David R. Slavitt

David Rytman Slavitt (born March 23, 1935) is an American writer, poet, and translator, the author of more than 100 books.

Slavitt has written a number of novels and numerous translations from Greek, Latin, and other languages. Slavitt wrote a number of popular novels under the pseudonym Henry Sutton, starting in the late 1960s. The Exhibitionist (1967) was a bestseller and sold over four million copies. He has also published popular novels under the names of David Benjamin, Lynn Meyer, and Henry Lazarus.[1][2][3][4] His first work, a book of poems titled Suits for the Dead, was published in 1961. He worked as a writer and film critic for Newsweek from 1958 to 1965.[2][5]

According to Henry S. Taylor, winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, "David Slavitt is among the most accomplished living practitioners" of writing, "in both prose and verse; his poems give us a pleasurable, beautiful way of meditating on a bad time. We can't ask much more of literature, and usually we get far less."[6] Novelist and poet James Dickey wrote, "Slavitt has such an easy, tolerant, believable relationship with the ancient world and its authors that making the change-over from that world to ours is less a leap than an enjoyable stroll. The reader feels a continual sense of gratitude."[7]

  1. ^ Elliott, Okla (9 November 2011). "What David R. Slavitt Knows", Inside Higher Ed
  2. ^ a b Rosen, Judith (29 August 2011). "David Slavitt Joins the 100 Club at 76", Publishers Weekly
  3. ^ O'Brien, Ellen (13 October 1994). "Author's Friends Get The Last Word", The Philadelphia Inquirer
  4. ^ Doughty, Roger (21 February 1969). "Poet Hits Pay Dirt", Tuscaloosa News
  5. ^ Brady, Thomas J. (22 December 1996). "At Home With Hymns, Psalms, Potboilers", The Philadelphia Inquirer
  6. ^ Taylor, Henry S. (1992). "David R. Slavitt: The Fun of the End of the World". Compulsory Figures: Essays on Recent American Poets. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. pp. 224–244. ISBN 978-0-8071-1755-2.
  7. ^ Dickey, James (2005). [The One Voice of James Dickey: His Letters and Life, 1970–1997], p 506. University of Missouri Press. ISBN 9780826264626. Retrieved January 1, 2015.