• Source: Vincent Ferrini

Venanzio Ugo "Vincent" Ferrini (June 24, 1913 – December 24, 2007) was an American writer and poet from Gloucester, Massachusetts.




Early life


Vincent Ferrini was born in Saugus, Massachusetts on June 24, 1913. Vincent's parents, John and Rita Ferrini, were Christian anarchists who emigrated from Raiano and Bella, Italy in the region of Abruzzi to work in the shoe factories of Lynn, Massachusetts. Vincent's experience working in the shoe factories would instill a sensitivity for the life of the poor.
Ignoring his father's warning that the son of a shoe worker could never become a poet, Vincent published his first volume of poetry, "No Smoke" in 1940. He pursued his education in the Lynn Public Library and when the Great Depression hit, the young bard found work as a teacher in the WPA. In 1943, Mike Gold of the Daily Worker praised "Injunction", a collection of working class vignettes set against the backdrop of World War II. In 1942 he married and left his job at General Electric to make a living as a frame maker.




Career


Vincent's move to Gloucester marked a shift in his poetry from the political and social to the personal and cosmic. Over the next 59 years, Gloucester became his place, where life and poetry combined.
In 1949, after seeing a poem in the magazine Imagi, Charles Olson paid Ferrini a visit that Olson would later characterize as a "fan call". Ferrini was the catalyst that brought together Olson and poet Robert Creeley. Later Olson addressed his first “Maximus Poems” as letters to Vincent.
Ferrini's first marriage ended in the 1960s after the death of his daughter. He later married the artist Mary Shore. When his second marriage ended in divorce he moved back to his frame shop at 126 East Main Street. The little shop became a nexus for many artists and writers who came to Gloucester.
Vincent's view of the individual, the family, the community, and the nation working together for the common good compelled him to write editorials and letters not only to local Gloucester papers but also to The Boston Globe, The New York Times, and The Nation. At Gloucester City Hall he voiced his concerns at hundreds of council meetings. His focus was always the preservation of his city from what he characterized as "the wildfire greed that will destroy the spirit and originality of his city."
Ferrini remained an academic outsider who never made a living solely from his writing. With vigor, creativity, and compassion he kept publishing for over 67 years, producing 31 volumes of poetry, four volumes of plays, and an autobiography. Vincent is the subject of his nephew Henry Ferrini's film Poem in Action. He was also interviewed briefly in Henry's film about Vincent's colleague Charles Olson entitled Polis is this.




Bibliography






= Poetry

=
No Smoke, 1941 Falmouth Publishing House, Portland Maine
No Smoke, available in braille, Injunction, 1943 Sand Piper Press, Lynn, Massachusetts
Tidal Wave, 1945 Great Concord Publishers, New York, New York
Blood of the Tenement, 1945 Sand Piper Press, Lynn, Massachusetts
Plow in the Ruins, 1948 James Decker Press, Prairie City, Illinois
Sea Sprung, 1949 Cape Ann Press, Gloucester, Massachusetts
The Infinite People, 1950 Great Concord Publishers, New York, New Your
The House of Time, 1952 Fortune Press, London, England
In the Arriving, 1954 Heron Press, Liverpool England
Mindscapes, 1955 Peter Pauper Press, Mt. Vernon, New York
Timeo Hominem Unius Mulieris, 1956 Heron Press, Liverpool, England
The Garden, 1958 Heuretic Press, Gloucester, Massachusetts
The Square Root of In, 1959 Heuretic Press, Gloucester, Massachusetts
Book of One, 1960 Heuretic Press, Gloucester, Massachusetts
Mirandum, 1963 Heuretic Press, Gloucester, Massachusetts
I Have the World, 1967 Fortune Press, London, England
The Hiding One, 1973 Me and Thee Press, Brookline, Massachusetts
Ten Pound Light, 1975 The Church Press, Gloucester, Massachusetts
Selected Poems, 1976 University of Connecticut Library, Storrs, Connecticut
Know Fish, Volumes I and II, 1979 University of Connecticut
Know Fish, Volume III, The Navigators 1984 University of Connecticut
Know Fish, Volumes IV and V, The Community of Self, 1986 University of Connecticut
Know Fish, Volumes VI and VII, This Other Ocean, 1991 University of Connecticut
A Tale of Psyche, 1991 Igneus Press, Bedford, New Hampshire
Magdalene Silences, 1992 Igneus Press, Bedford, New Hampshire
Deluxe Daring, 1994 Drawings by Jane Robbins and poetry of Vincent Ferrini, Bliss Publications, Boston, MA
The Magi Image, 1995 Igneus Press, New Hampshire
Preamble To Divinity, 1996 Published in cooperative venture by: JUXTA, Charlottesville, VA & 3300 Press, San Francisco CA
The singer and keyboard player Willie Alexander recorded a few Ferrini's poems under the title Vincent Ferrini's Greatest Hits (CD released by Fisheye Records, 2009).




= Anthologies

=
American Poets: 1880-1945, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol 48, 1986 Gale Research Company, Detroit, MI
Italian American Poets, 1985 Italian translation: Ferdinand Alfonsi, A. Carello Editore, Catanzaro, Italia
Poets of Today, Walter Lowenfels, 1964 International Publishers, NY, NY
Twentieth Century American Poets, 1989 Russian translation: Valery Shpak, Ukraine, USSR




= Plays

=
The Innermost I land, Best Short Plays 1952-53, Dodd Mead & Company NY, NY
Telling of the North Star Best Short Plays 1953-54, Dodd Mead & Company NY, NY
Five Plays, 1960 Fortune Press, London, England
War in Heaven, 1987 University of Connecticut Library, Storrs, CN
Undersea Bread, 1989 University of Connecticut Library, Storrs, CN




= Autobiography

=
Hermit of the Clouds, 1988 Ten Pound Island Book Company, Gloucester, MA
Hermit of the Clouds, 1990 Japanese translation: Shingo Tajima. Ten Pound Island Book Company, Gloucester, Massachusetts




References






External links


Vincent's Obituary.
Vincent Ferrini @ Arts Gloucester
Ferrini Productions, Inc.
Vincent Ferrini: The Initiations
The Whole Song
Memoir of a Friendship by Peter Anastas
"Add-Verse" a poetry-photo-video project Ferrini participated in

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Mystic Pizza
• Belerang
• Penghargaan Grammy untuk Album Terbaik Tahun Ini
• Daftar film Amerika tahun 1989
• Penghargaan Grammy ke-53
• Vincent Ferrini
• Ferrini
• Gloucester, Massachusetts
• Contardo Ferrini
• Henry Ferrini
• List of people from Saugus, Massachusetts
• Willie Alexander
• June 1913
• 1913 in poetry
• Dark Glasses