Charles Reznikoff

Charles Reznikoff (August 31, 1894 – January 22, 1976) was an American poet.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York and lived in New York City for most of his life. His parents were immigrants, refugees from anti-Jewish violence in the Russian Empire. His father was a hat-maker.

In 1912 he entered the New York University School of Law and practiced law briefly after graduating in 1915. He tried some jobs, but writing poetry was his main interest. He was influenced by the work of Ezra Pound and other modernist writers.

In the beginning, Reznikoff printed most of his own books. He was not well known as a poet until the 1950s. Then he was connected to a group of poets that were called "Objectivists". Louis Zukofsky included one of his poems in the February 1931 edition of Poetry magazine. His poems were known for their direct language. The poems did not focus on symbols or emotions. They stressed seeing and knowing what was in the outer world. They had "an almost documentary or photographic effect." His long poems Testimony and Holocaust used court records about racial injustice in the United States and the Nazi murders of Jewish people.

Books
Rhythms I and II (1918, 1919)
Nine Plays (1927)
By the Waters of Manhattan (1930) 
Testimony (1934)
Going To and Fro and Walking Up and Down (1941)
The Lionhearted: A Story about the Jews in Medieval England (1944)
Family Chronicle: An Odyssey from Russia to America (1963)
The Complete Poems of Charles Reznikoff, 1918-1975 (1976-77)
The Manner "Music" (1977)
Holocaust (1977)
Testimony: The United States (1885-1915) (1978-79)

 Related pages 
List of poets from North America

References

Other websites
Charles Reznikoff at PennSound

Category:1894 births
Category:1976 deaths
Category:American poets