Papers of Charles Reznikoff

Charles Reznikoff was an American poet, author, and founder of the Objectivist School of Poetry. He was born on August 31, 1894, in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants who had fled Russia after the assassination of Alexander II.

At the age of sixteen he spent a year studying journalism at Missouri State University; in 1912 he entered the law School of New York University and graduated in 1916. He practiced law briefly and entered officer training school in 1918 during World War I but never saw active duty.

Reznikoff worked for a time for his family's business as a hat salesman. He then worked for a legal publishing house where he wrote summaries of court records for legal reference books. In 1918, he privately published his 1st book of poetry, .

From his teens, Reznikoff had been writing poetry, much of it influenced by the Imagists, and publishing it using a second-hand press, for which he set the type himself. Throughout his writing life, Reznikoff was always concerned to ensure that his work was published, even at his own expense.

In the 1930s, he gained recognition as one of the principal proponents of Objectivism. He helped to establish the Objectivist Press which published three of his books including the Waters of Manhattan in 1930. Unfortunately most of his work had little commercial success and the majority of his writings continued to be self-published.

The most comprehensive edition of Reznikoff's work is (Black Sparrow Press, 1989). His other books of poetry include; (1975) and , which are his most celebrated works, as well as (1941), (1934), (1920), and .

In 1971, he was awarded the Morton Dauwen Zabel Prize by The National Institute of Arts and Letters. Later that same year, he also found a new publisher, Black Sparrow Press. In the years following his death Black Sparrow brought all his major poetry and prose works back into print.

Apart from his brief venture in the south and a year spent as a Hollywood screenwriter in the 1930, Reznikoff was a lifelong resident of New York City. He died on January 22, 1976.