Louis Untermeyer(1885-1977)
- Writer
Poet, author and humorist Louis Untermeyer was born in New York City in
1885. Like many at the turn of the century, he quit high school to go
to work at his father's jewelry manufacturing business. He was known
primarily as an anthologist of poetry, but was an excellent poet in his
own right. His only public entertainment appearance was on TV's classic
show What's My Line? (1950), a show on which he thrived and used as a perfect venue
for trading his amusing stories and anecdotes with publisher 'Bennett Cerf',
investigative journalist/writer Dorothy Kilgallen and others who appeared on the
show. Unfortunately, as it did many wonderful entertainers of the 40s &
50s, the Hollywood Blacklist - created as a result of the red-scare
tactics of the House of Un-American Activities Committee - added him to
the Blacklist because of his liberal, left-wing views and Communist
connections. Like many others, he didn't realize that freedom of speech
was all but forsaken in those days. He was fired without notice upon
his arrival at the studio one day as a result of the efforts of a small
handful of people who made a concerted effort to lobby the advertisers
for his removal, a typical ploy in those days used by right-wingers as
advertisers virtually owned the TV shows in the 50s. Like many others
bitten by the HUAC's Blacklist, Untermeyer never again appeared on TV
or film. According to his friend and playwright Arthur Miller, Untermeyer
became a virtual recluse for more than a year after his blacklisting.
In 1956, Untermeyer was awarded the prestigious Gold Medal from the
Poetry Society of America, he also served as a poet in residence at
many major universities including The University of Michigan and served
as a consultant in English Poetry for the United States Library of
Congress from 1961-63. He was the author of many compendiums of verse,
including "Modern American Poetry" (1919); "Modern British Poetry"
(1920); "This Singing World" (1923); "Fifty Modern American and British
Poets: 1920-1970" (1973), and his own work was featured in "Selected
Poems and Parodies" (1935). Louis Untermeyer, a man who had been
knocked down but not beaten in the twilight of his life, died December
18, 1977 at age 92.
