George Oppen

His father, a successful diamond merchant, was George August Oppenheimer (b. Apr. 13, 1881), his mother Elsie Rothfeld.

George Oppen (April 24, 1908 – July 7, 1984) was an American poet, best known as one of the members of the Objectivist group of poets.

In 1917, the family moved to San Francisco where Oppen attended Warren Military Academy.

It is speculated that during this time Oppen's early traumas led to fighting and drinking, so that, while reaching maturity, Oppen was also experiencing a personal crisis.

By 1925, this period of personal and psychic transition culminated in a serious car wreck in which George was driver and a young passenger was killed.

Ultimately, Oppen was expelled from high school just before he graduated.

After this period, he traveled to England and Scotland by himself, visiting his stepmother's relative, and attending lectures by C.A. Mace, professor in philosophy at St. Andrews.

In 1926, Oppen started attending Oregon State University.

There he met Mary Colby, a fiercely independent young woman from Grants Pass, Oregon in a poetry class.

Hearing Carl Sandburg read his poem "Fog" on campus, they took up poetry themselves.

On their first date, the couple stayed out all night with the result that she was expelled and he suspended.

They left Oregon, married, and started hitch-hiking across the country working at odd jobs along the way.

His father changed the family name to Oppen in 1927.

Oppen's childhood was one of considerable affluence; the family was well-tended to by servants and maids and Oppen enjoyed all the benefits of a wealthy upbringing: horse riding, expensive automobiles, frequent trips to Europe.

But his mother committed suicide when he was four, his father remarried three years later and the boy and his stepmother, Seville Shainwald, apparently could not get along.

Oppen developed a skill for sailing at a young age and the seascapes around his childhood home left a mark on his later poetry.

He was taught carpentry by the family butler; Oppen, as an adult, found work as a carpenter and cabinetmaker.

In 1929 and 1930 he and Mary spent some time in New York, where they met Louis Zukofsky, Charles Reznikoff, musician Tibor Serly, and designer Russel Wright, among others.

In 1929, George came into a small inheritance and relative financial independence.

He abandoned poetry in the 1930s for political activism and moved to Mexico in 1950 to avoid the attentions of the House Un-American Activities Committee.

In 1930 George and Mary moved to California and then to France, where, thanks to their financial input, they were able to establish To Publishers and act as printer/publishers with Zukofsky as editor.

The short-lived publishing venture managed to launch works by William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound.

Oppen had begun working on poems for what was to be his first book, Discrete Series, a seminal work in early Objectivist history.

Some of these appeared in the February 1931 Objectivist issue of Poetry and the subsequent An "Objectivist's" Anthology published in 1932.

In 1933, the Oppens returned to New York.

George Oppen, William Carlos Williams, Louis Zukofsky and Charles Reznikoff set up the Objectivist Press.

The press published books by Reznikoff and Williams, as well as Oppen's first book Discrete Series, which included a preface by Ezra Pound.

Faced with the effects of the Depression and the rise of fascism, the Oppens were becoming increasingly involved in political action.

Unable to bring himself to write verse propaganda, Oppen abandoned poetry and joined the Communist Party USA, serving as election campaign manager for Brooklyn in 1936, and helping organize the Utica New York Milk Strike.

He and Mary were engaged and active in the cause of worker's rights, and Oppen was tried and acquitted on a charge of felonious assault on the police.

By 1942, Oppen was deferred from military service while working in the defense industry.

Disillusioned by the CPUSA and willing to assist in the fight against fascism, Oppen quit his job, making himself eligible for the draft.

Effectively volunteering for duty, Oppen saw active service on the Maginot Line and the Ardennes; he was seriously wounded near Bad Urach Germany.

Shortly after Oppen was wounded, Oppen's division helped liberate the concentration camp at Landsberg am Lech.

He was awarded the Purple Heart and returned to New York in 1946.

After the war, Oppen worked as a carpenter and cabinet maker.

He returned to poetry—and to the United States—in 1958, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1969.

Oppen was born in New Rochelle, New York, into a Jewish family.

Mary documents these events in her memoir, Meaning A Life: An Autobiography (1978).

While living on the road, Oppen began writing poems and publishing in local magazines.