Edgar Bowers (/ˈbaʊ.ərz/; March 2, 1924 – February 4, 2000) was an Americanpoet who won theBollingen Prize in Poetry in 1989 and twoGuggenheim fellowships.[1] In selecting Mr. Bowers, the judges cited his 1973 work,Living Together: New and Selected Poems, saying that it "cemented Mr. Bowers's reputation as a poet of enduring work."Harold Bloom declared Bowers one of the 20th century’s masters.[2][1]
Bowers was born inRome, Georgia, in 1924. DuringWorld War II, he joined the military and worked incounter-intelligence againstGermany, which would later inform much of his writing.[3] He was stationed for a year at Berchtesgaden, Hitler’s retreat in the Alps.[4]
He graduated from theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1950 and after the war, he earned his MA and PhD in English literature fromStanford University. He wrote five collections of poetry, includingFor Louis Pasteur (1990),The Astronomers (1965) andThe Form of Loss (1956). He taught English at theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara for most of his career.[1]
In Bowers's obituary, the English poetClive Wilmer wrote, "The title poem of his 1990 collection,For Louis Pasteur, announces his key loyalties. He confessed to celebrating every year the birthdays of three heroes: Pasteur,Mozart andPaul Valéry, all of whom suggest admiration for the life of the mind lived at its highest pitch—a concern for science and its social uses, and a love of art that is elegant, cerebral and orderly."
Another aspect of Bowers is highlighted byThom Gunn on the back of Bowers'sCollected Poems: "Bowers started with youthful stoicism, but the feeling is now governed by an increasing acceptance of the physical world." That 'physical world' encompasses sex and love which are refracted through his restrained and lapidary lines. The effect of this contrast is striking: at once balanced and engaged; detached but acutely aware of sensual satisfactions."
Bowers's style owes much to the artistic ethos ofYvor Winters, under whom Bowers studied at Stanford. The poetry of his first two volumes reflects the austere dedication to formal precision that marked the thinking of Winters andJ. V. Cunningham.[5] He often wrote in rhyme, but also producedblank verse in the English language. He wrote very little (hisCollected Poems weighs in at 168 pages).
Bowers retired in 1991 and died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma at his home inSan Francisco on February 4, 2000, the day after his companion, James Davis, died.[3][1] In 2003, UCLA hosted a conference and exhibit in Bowers’s honor.[4][1]
