Collection of John Malcolm Brinnin - Kimon Friar correspondence and Brinnin literary manuscripts

John Malcolm BrinninJohn Malcolm Brinnin (1916–1998) was an award winning poet and biographer, responsible for first bringing poet Dylan Thomas to America.



John Malcolm Brinnin was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on September 13, 1916, to John A. Brinnin and Frances Malcolm Brinnin. When he was young his family moved to Detroit, Michigan. Brinnin graduated from the University of Michigan in 1942 and within a year entered graduate school at Harvard University.

Brinnin, who was also a critic, anthologist, and teacher, taught at Vassar, Boston University, the University of Connecticut, and Harvard. He was Director of the Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association Poetry Center (the 92nd Street Y) in New York City during one of the Center's most successful periods (1949–1956).

Brinnin was the first person to bring Welsh poet Dylan Thomas to the United States and was responsible for all of Dylan Thomas's reading tours in this country. Brinnin's best known work, Dylan Thomas in America, published in 1955, provides a personal memoir of Dylan Thomas's trips to America as Brinnin observed them, and carries a moving account of the period of Thomas's death in 1953. Dylan Thomas in America was made into the 1964 Broadway play, Dylan. Brinnin later narrated a motion picture, The Days of Dylan Thomas.

John Malcolm Brinnin published a number of collections of poems. Brinnin's first collection of verse, The Garden is Political, was published in 1942. Subsequent collections of poems include The Lincoln Lyrics (1942), No Arch, No Triumph (1945), The Sorrows of Cold Stone (1951), and Selected Poems of John Malcolm Brinnin (1963). Skin Diving in the Virgins, and Other Poems (1970) was Brinnin's final collection of published poetry, although he continued to tinker with a number of abandoned poems until his death.

In 1955 the Poetry Society of America awarded Brinnin its Gold Medal for Distinguished Service to Poetry. Following the publication of his Selected Poems in 1963, Brinnin was awarded the Centennial Medal for Distinction in Literature by his alma mater, the University of Michigan.

In addition to writing poetry, Brinnin edited a literary journal, Signatures (1936–1938), and compiled several anthologies of modern poetry. Brinnin's two popular works on transatlantic travel, The Sway of the Grand Saloon: A Social History of the North Atlantic (1971) and Beau Voyage: Life Aboard the Last Great Ships (1981), reflect his lifelong love of travel, particularly crossing the Atlantic on luxury liners.

John Malcolm Brinnin authored biographies of Gertrude Stein (The Third Rose, 1959) and Truman Capote (Truman Capote: Dear Heart, Old Buddy, 1986). His work, Sextet (1981), included biographical sketches of Truman Capote; Henri Cartier-Bresson; Elizabeth Bowen; Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell Sitwell; Alice B. Toklas; and T. S. Eliot. In addition, he wrote a critical work on William Carlos Williams.

John Malcolm Brinnin died at his home in Key West, Florida, on June 25, 1998.

Kimon FriarGreek-American scholar and poet Kimon Friar (1911–1993) translated the work of many Greek poets and writers.



Kimon Friar was born November 18, 1911 in Imrali, Turkey. Friar was naturalized as an American citizen in 1920. Friar attended the Art Institute of Chicago (1929), and Yale University (1932) before receiving a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin in 1934. In 1939 he received an M.A. from the University of Michigan. He pursued additional graduate study at the State University of Iowa in 1940.

Kimon Friar is a poet, translator, editor, critic, and teacher. He taught at Adelphi College (1940–1945), Amherst College (1945–1946), New York University (1952–1953), and the University of Minnesota (1953–1954). He has been a visiting professor at the University of California, the University of Illinois, the University of Indiana, Ohio State University, and other universities and institutions in Greece and South America.

Friar has translated and edited a variety of works by Greek poets and writers, including Nikos Kazantzakis, Theodore Roubanis, Miltos Sahtouris, Odysseus Elytis, Takis Sinopoulos, Yannis Ritsos, Manolis Anagnostakis and Kostas Kindinis. One of his most notable works is his translation of Nikos Kazantzakis' epic poem, "Odhisia," as The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel.

While he was Director of the YMHA Poetry Center (1944–1947) Friar edited The Poetry Center Presents (1947), an anthology of material presented at the New York center. Also in the 1940s he co-edited with Brinnin the anthology, Modern Poetry: American and British (1951).

He has contributed articles, poems, and translations to American and Greek newspapers and periodicals, including Poetry, Saturday Review, New Republic, New York Times Book Review, Quarterly Review of Literature, Books Abroad, Chicago Review, and Atlantic. In addition he was founder and editor of Charioteer (1960–1962) and Greek Heritage (1963–1965).

Evory, Ann (ed.). Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Volume 1. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1981. p. 72.Gerber, Philip L. "John Malcolm Brinnin." Dictionary of Literary Biography Volume 48: American Poets, 1880–1945, Second Series. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1986. pp. 52-57.Locher, Frances Carol (ed.). Contemporary Authors Volumes 85-88. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1980. pp. 189-190.

John Malcolm Brinnin (1916–1998) was an award winning poet and biographer, responsible for first bringing poet Dylan Thomas to America.



John Malcolm Brinnin was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on September 13, 1916, to John A. Brinnin and Frances Malcolm Brinnin. When he was young his family moved to Detroit, Michigan. Brinnin graduated from the University of Michigan in 1942 and within a year entered graduate school at Harvard University.

Brinnin, who was also a critic, anthologist, and teacher, taught at Vassar, Boston University, the University of Connecticut, and Harvard. He was Director of the Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association Poetry Center (the 92nd Street Y) in New York City during one of the Center's most successful periods (1949–1956).

Brinnin was the first person to bring Welsh poet Dylan Thomas to the United States and was responsible for all of Dylan Thomas's reading tours in this country. Brinnin's best known work, Dylan Thomas in America, published in 1955, provides a personal memoir of Dylan Thomas's trips to America as Brinnin observed them, and carries a moving account of the period of Thomas's death in 1953. Dylan Thomas in America was made into the 1964 Broadway play, Dylan. Brinnin later narrated a motion picture, The Days of Dylan Thomas.

John Malcolm Brinnin published a number of collections of poems. Brinnin's first collection of verse, The Garden is Political, was published in 1942. Subsequent collections of poems include The Lincoln Lyrics (1942), No Arch, No Triumph (1945), The Sorrows of Cold Stone (1951), and Selected Poems of John Malcolm Brinnin (1963). Skin Diving in the Virgins, and Other Poems (1970) was Brinnin's final collection of published poetry, although he continued to tinker with a number of abandoned poems until his death.

In 1955 the Poetry Society of America awarded Brinnin its Gold Medal for Distinguished Service to Poetry. Following the publication of his Selected Poems in 1963, Brinnin was awarded the Centennial Medal for Distinction in Literature by his alma mater, the University of Michigan.

In addition to writing poetry, Brinnin edited a literary journal, Signatures (1936–1938), and compiled several anthologies of modern poetry. Brinnin's two popular works on transatlantic travel, The Sway of the Grand Saloon: A Social History of the North Atlantic (1971) and Beau Voyage: Life Aboard the Last Great Ships (1981), reflect his lifelong love of travel, particularly crossing the Atlantic on luxury liners.

John Malcolm Brinnin authored biographies of Gertrude Stein (The Third Rose, 1959) and Truman Capote (Truman Capote: Dear Heart, Old Buddy, 1986). His work, Sextet (1981), included biographical sketches of Truman Capote; Henri Cartier-Bresson; Elizabeth Bowen; Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell Sitwell; Alice B. Toklas; and T. S. Eliot. In addition, he wrote a critical work on William Carlos Williams.

John Malcolm Brinnin died at his home in Key West, Florida, on June 25, 1998.

Greek-American scholar and poet Kimon Friar (1911–1993) translated the work of many Greek poets and writers.



Kimon Friar was born November 18, 1911 in Imrali, Turkey. Friar was naturalized as an American citizen in 1920. Friar attended the Art Institute of Chicago (1929), and Yale University (1932) before receiving a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin in 1934. In 1939 he received an M.A. from the University of Michigan. He pursued additional graduate study at the State University of Iowa in 1940.

Kimon Friar is a poet, translator, editor, critic, and teacher. He taught at Adelphi College (1940–1945), Amherst College (1945–1946), New York University (1952–1953), and the University of Minnesota (1953–1954). He has been a visiting professor at the University of California, the University of Illinois, the University of Indiana, Ohio State University, and other universities and institutions in Greece and South America.

Friar has translated and edited a variety of works by Greek poets and writers, including Nikos Kazantzakis, Theodore Roubanis, Miltos Sahtouris, Odysseus Elytis, Takis Sinopoulos, Yannis Ritsos, Manolis Anagnostakis and Kostas Kindinis. One of his most notable works is his translation of Nikos Kazantzakis' epic poem, "Odhisia," as The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel.

While he was Director of the YMHA Poetry Center (1944–1947) Friar edited The Poetry Center Presents (1947), an anthology of material presented at the New York center. Also in the 1940s he co-edited with Brinnin the anthology, Modern Poetry: American and British (1951).

He has contributed articles, poems, and translations to American and Greek newspapers and periodicals, including Poetry, Saturday Review, New Republic, New York Times Book Review, Quarterly Review of Literature, Books Abroad, Chicago Review, and Atlantic. In addition he was founder and editor of Charioteer (1960–1962) and Greek Heritage (1963–1965).