John Logan (poet)

John Logan (born 1923, Red Oak, Iowa - died November 6, 1987, San Francisco, California) was an American poet and teacher.

Logan was born in Red Oak, Iowa. He earned a bachelor's degree from Coe College, his master's degree from the Iowa University, and did graduate work at Georgetown University and the University of Notre Dame in philosophy.

He authored over 14 books of poetry and essays including Spring of the Thief (1963) and Only the Dreamer Can Change the Dream, which won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize in 1982. The poet Hayden Carruth has written that Logan was responsible for "creating a new lyricism" through his poetry.

Logan taught at many colleges and universities including Saint John's College in Annapolis, University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary's College in California, and, finally at the State University of New York, Buffalo. His many students include the poets Marvin Bell and Bill Knott.

He was the poetry editor for The Nation and Critic. He also founded and co-edited Choice.

Logan died on November 6, 1987, in San Francisco, CA after a nine-story fall from the roof of 640 Post, the address where he spent his last years.

Honors

• Rockefeller Foundation grant
• Morton Dauwen Zabel Award
• Guggenheim Fellowship
• Wayne State University's Miles Modern Poetry Prize

Bibliography

Poetry

• A Cycle for Mother Cabrini, (1955)
• Ghosts of the Heart, (1960)
• Spring of the Thief: Poems 1960-1962, (1963)
• The Anonymous Lover: New Poems, (1973)
• The Zig Zag Walk: Poems 1963-1968, (1973)
• The Bridge of Change: Poems 1974-1980, (1979)
• Only the Dreamer Can Change the Dream: Selected Poems, (1981)
• The Transformation: Poems January to March 1981, (1983)
• John Logan: The Collected Poems, (1989)

Prose

• The House That Jack Built: or, A Portrait of the Artist as a Sensualist, (1974)
• China, Old and New, (1982)
• A Ballet for the Ear: Interviews, Essays, and Reviews, (1983)
• John Logan: The Collected Fiction, (1991)

External links

• Academy of American Poets: John Logan
• "Marshall Poetry Prize Won by John Logan" New York Times