Turner Cassity Explained

Turner Cassity
Birth Name:	Allen Turner Cassity
Birth Date:	12 January 1929
Birth Place:	Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.
Death Place:	Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Resting Place:	Forest, Mississippi, U.S.
Alma Mater:	Millsaps College Stanford University Columbia University
Parents:	Allen Cassity Dorothy Cassity

Allen Turner Cassity (January 12, 1929 in Jackson, Mississippi – July 26, 2009 in Atlanta)^[1] was an American poet, playwright, and short story writer.

Life

He was the son of Dorothy and Allen Cassity, and grew up in Jackson and Forest, Mississippi. He graduated from Millsaps College and Stanford University with a master's degree.^[2]

Cassity was drafted into the United States Army and stationed in Puerto Rico from 1952 to 1954. He attended Columbia University on the GI Bill. He worked at the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Emory University, from 1962 to 1991,^[3] and also taught poetry there.

He is buried in Forest, Mississippi.^[4] His papers are at Emory University.^[5]

Awards

• Georgia Author of the Year Award from the Georgia Writers Association.
• Levinson Prize for Poetry, for Devils and Islands
• Michael Braude Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• Ingram Merrill Foundation Award
• National Endowment for the Arts Grant

Works

• Book: Watchboy, What of the Night? . Wesleyan University Press. 1966 .
• Book: Steeplejacks in Babel . D. R. Godine. 1973. 978-0-87923-070-8 .
• Book: Yellow for Peril, Black for Beautiful . G. Braziller . 1975 . 978-0-8076-0775-6 .
• Book: The Defense of the Sugar Islands: a recruiting poster. Symposium Press. 1979 .
• Book: Phaëthon unter den Linden . Iris Press. 1979 .
• Book: Keys to Mayerling . Robert L. Barth. 1983. 978-0-941150-14-9 .
• Book: The Airship Boys in Africa . Hendricks. 1984. 978-0-943764-01-6 .
• Book: Hurricane Lamp. University of Chicago Press. 1986. 978-0-226-09615-5 .
• Book: Lessons . Para Press. 1987. 978-0-941150-57-6 .
• Book: To the Lost City, or, the Sins of Nineveh. R.L. Barth. 1989. 978-0-941150-74-3 .
• Book: Between the Chains . registration . Turner Cassity. . University of Chicago Press. 1991. 978-0-226-09617-9 .
• Book: The Destructive Element: New and Selected Poems . Ohio University Press . 1998 . 978-0-8214-1221-3 .
• Book: No Second Eden. Ohio University Press. 2002. 978-0-8040-1050-4 .
• News: Crystal but not crystal ball. November 2006. The New Criterion .
• Book: Devils & islands: poems . Ohio University Press. 2007. 978-0-8040-1102-0 .
• News: Four poems (published posthumously). December 2009. Able Muse, Tribute Issue .
• News: Turner Cassity Reads at the Huntington Library, April 12, 2003 (video). December 2009. Able Muse, Tribute Issue .

Verse plays

• Silver Out of Shanghai (1973)
• The Book of Alna (1985)

Anthologies

• Book: The Best American poetry, 1998. registration. John Hollander . David Lehman. Scribner. 1998. 978-0-684-81453-7 .
• Book: The made thing: an anthology of contemporary Southern poetry. registration. 58. Turner Cassity.. Leon Stokesbury. University of Arkansas Press. 1999. 978-1-55728-579-9 .
• Book: The Poetry anthology, 1912-2002. registration. Joseph Parisi . Stephen Young. Ivan R. Dee. 2002. 978-1-56663-468-7 .

Criticism

• Book: https://books.google.com/books?id=hydg0bdWd2cC&dq=Turner+Cassity&pg=PA191. Double Dutch. Parnassus: twenty years of poetry in review. Herbert A. Leibowitz. University of Michigan Press. 1994. 978-0-472-06577-6 .
• Hapax: A Book Review. May 2007. Cortland Review .

Ploughshares

• Deep Depression in Key West . Ploughshares . Fall 1983 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070828173606/http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmarticleID=1502 . August 28, 2007 .
• U-24 Anchors off New Orleans 1938 . Ploughshares . Fall 1983 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070909035231/http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmarticleid=1503 . September 9, 2007 .

External links

• "Turner Cassity Tribute (Guest Features Editor - Suzanne J. Doyle)", Able Muse, December, 2009
• "Remembering Turner Cassity (by David Yezzi)", Best American Poetry, August 13, 2009

Notes and References

1. https://books.google.com/books?id=JegLXYrq1bMC&pg=PA75&lpg=PA75 'The New Georgia Encyclopedia Companion to Georgia Literature', edited by Hugh Ruppersburg, John C. Inscoe, 2011, page 75
2. Web site: Turner Cassity, 80, award-winning poet and Emory librarian . Ajc.com . 2009-08-11 . 2013-10-17.
3. Web site: David Yezzi . Turner Cassity . The Poetry Foundation . 2013-10-17.
4. Web site: Turner Cassity (1929-2009) | New Georgia Encyclopedia . Georgiaencyclopedia.org . 2007-03-17 . 2013-10-17.
5. http://marbl.library.emory.edu/Guides/rg-literature-american.html