1992 Pulitzer Poet James American Surrealist

Instituted by the Hungarian born American journalist Joseph Pulitzer, the Pulitzer Prize is one of the most coveted awards for journalists, poets, dramatists along with 18 other disciplines. In 1992 this prestigious award went to James Tate for Selected Poems. However, the 1992 Pulitzer Poet James was no stranger when it came to recognition for poetic works

Dudley Fitts, the famous American critic, poet, translator of Classical Greek literature and a teacher selected Tate's first book of poems, The Lost Pilot (1967) for the Yale Series of Younger Poets while the 1992 Pulitzer Poet James was still a student at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. However, it was not as if the critics had always found Tate a favorite.

Though his works like The Lost Pilot helped surrealism became a mainstream in American poetry during the 1970s. By the 1980s the tide turned away from surrealism. Tate was however, loyal to his own surrealistic style. As a result critics started finding Tate monotonous and he fell out of fashion and favor. All this criticism perhaps made the 1992 Pulitzer Poet James somewhat more careful and self-critical. He produced only two major works in the eighties.

The turning point for Tate was perhaps winning the Pulitzer for his 1991 Selected Poems, a collection of Tates work ranging from The Lost Pilot to Reckoner. This complete volume had just been issued in the U.K. by Carcanet. This was the first time the poet had been published by a British press. John Ashbery, the widely acclaimed yet controversial American poet writes that this volume helps to measure the genius of this poet. The same collection also brought the 1992 Pulitzer Poet James the William Carlos Williams Award.

There is so much to be corrected here, / so many scribbles and grumbles, blind premonitions. / How does one interpret, on this late branch, the unexpected? Lines such as these form the award winning Selected Poems provoked the renowned literary critic and novelist Julian Moynahan to remark that the 1992 Pulitzer Poet James is one of the poets that is known for his mad wit as well as stunning anecdote.

From a critical angle however, Tate has never been very popular among general readers. This might be due to the fact that the images put together in Tates works do not provide scope for an easy and spontaneous elucidation of his work. Notwithstanding such complaints, the works of 1992 Pulitzer Poet James would always be regarded highly for its brilliant use of humor that is used brilliantly as an explorer's tool, in order to explore thought, experience, and sensation. Wikipedia