|main page|
Alfred
Starr Hamilton::::::::::::::::
|main page|
Since putting the ASH page on the web, an email has arrived every few years from out of the blue. The first pair came from Mr. Hamilton's niece. Unfortunately, when I wrote back she never responded. I sent a few more emails but never got a response. I've posted her intial letters--hesitantly--without permission because the details are so rich and touching. Jane, if you're out there, get back in touch!
Sunday, December 22, 2002 12:20 PM
Dear Steve,
At one time, I considered writing a
biography about my Uncle Alfred. His sister, Judith,
is my mother.
My older sister and I lived with her
parents and our Uncle Alfred for years. He taught me how to
drive on an old Model T when I was 12 ( that was
1942). When mother remarried, had two more children, we
again lived with her parents and Uncle Alfred. We all
remember the gumball machines, going around to service
them. They became marble machines later on due to
shortages of sugar during WWII.
I persuaded my mother to reminisce about
her brother and their childhood. She is still alive
and will be 95 years old Jan 1, 2003. Uncle Alfred now
lives in a nursing home on mediaid. Katharine, their
sister, died in 1986 at the age of 75.
Therefore we in the family have a lot of
memories of Alfred, and somewhere there are photos. If you
are interested in more about Uncle Alfred, please let me
know. Incidentally, we all have read and reread
the poems to try and get some connections to events we know
of. Not much success there.
The New York Times article took us
completely by surprise. He wrote a letter to my mother
declaring himself "immune", indicated he had listed
himself in the city of Montclair, N.J. as that.
Sincerely, Jane H.
Sunday, December 22, 2002 1:24 PM
Dear Steve,
Rereading my earlier e message, I
realized I never mentioned that Uncle Alfred is Alfred Starr
Hamilton. I did write a letter to Jonathan Williams in 1987
asking about a biography. He wrote that he couldn't do it,
suggested a couple of magazines. Uncle Alfred had
stacks of those black and white notebooks, more handwritten
poems. He showed me a children's book called THE LITTLE RED
WHEELBARROW with a poem of his and some of William Carlos
Williams. I haven't had any luck finding that book, and
alas when Uncle Alfred was moved to the nursing home, I don't
know what happened to all his books, typewriter, poems, letters
etc. We heard he had been invited to speak at
Montclair State College but didn't go.
Please let me know what you think and
might do with information about Uncle Alfred. Thank you,
Jane H.
Silliman seems like a good fellow and has made a few blog entries about Hamilton.
"Hamilton is the author of spare, wry, slightly surreal poems that have, so far as I can see, no real equivalent elsewhere in American English."
"[Shotgun] is an almost perfect machine, its various sleights-of-hand so gentle & deft...."
"I became aware of his poetry, as did many others of my generation, thanks largely to Jonathan Williams,who published a sizeable (but long out-of-print) collection of Hamilton’s work in 1970."
Ron Silliman [December 11, 2003] Read the blog entry
John Latta's blog, Hotel Point, has a good summary (dated Jan 2, 2004) of Hamilton's pulished work and includes the text of a few poems, including "Crabapples," which appears to be his first poem in print, in Cornell University's Epoch (Fall 1962 issue aka Vol. XII, No. 3) and not in Sphinx as I wrote above. For more details I suggest reading the blog iself, which though brief, includes some interesting context and observations. Seems this extended entry refers back to his note on Dec 12, 2003: "Poking around in old bound volumes of Epoch yesterday after Ron Silliman’s mention of Alfred Starr Hamilton, a name, unforgettable enough, that’d got bruit’d around Cornell in the early ’seventies..."
This letter from Joel Lewis was a response to an inquiry about his NJ poets anthology (Bluestones and Salt Hay)
January 18, 2004
Steve--
Hamilton had a bit
of a reputation around the time of the Jargon Society book --
which was then one of the most prestigious presses you could
publish with.
Older poets I was friendly with talked about him -- some like
Larry Agin & Joe
Ceravolo made contact.
When I did my NJ poets anthology, I knew I wanted him in the
book. He sent me
all new material but we really had no correspondence outside of
that. He did
no readings, and didn't really try to publicize himself or
"professionalize" -- I see
him akin to Joseph Cornell in this sort of home-grown surrealism
or perhaps part
of the outsider art movement -- let me know if you hear further
from the family.
Joel Lewis
On May 7, 2004 I received a brief email from Parkway Manor Health Center--the nursing home Mr. Hamilton's niece mentioned in her first email--which stated he was in fragile health but that he might want to communicate with the website. I wrote an email back and Parkway Manor replied a few days later.
May 10, 2004
Dear Mr. Adkins:
Your note was well appreciated by Mr. Hamilton. I think it made
his day.
We made several attempts to get him to write since he began his
stay with
us. (he had been living in a boarding home near by just before he
became a
resident here.) We had no success though.
After reading him your Email, he decided he would like to
write again. He
likes to write a poem a day. He asked for some pads and pencils
which I
quickly supplied and some pin money for stamps and the like, we
will take
care of that as he needs them. I also gave him an assistant to
help him from
our activities department. The women I assigned also had a book
published,
though not poetry. I am sure she will be very helpful. It will be
physically
difficult for him to accomplish his goal of a poem a day.
He sends his regards. "I am pleased that my work is still
appreciated". By
the way he is not aware of the internet. I will show him on my
computer.
Sometime this week.
He is not quite ready for a visitor. I asked if he wanted to send
a note to
you. I think he and his new assistant will do that. The address
below is
your mailing address.
His mailing address is
Alfred Hamilton
C/O Parkway Manor Health Center
480 Parkway Dr.
East Orange, NJ 07017
Good to hear from you. You made a man's day today.
Sincerely
Bill Z.
Assistant Administrator
Parkway Manor Health Center
I sent Mr. Hamilton a "real" letter in early June. I didn't contact Parkway Manor again until 17 October and the next day got the following reply.
Dear Mr. Adkins,
Mr. Hamilton is in good spirits today, he actually looks pretty
good. I had
given him a copy of the pic from the web page. By the way he does
not know
what the internet is. So this stuff remains new to him. He has
not as of
this date written anything I am aware of. I checked his
composition books.
I had asked him if he had received a letter from you. He said he
had but
does not know what happened to it. He is stable medically right
now. But he
is 90 years old and has some minor dementia; he is quite bright
so he can talk
a good game even though he may not remember getting your letter.
He is still
committed to writing and is to this day a poet who does nothing
but write.
[I think he means
"everything but write"--adkins].
He sends his regards and says that he is well.
Sincerely
Bill Z.
I sent a few more emails from time to time just to say hello, but October was the last I heard from Parkway Manor.
Matt Miller first contacted me back in May 2005, having discovered my site in an effort to find out all he could about Mr. Hamilton. I passed along all the bibiliographical and biographical data I had and he has been doing a lot of research and making plans to publish Hamilton's work and generally make people aware of him. It was he who informed me a few days ago (today is Dec 10) that Mr. Hamilton died in 2005.
In response to Silliman's blogpost for 20 Jan 2006 Matt Miller writes:
Hamilton is one of
very favorite poets. He has three books, the one you mentioned,
The Big Parade, and Sphinx. All are available used online if you
look. Hamilton died last year, alone, in a nursing home in New
Jersey called Parkway Manor (creepy name, huh). I'm currently
writing an article about Hamilton. I also have a number of his
unpublished poems on hand that will be published with a short
introduction in an upcoming issue of Open City later this year.
Hundreds of Hamilton's poems were also recently donated to the
library of the University of Chicago, and I understand that they
can be accessed through special collections.
I am working on a long term project to publish his work in a more
comprehensive way. Anyone who wants to talk about Hamilton, who
knows anything about him, or who wants to help promote his work
should email me as godotnut [at] gmail [dot] com. I would be
happy to share more with Hamilton's new fans.
Thanks,
Matt Miller
