Dave Etter

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David Pearson Etter (March 18, 1928 – July 10, 2015) was an American poet. He was known for poems evoking small-town midwestern life. His most famous volume was written as 222 monologues in the voices of citizens of the imaginary community of “Alliance, Illinois,”[1][2] which was based in part on his experiences living for many years in his adopted hometown of Elburn, Illinois.[3][4]

Reviewing an early collection of his work, poet Lisel Mueller notes that Etter was “strongly influenced by Masters, Lindsay, and Sandburg, he is a chronicler of Midwest prairie towns and the disappearing race of semi-rural people, with their inarticulate dreams and dark secrets”.[5] Poet Jay Paul noted that Etter converted colloquialism into “a poetic innovation that displays the variety and humor of midwestern speech.” [6]

Etter's poems have been published in eight foreign countries and translated into German, Polish, and Japanese. He published thirty books and chapbooks of his own poems,[7] which were included in over 100 textbooks and anthologies.[8] The literary journal Spoon River Quarterly published a special issue in 1983 devoted to Dave Etter, including an autobiographical essay, and interviews with the poet by Norbert Blei, Robert C. Bray, Victor Contoski, Jim Ellege, and Dan Jaffe.[9]

Biography[edit]

Etter was born in Huntington Park, California. He received a degree in history from the University of Iowa in 1953. He served two years in the U. S. Army. At age 30 he settled in the mid-west, living in turn in Evanston, Geneva, Lilly Lake, and Elburn, Illinois.[10] He was an editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica from 1964 to 1973.[11] And was a manuscript editor at Northern Illinois University Press from 1974 to 1980.[12][13]

Awards[edit]

  • He won a Carl Sandburg Award for poetry in 1981-82 for the book West of Chicago.[14]
  • He won a Society of Midland Authors Kenneth F. Montgomery Poetry Award in 1967 for the book Go Read the River.[15]
  • He received the Illinois Sesquicentennial Commission Poetry Prize.[16]
  • He won the Theodore Roethke award from the journal Poetry Northwest in 1971.[17]

Key works[edit]

Dandelions: New Poems. 2010. Red Dragonfly Press.[18][19]

The Essential Dave Etter. 2001, Spoon River Poetry Press.

How High the Moon. 1996. Spoon River Poetry Press.

Selected Poems. 1987.

Home State. 1985. Spoon River Poetry Press.

Alliance, Illinois. 1983. Northwestern University Press.[20][21]

Cornfields. 1980. Spoon River Poetry Press.

Open to the Winds". 1978.[22]

Go Read the River. 1966. University of Nebraska Press.

References[edit]

  1. ^ John Hallwas Nov 13, 2011 Small-Town Stuff: A Visit with Poet Dave Etter,” The McDonough County Voice. http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/article/20111113/NEWS/311139996
  2. ^ David R. Pichaske. 2000. Dave Etter: fishing for our lost American souls. Journal of Modern Literature (23:3/4) [Summer 2000], p. 393-427.
  3. ^ Thomas McNulty Remembering Dave Etter: Poet of the Prairie, Dispatches from the Last Outlaw. Monday, July 13, 2015. https://tommcnulty.blogspot.com/2015/07/remembering-dave-etter-poet-of-prairie.html
  4. ^ David R. Pichaske. 2009. Rooted: Seven Midwest Writers of Place, "Ch. 2: Dave Etter: Call it Cornbelt Baroque." University Of Iowa Press.
  5. ^ Lisel Mueller, “Versions of Reality” Poetry, Vol. 117, No. 5 (Feb., 1971), pp. 322-330.
  6. ^ Jay Paul, "Dave Etter's Rural Modernism," The Midwest Quarterly. June 1, 1992, p. 385.
  7. ^ Chicago Suburban Daily Herald, July 19, 2015. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailyheral /obituary.aspx?pid=175318715#sthash.aD6q4ard.dpuf
  8. ^ Thomas McNulty Remembering Dave Etter: Poet of the Prairie, Dispatches from the Last Outlaw. Monday, July 13, 2015. https://tommcnulty.blogspot.com/2015/07/remembering-dave-etter-poet-of-prairie.html
  9. ^ Spoon River Quarterly. Spring 1983 issue, Vol. 8, No. 2.
  10. ^ Dave Pichaske, Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, Vol 1, Indiana University Press, p. 181.
  11. ^ Robert Cromie, New Poetry Column to Begin in the Tribune. Chicago Tribune, Nov. 13, 1967. Section 1, p. 19.
  12. ^ Center for the Book | Illinois Authors. http://www.illinoisauthors.org/authors/Dave_Etter
  13. ^ The Exponent, vol 76, issue 8, Oct. 21, 1976. http://digitalcollections.northern.edu/cdm/ref/collection/nimages/id/34398
  14. ^ Northwestern University Press | Alliance, Illinois. http://www.nupress.northwestern.edu/content/alliance-illinois
  15. ^ Society of Midland Authors. http://www.midlandauthors.com/winners_past.html#1979 Archived 2019-01-20 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Chronicaling Illinois, Illinois Sesquicentennial Commission Records, 1965-1969. http://alplm-cdi.com/chroniclingillinois/items/show/332 Archived 2013-04-07 at archive.today
  17. ^ Poetry Northwest. Theodore Roethke Prize and Richard Hugo Prize 2008. http://www.poetrynw.org/theodore-roethke-prize-richard-hugo-prize-2008/
  18. ^ Reviewed by Lou Roach. Verse Wisconsin Online. http://versewisconsin.org/Issue108/reviews/etter.html
  19. ^ Review by Thomas McNulty, Dispatches from the Last Outlaw, June 20, 2011. https://tommcnulty.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-dandelions-by-dave-etter.html
  20. ^ Nathan Whiting reviews "Alliance, Illinois," "Cornfields" and "West of Chicago" by Dave Etter. American Book Review Volume 4, Number 6, September/October 1982.
  21. ^ Review, "Alliance, Illinois" by Dave Etter, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Vol. 99, No. 2, Constitution Making in Illinois (Summer, 2006), pp. 137-142
  22. ^ Review by Victor Contoski. The Great Lakes Review Vol. 7, No. 1 (Winter, 1981), pp. 63-64.
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