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| William Berkson | |
|---|---|
| Name | William Berkson |
| Birth date | 1939 |
| Death date | 2016 |
| Occupation | Physician, Poet, Critic, Translator, Educator |
| Nationality | American |
William Berkson was an American physician, poet, critic, translator, and educator associated with late 20th-century American poetry and literary criticism. His career bridged clinical medicine, avant-garde poetry, academic teaching, and editorial work, engaging with figures across the New York School, Black Mountain poets, and the broader American poetry scene. Berkson's work intersected with institutions such as Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, and journals like The Paris Review and The New Yorker.
Berkson was born in 1939 and raised in a cultural milieu connected to cities such as New York City, San Francisco, and Boston. He attended secondary and preparatory schools that connected him to networks including Phillips Exeter Academy, Stuyvesant High School, and regional arts scenes like Greenwich Village. For higher education he studied at universities such as Harvard University, Yale University, and Columbia University, where he combined interests in literature and medicine. During his formative years he encountered poets and critics associated with John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, and institutions like Black Mountain College.
As a poet Berkson published collections and poems that appeared in magazines including The Paris Review, The New Yorker, Poetry (magazine), The New Republic, and The Nation. His poetic work engaged with contemporaries such as John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Ted Berrigan, James Schuyler, and editors at journals like Locus Solus and Evergreen Review. He participated in readings and festivals alongside figures from Blue Mountain Project, St. Mark's Poetry Project, and university programs at University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University. Critics compared aspects of his technique to movements represented by New American Poetry, Language poetry, and the New York School aesthetic. His poems were discussed in contexts with poets and artists such as Kenneth Koch, Ron Padgett, Joe Brainard, Clive Barker, and institutions like MOMA and The Museum of Modern Art readings.
Berkson contributed criticism and essays to periodicals including The New Republic, Partisan Review, The Nation, Harper's Magazine, and The Village Voice. He wrote on poets and artists such as John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Robert Lowell, Jorie Graham, and painters like Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. His translation work connected American readers to writers such as Pablo Neruda, Jorge Luis Borges, Federico García Lorca, Paul Éluard, and translators and critics including Robert Bly and W. S. Merwin. Editorial roles brought him into contact with presses like Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New Directions Publishing, City Lights Publishers, and journals such as Poetry (magazine) and The Paris Review.
In medicine he trained and worked within hospitals and medical schools linked to Columbia University, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital (Manhattan), and university programs at University of California, San Francisco and Harvard Medical School. His dual career combined clinical practice with teaching appointments at institutions including Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, and medical centers such as Massachusetts General Hospital. He lectured on intersections of literature and medicine at venues like The New School and seminars affiliated with American Medical Association conferences and humanities programs at National Endowment for the Humanities-supported initiatives.
Berkson's personal and professional networks included poets, artists, physicians, and editors such as John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Ted Berrigan, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Ron Padgett, and critics at The New York Review of Books. He lived and worked in cities including New York City, San Francisco, and Boston, participating in communities around St. Mark's Poetry Project, Black Mountain College alumni circles, and university faculties at Columbia University and UC Berkeley. His friendships and collaborations connected him with presses and organizations such as City Lights Publishers, New Directions Publishing, and cultural venues like The Poetry Project.
Over his career Berkson received recognition from institutions and awards associated with National Endowment for the Arts, Guggenheim Fellowship, MacArthur Foundation-type fellowships, university research grants from Columbia University and University of California, Berkeley, and prizes in poetry and translation awarded by organizations like Poetry Society of America and literary foundations tied to The Academy of American Poets.
Category:American poets Category:American physicians Category:1939 births Category:2016 deaths