Gwendolyn Brooks :: Biography Biographies Essays

Gwendolyn countenance Although she was born on 7 June 1917 in Topeka, Kansas--the counterbalance child of David and Keziah countenance--Gwendolyn stick out is a Chicagoan. The family travel to Chicago shortly after her birth, and despite her ample travels and periods in about of the major universities of the country, she has remained associated with the citys South Side. What her strong family unit lacked in material wealth was made bearable by the wealth of benignant capital that resulted from unattackable interpersonal relationships. When she writes about families that--despite their daily adversities--are not dysfunctional, Gwendolyn support writes from an intimate noesis reinforced by her own life.Brooks be Hyde Park uplifted School, the leading white high school in the city, but transferred to the all-black Wendell Phillips, and then to the integrated Englewood High School. In 1936 she graduated from Wilson junior-grade College. These four schools gave her a perspe ctive on racial dynamics in the city that continues to submit her work.Her profound interest in rime assured much of her former(a) life. Eventide, her first poem, was publish in American childhood Magazine in 1930. A few years later she met throng Weldon Johnson and Langston Hughes, who urged her to read newfangled poetry--especially the work of Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and e. c. cummings--and who emphasized the need to write as much and as frequently as she possibly could. By 1934 Brooks had become an addition member of the staff of the Chicago Defender and had published almost hotshot hundred of her poems in a weekly poetry column.In 1938 she marital Henry Blakely and moved to a kitchenette apartment on Chicagos South Side. Between the birth of her first child, Henry, Jr., in 1940 and the birth of Nora in 1951, she became associated with the company of writers involved in Harriet Monroes still-extant metrical composition A Magazine of Verse. From this group she received further encouragement, and by 1943 she had won the midwestern Writers Conference Poetry Award.In 1945 her first book of poetry, A street in Bronzeville (published by Harper and Row), brought her instant critical acclaim. She was selected one of white perch magazines Ten green Women of the Year, she won her first Guggenheim Fellowship, and she became a fellow of the American Academy of liberal arts and Letters. Her second book of poems, Annie Allen (1949), won Poetry magazines Eunice Tietjens Prize. In 1950 Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize.Gwendolyn Brooks Biography Biographies EssaysGwendolyn Brooks Although she was born on 7 June 1917 in Topeka, Kansas--the first child of David and Keziah Brooks--Gwendolyn Brooks is a Chicagoan. The family moved to Chicago shortly after her birth, and despite her extensive travels and periods in some of the major universities of the country, she has remained associated with the citys South Side. What her strong family unit lacked in material wealth was made bearable by the wealth of human capital that resulted from warm interpersonal relationships. When she writes about families that--despite their daily adversities--are not dysfunctional, Gwendolyn Brooks writes from an intimate knowledge reinforced by her own life.Brooks attended Hyde Park High School, the leading white high school in the city, but transferred to the all-black Wendell Phillips, then to the integrated Englewood High School. In 1936 she graduated from Wilson Junior College. These four schools gave her a perspective on racial dynamics in the city that continues to influence her work.Her profound interest in poetry informed much of her early life. Eventide, her first poem, was published in American Childhood Magazine in 1930. A few years later she met James Weldon Johnson and Langston Hughes, who urged her to read modern poetry--especially the work of Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and e. c. cummings--and who emphasized the need to write as much and as frequently as she possibly could. By 1934 Brooks had become an adjunct member of the staff of the Chicago Defender and had published almost one hundred of her poems in a weekly poetry column.In 1938 she married Henry Blakely and moved to a kitchenette apartment on Chicagos South Side. Between the birth of her first child, Henry, Jr., in 1940 and the birth of Nora in 1951, she became associated with the group of writers involved in Harriet Monroes still-extant Poetry A Magazine of Verse. From this group she received further encouragement, and by 1943 she had won the Midwestern Writers Conference Poetry Award.In 1945 her first book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville (published by Harper and Row), brought her instant critical acclaim. She was selected one of Mademoiselle magazines Ten Young Women of the Year, she won her first Guggenheim Fellowship, and she became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her second book of poems, Annie All en (1949), won Poetry magazines Eunice Tietjens Prize. In 1950 Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize.