had recently immigrated to the United States. Reznikoff's family moved
throughout the city, and the anti-Semitism which Charles often encountered had a lasting effect on his work. When he was twelve
Reznikoff's family moved to a section of Brooklyn that was isolated from the Jewish community; Reznikoff once described it
as a place where "the hatred for Israel smoldered." He later wrote that he would have to rush home from high school in order
to avoid the taunts of children leaving their grade school.