Russell Edson
# Russell Edson

Russell Edson (1935 – April 29, 2014) was an American poet, novelist, writer, and illustrator. He was the son of the cartoonist-screenwriter Gus Edson.

Born in Connecticut, Edson studied art early in life and attended the Art Students League as a teenager. He began publishing poetry in the 1950s. His honors as a poet include a Guggenheim fellowship, a Whiting Award, and several fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Edson self-published several chapbooks and later, numerous collections of prose poetry, fables, two novels, Gulping's Recital and The Song of Percival Peacock, and a book of plays under the title, The Falling Sickness. His final book was See Jack (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009).

He lived in Darien, Connecticut with his wife Frances.

## Selected bibliography

Full-length prose poetry collections

* See Jack (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009)
* The Rooster's Wife: Poems (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2005)
* The Tormented Mirror (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001)
* The Tunnel: Selected Poems of Russell Edson (Oberlin College Press, 1994)
* The Wounded Breakfast (Wesleyan University Press, 1985)
* With Sincerest Regrets (Burning Deck Press, 1980)
* The Reason Why the Closet-Man Is Never Sad (Wesleyan University Press, 1977)
* Edson's Mentality (OINK! Press, 1977)
* The Intuitive Journey and Other Works (Harper & Row, 1976)
* Gulping's Recital (Guignol Books, 1984)
* The Clam Theater (Wesleyan University Press, 1973)
* The Childhood Of An Equestrian (Harper & Row, 1973)
* Ceremonies in Bachelor Space (Grapnel Press, Black Mountain College, 1951)

Chapbooks

* Wuck Wuck Wuck! (with linocut by Richard Mock, Red Ozier Press, 1984)

Novels

* Gulping's Recital (Guignol Books, 1984)
* The Song of Percival Peacock: A Novel (Coffee House Press, 1992)

Short Stories & Fables

* Tick Tock: Short Stories (illustrated with woodcuts, Demitasse/Coffee House Press, 1992)
* What a Man Can See: Fables (with drawings by Ray Johnson, 1969)
* The Brain Kitchen: Writings and Woodcuts (Thing Press, 1965)
* The Very Thing That Happens: Fables and Drawings (New Directions Publishing, 1964)
* Appearances: Fables and Drawings (Thing Press, 1961)
* A Stone Is Nobody's: Fables and Drawings (Thing Press, 1961)

Plays

* The Falling Sickness: A Book of Plays (New Directions Publishing, 1975)

Music

* Ketchup opera in 2 acts. Text By Russell Edson, music by Franklin Stover. Scored for 2 voices & chamber orchestra.
* The Song of Percival Peacock - an entertainment for reed quintet and narrator set to prose poems of Russell Edson, by Franklin Stover. (Edition Hohenstaufen, 2017)

## Honors and awards

* 1992 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship
* 1989 Whiting Award
* 1981 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship
* 1976 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship
* 1974 Guggenheim Fellowship
