John Berryman

UXL Newsmakers, (2005)

Poetry and Indulgence

Although Berryman's poetry writing and his teaching career were flourishing, his obsession with self-examination, growing dependence on alcohol, and notorious womanizing were putting a strain on his personal life. Although he sought help from a psychiatrist and tried group therapy, he found little relief from his inner conflict or his dependence on alcohol. In the fall of 1953, after ten years of marriage, his first wife left him.

In the spring of 1954, he taught at the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, then spent the following summer at Harvard. His reputation as an intense, passionate, and charismatic teacher followed him from classroom to classroom. He returned to the University of Iowa in the fall, but was forced to resign after spending a night in jail. Returning home intoxicated one night, he could not find his key and attempted to force his way into the house. The landlord's wife called the police and Berryman was charged with disorderly conduct. He resigned two days later.

Two Decades at the University of Minnesota

In 1955, Allan Tate, a poet Berryman deeply admired, invited him to the University of Minnesota. Berryman was appointed lecturer in humanities. This would be Berryman's home for the rest of his life. At the University of Minnesota Berryman became extremely interested in dream analysis, which he studied in-depth and which subsequently led to his greatest work, The Dream Songs (1969).

In 1956, one week after finalizing his divorce from his first wife, Berryman married 24-year-old Anne Levine. The relationship did not fare well, and the couple argued often. In 1957, Berryman was promoted to associate professor and participated in a State Department sponsored lecture tour to India. By the next year, back in Minnesota, he was hospitalized for exhaustion and nerves. He would be hospitalized at least once a year for the rest of his life. In 1959, after a year of legal separation, he and his wife divorced. Their son, Paul, was two years old. In 1961, Berryman married 22-year-old Kate Donahue; they had two children, Martha and Sara.

Dream Songs

The Dream Songs was first published in two parts. 77 Dream Songs (1964) earned Berryman the Pulitzer Prize. His Toy, His Dream, His Rest (1968), the sequel to 77 Song Dreams, completed The Dream Songs, series, which was released in 1969, and earned the National Book Award and the Bollingen Prize. There are 385 songs, with each song composed of three six-line stanzas. The songs are an account of a character, Henry, who speaks of himself in first, second, and third person, and sometimes encounters a nameless friend who gives him usually ineffectual and often humorous advice. Although Berryman maintained that Henry was not himself but a white, middle-aged American man, sometimes appearing in blackface, who had suffered a tremendous loss, the poem is clearly a reflection of Berryman's own thoughts, obsessions, pain, and often darkly comic understanding of life. The songs are Berryman's own self-destructive life in a verse style unique to Berryman. The syntax is awkward and demanding of the reader, yet intense and moving.