# Jonathan Aldrich
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{{Short description|American poet (1936–2021)}}
'''Jonathan Aldrich''' (January 22, 1936 – January 6, 2021) was an [American poet](/source/American_poetry) and educator. He was the author of eight collections of poetry and several chapbooks. His collected poems, ''The Old World in His Arms'', was published in 2021 by Wolfson Press.
==Biography==
Born in Boston, Aldrich was educated at [Shady Hill School](/source/Shady_Hill_School); [Phillips Exeter Academy](/source/Phillips_Exeter_Academy); [Harvard College](/source/Harvard_College), where he won the [Academy of American Poets](/source/Academy_of_American_Poets) Prize and the Lloyd McKim Garrison Prize for Poetry; and the [Bread Loaf School of English](/source/Bread_Loaf_School_of_English), where he was a Robert Frost Scholar.[{{cite web|url=http://thephoenix.com/boston/arts/55059-ring-road/ |title=Glimmering fragments - Books |accessdate=2015-06-11 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150613224314/http://thephoenix.com/boston/arts/55059-ring-road/ |archivedate=2015-06-13 }}] He was the elder son of [Bailey Aldrich](/source/Bailey_Aldrich), who served as a United States federal judge for more than 48 years. Jonathan Aldrich taught at [Elmira College](/source/Elmira_College), [Berea College](/source/Berea_College), and (for 25 years) at the [Maine College of Art](/source/Maine_College_of_Art).[[cite web|url=http://pressherald.com/2021/01/10/obituaryjonathan-aldrich/ |title=Obituary: Jonathan Aldrich |accessdate=2021-03-20]]
Aldrich grew up in [Cambridge, Massachusetts](/source/Cambridge%2C_Massachusetts), and spent every August at the home of his grandparents in [Tenants Harbor, Maine](/source/Tenants_Harbor%2C_Maine).[{{Cite web|url=http://www.jacksonmem.lib.me.us/cms/content/oral-histories-library-jonathan-aldrich-talks-about-his-grandmother-eleanor|title = Jackson Memorial Library}}] His memories of his summers there form the basis of his poetic sequence ''Foam'' (2012). His grandfather was businessman and painter Talbot Bailey Aldrich, and his great-grandfather was notable 19th century writer and editor [Thomas Bailey Aldrich](/source/Thomas_Bailey_Aldrich).[Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Report, Class of 1892, Harvard College, 1892-1917 (Number VI), Plimpton Press 1917, pp. 257-258.]
Aldrich's first book, ''Croquet Lover at the Dinner Table'' (1977), was selected in the Breakthrough Books competition at the [University of Missouri Press](/source/University_of_Missouri_Press). The series published first books of poetry and fiction.[{{cite book |last= Wallace|first= Ronald |date= 1989|title= Vital Signs: An Anthology|url= https://archive.org/details/vitalsignscontem00wall|url-access= registration|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|location=Madison|pages= [https://archive.org/details/vitalsignscontem00wall/page/211 211–212]}}] The title poem in his first collection was first published in 1959 in a slender anthology honoring undergraduate winners of the Academy of American Poets Prize, a publication that featured early works by [Sylvia Plath](/source/Sylvia_Plath), [George Starbuck](/source/George_Starbuck), and [Robert Rehder](/source/Robert_Rehder). Aldrich's book-length poetic sequence ''Wade's Wait'' was the first single-author chapbook published by the ''[Beloit Poetry Journal](/source/Beloit_Poetry_Journal)''. It appeared as Chapbook 18 in Fall 1985.
He collaborated with artist [Alison Hildreth](/source/Alison_Hildreth) on two books, including his translation of [Charles Baudelaire](/source/Charles_Baudelaire)'s ''Le Voyage'', which won the Stephen Harvard Award for Excellence in the Book Arts from the Baxter Society. The book is exhibited online by the [Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco](/source/Fine_Arts_Museums_of_San_Francisco).[[http://www.art.famsf.org/node/940806 accessdate=2021-03-21]]
In the oral history collection of the Jackson Memorial Library in St. George, Maine, Jonathan Aldrich's voice is recorded recounting a story about his grandmother, Eleanor Aldrich.