Carl Rakosi (November 6, 1903 – June 25, 2004) was the last surviving member of theObjectivist poets, still publishing and performing poetry well into his 90s.
Rakosi was born inBerlin and lived there and inHungary until 1910, when he moved to theUnited States to live with his father and stepmother. His father was a jeweler and watchmaker inChicago and later inGary,Indiana. The family lived in semi-poverty but contrived to send him to theUniversity of Chicago and then to theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison. During his time studying at the university level, he started writing poetry. On graduating, he worked for a time as a social worker, then returned to college to study psychology. At this time, he changed his name to Callman Rawley because he felt he stood a better chance of being employed if he had a more American-sounding name. After a spell as a psychologist and teacher, he returned to social work for the rest of his working life.
At the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Rakosi edited theWisconsin Literary Magazine. His own poetry at this stage was influenced byW. B. Yeats,Wallace Stevens, andE. E. Cummings. He also started readingWilliam Carlos Williams andT. S. Eliot. By 1925, he was publishing poems inThe Little Review andNation.
By the late 1920s, Rakosi was in correspondence withEzra Pound, who promptedLouis Zukofsky to contact him. This led to Rakosi's inclusion in the Objectivists issue ofPoetry and in theAn "Objectivists" Anthology. Rakosi himself had reservations about the Objectivist tag, feeling that the poets involved were too different from each other to form a group in any meaningful sense of the word. He especially admired the work ofCharles Reznikoff.
Like his fellow ObjectivistGeorge Oppen, Rakosi abandoned poetry after the publication in 1941 of hisSelected Poems. He dedicated himself to social work and apparently neither read nor wrote poetry. Years earlier, shortly after his twenty-first birthday, Rakosi had legally changed his name to Callman Rawley, believing that he would not find work with his foreign-sounding name. Under his adopted name, he served as head of the Minneapolis Jewish Children's and Family Service from 1945 until his retirement in 1968. A letter from the English poetAndrew Crozier about his early poetry was the trigger that started Rakosi writing again. His first book in 26 years,Amulet, was published by New Directions in 1967, although it consisted mostly of versions of his earlier poems. HisCollected Poems was published in 1986 by theNational Poetry Foundation, which was followed by several more volumes and by readings across theUnited States andEurope.
In early November 2003, Rakosi celebrated his 100th birthday with friends at the San Francisco Public Library. Upon his deathJacket Magazine editorJohn Tranter observed the following:
Poet Carl Rakosi died on Friday afternoon June 25 at the age of 100, after a series of strokes, in his home in San Francisco. My wife Lyn and I were passing through California in November 2003, and we stopped by to have a coffee with Carl at his home in Sunset. By a lucky coincidence, it happened to be his 100th birthday. He was, as always, kind, thoughtful, bright and alert, and as sharp as a pin. We felt privileged to know him.
