41 Facts About Byron Vazakas

Byron Vazakas was an American poet, whose career extended from the modernist era well into the postmodernist period; nominee for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 1947.

Byron A Vazakas was the son of Alfred Vazakas, a Greek-born linguist who emigrated sometime before 1900 and established a language school in Herald Square, and Margaret Keffer, a young woman who grew up in Reading, Pennsylvania, is the daughter of a former Pennsylvania state legislator, Rep.

Tragedy struck during Christmas week 1912 when Alfred Byron Vazakas died suddenly of pneumonia and the family was left destitute.

Margaret Byron Vazakas then brought her family to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to be near members of her family.

Donald went to live with relatives while Margaret Byron Vazakas earned a living clerking in local department stores.

From an early age Byron Vazakas read avidly and showed an interest in writing.

Byron Vazakas continued to live with his mother at various locations near City Park until her death in December 1940.

At first, Byron Vazakas worked in a clothing store and later collected rents for the Reading Company.

Byron Vazakas introduced Baziotes to Baudelaire and the Symbolists; Baziotes cultivated Byron Vazakas' tastes in art.

In later years, Byron Vazakas credited Baziotes with being a formative influence on his artistic development.

Byron Vazakas established himself as a writer in Reading, but only a small number of people knew that he wrote poetry.

All but 22 of them were destroyed at his request when Byron Vazakas said that he had found his true poetic voice.

When discussing his career in later years, Byron Vazakas never mentioned either "The Galleon" or "The Bard" or the large body of early work.

Byron Vazakas wrote to, and received replies from, fellow Reading native Wallace Stevens, Marianne Moore, and William Carlos Williams.

Byron Vazakas helped Vazakas find a publisher for his first book, and wrote the introduction for the volume, which appeared in 1946.

In December 1945, a high point for Byron Vazakas while awaiting publication of "Transfigured Night" was a joint reading with Tennessee Williams in the YMHA Poetry Center in New York.

Byron Vazakas enjoyed an association with the literary group centered on Archibald MacLeish that included John Ciardi and Richard Wilbur.

Byron Vazakas continued writing poetry and having it published in an increasing number of periodicals including Poetry, Poetry Magazine, Crossing Section, Western Review, and some anthologies.

Byron Vazakas gave occasional lectures and readings at Harvard University and one at Brown University.

Byron Vazakas visited Paris and Majorca, but chiefly spent his time in southern England.

Byron Vazakas returned to spend the rest of his life quietly in Reading, PA.

Byron Vazakas lived frugally in the house provided by his brother Alex.

Byron Vazakas's days were spent roaming the derelict parts of Reading and writing poetry at a table in the Reading Public Library.

Byron Vazakas saw the publication of two more volumes, The Marble Manifesto and Nostalgias For A House Of Cards.

Five additional typescript volumes, each containing 50 poems, as did his four published books, remained ready for a publisher that Byron Vazakas never succeeded in finding.

Byron Vazakas was honored in Reading as its unofficial poet laureate.

Byron Vazakas gave numerous well-received readings, some as part of the Poetry in the Schools program given in high schools in Berks and surrounding counties.

Byron Vazakas was the subject of some local newspaper features.

Byron Vazakas died in Reading Hospital on September 30,1987, after a brief illness, a few days after his 82nd birthday.

Byron Vazakas' papers were organized by his literary executor, Professor Manfred Zitzman, of Albright College.

Byron Vazakas left packets of all the versions of many poems, the first one on the bottom and the final revision on the top.

Byron Vazakas absorbed T S Eliot and the Imagists, but his inclinations led him to the Symbolist poetry of Stephane Mallarme, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, and Paul Valery.

Byron Vazakas was deeply affected by Charles Baudelaire and Rainer Maria Rilke.

Byron Vazakas regarded these as practice poems and asked his friend, Galleon editor Lloyd Arthur Eshbach, to destroy them, as he did, when Vazakas said he had found his true poetic voice.

The literary friends that Byron Vazakas cultivated gave him encouragement and support.

Byron Vazakas developed a friendship with the young novelist Maritta Wolff that lasted almost all his life.

The writers whom Byron Vazakas admired convinced him to value his everyday experiences.

Byron Vazakas wanders alone in rural or urban settings feeling variously fearful or angry, lonely or trapped.

Byron Vazakas's subjects include writers and painters ; people who stepped outside the moral code ; political radicals ; people forced into violent situations against their will; and, eventually, the dregs of society.

Byron Vazakas was a humanist who emphasized the importance of free will in the search for truth and goodness.

Byron Vazakas employs past tense in descriptions of action extending over a while or in reminiscences about his childhood.