October 17, 2002 | Read Time: 7 minutes
Edward Hirsch, a prize-winning poet and the beneficiary of prodigious amounts of philanthropic support, will become president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in January. Mr. Hirsch has been awarded a “genius” fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Rome Prize, which allowed him to live and write in Rome for a year, and a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, among others.
Over the last five years, he has served on the foundation’s selection committee, which chooses 180 or so fellows out of a field of several thousand.
Fellows, who come from all disciplines in the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences, each receive an average of $36,685. The money supports them early in their careers, unlike prizes that reward a lifetime of achievement.
Last year the foundation distributed a total of $6.75-million. As its new leader, Mr. Hirsch’s job will be, he says, “to set the process in motion and then let it unfold.” He adds: “I like the idea of giving fellowships in any given year to artists and anthropologists, chemists and choreographers, physicists and poets.”
Mr. Hirsch’s own work has been described by critics as wide-ranging and highly intellectual. His poetry contains allusions to the work of other poets and is often inspired by members of his family.
He believes strongly that artists must also be public spokesmen for their work. To that end he began writing criticism and essays at the same time that he began publishing his first poems.
In Houston, where he has taught writing courses for the last 17 years, he became a local literary celebrity by giving readings and helping to publicize the work of other writers. One of his most recent books, How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry, was aimed at those readers who would like to learn how to fully appreciate the art.
As head of Guggenheim, he plans to continue his work, as both a poet and an advocate.
“We live in a culture where, if we don’t speak up on behalf of the arts, they will be lost,” he says. “The arts need us. We need our artists to be citizens. Intellectuals need to participate in intellectual life. Otherwise it’s going to be all television, all advertising and media, all politics.”
In an interview, Mr. Hirsch talked about his poetry and his new role as head of a major foundation:
What values do you care about in poetry?
I love poems that tremble with human presence. “Who touches this,” Whitman says, “touches a man.” I’d like to make poems that are rich and strange, that strike the depths and sing out, that bring together thought and feeling. I’d like to leave behind work that is passionate, learned, humane. Who wouldn’t want to write poems that take the top of your head off?
How did your poetry lead you to head the Guggenheim Foundation?
It’s a winding path. Of course, it never occurred to me starting out in poetry that I would have a job like this. But I did have a dream of participating in culture, of becoming a citizen in the republic of letters. I began at the Guggenheim as an outside reader in poetry. I suppose the foundation liked my written reports because eventually I was invited to serve on the final selection committee. I was delighted by the process, and amazed at the intellectual range and depth of the committee members, who command so many fields. I felt this was the model community I had been seeking. And here I am.
Do you worry that the job will interfere with your ability to continue to be a productive poet?
I’m a little jittery about the demands on my time — I’d be nuts not to be — but I’m not really worried about being productive. I like to think that I’d write poetry anywhere, under almost any conditions. You can take the boy out of the university, but you can’t take poetry out of the boy.
What does the foundation think of the idea that a poet’s first obligation is to his own work?
Everyone involved with the foundation seems comfortable — and even excited — about having a working artist at the helm. I have a deep commitment to my own writing, but I also have a charge to maintain the health of the foundation. The Guggenheim has always stood for the highest intellectual and artistic achievement. My job is to ensure that it keeps working at the peak.
What have your experiences been as a grant recipient?
I’ve been extremely fortunate. I had a Guggenheim fellowship that enabled me to hit an entirely new level in my work; I had a splendid year at the American Academy in Rome; I had five liberating years under the auspices of a MacArthur fellowship. These grants also helped put me in a position to advocate on behalf of poetry in particular and the arts in general, and I’m wildly grateful for them.
How will those experiences inform the way you manage the foundation?
I know how much these grants mean to people. We have a real opportunity to affect people’s working lives. The most important thing is to identify and choose the best possible candidates. I hope that we’ll reward the most outstanding candidates in the early stages of their careers, and thus truly foster their development.
Do you plan to continue to be an outspoken public intellectual, or to work behind the scenes?
Must it be either/or? I’d prefer to go full speed ahead in both directions. It’s important that the Guggenheim job take place behind the scenes. But I consider myself an advocate for poetry and for artistic and intellectual life in general. I see myself as a public intellectual and I think that will continue. The article in the Houston Chronicle when I got the job said: “Edward Hirsch has found a larger bully pulpit.” It’s true. I think artistic values are threatened in our culture. As citizens we need to do something about it. The American educational system has really failed us here in terms of what poetry can do in culture. It’s very important to me to make poetry better known, advocate on its behalf, and bring it to people of all ages. As head of the Guggenheim Foundation, I’ll step it up.
Will it be hard to remain impartial since you know so many people in the arts?
I’ve already crossed that bridge as a member of the selection committee. You simply have to be able to detach yourself and judge the work itself, to act disinterestedly. That’s what it means to mutate into a judge.
When foundations make grants to their friends, we consider that newsworthy.
My ambition is never to be the subject of those stories.
ABOUT EDWARD HIRSCH, INCOMING PRESIDENT OF THE JOHN SIMON GUGGENHEIM MEMORIAL FOUNDATION
Education: Earned a bachelor’s degree from Grinnell College in 1972 and a doctorate in folklore from the University of Pennsylvania in 1979.
Previous employment: Taught English at Wayne State University, in Detroit, then served as a professor of English at the University of Houston for the last 17 years.
Charitable interests: Helped start Inprint, a group that champions reading and creative writing in Houston by organizing workshops and a reading series. He is active in three national poetry groups, the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Society of America, and Poet’s House.
Writing: Author of five books of poetry, including Wild Gratitude, which won the National Book Critics Circle award in 1987, and three nonfiction books. Contributes a regular poetry column to The Washington Post’s “Book World” section.
Besides poetry: Earned Academic All-American honors as a football player in college.
To read Mr. Hirsch’s work: Visit the Academy of American Poets’ Web site, at http://www.poets.org
