Robert Edward Duncan
(January 7, 1919 - February 3, 1988) U.S.A.
Poet
Robert Duncan was born as Edward Howard Duncan in Oakland, California. His mother died at his birth, thus he was adopted. He was educated at the University of California at Berkeley where he was involved in a homosexual relationship, aged eighteen. From California Duncan moved to New York to pursue his career as a writer. For a short period Duncan was married to Marjorie McKee.
In 1944 he published "The Homosexual in Society" in Dwight Macdonald's magazine Politics. In this article Duncan acknowledged being gay and called for openness regarding homosexuality. As a result of this article John Crowe Ransom refused to publish a previously accepted poem of Duncan's in the Kenyon Review.
Despite this rebuff Duncan continued to write poetry and became a leader of San Francisco Renaissance as well as of the poets associated with Black Mountain College, where he taught during the 1950s. From 1951 Duncan was in a life-long relationship with the artist Jess Collins. Many of his later poems celebrate his relationship with Collins and their domesticity.
Duncan was open about his homosexuality and discussed it in his work, despite the negative consequences that such openness sometimes entailed
Work:
- Heavenly City, Eartly City (1947)
- Letters (1958)
- The Opening of the Field (1960)
- Ground Work: Before the War (1960)
- Roots and branches (1964)
- Bending the bow (1968)
- Ground Work II: In the Dark (1987)
Excerpts from: Gabriele Griffin, Who's Who in Lesbian and Gay and Writing, Routledge, London, 2002
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