{{short description|American poet}} {{use mdy dates|date=September 2025}} {{use American English|date=September 2025}} {{Infobox writer| |name=Russell Edson |birth_name=Russell Edelstein |birth_date={{Birth date|1928|12|12}} |birth_place=Manhattan, New York, US |death_date={{Death date and age|2014|4|29|1928|12|12}} |death_place= |parents=Gus Edson |period=1951{{endash}}2009 |awards={{hlist|Guggenheim Fellowship (1974)|National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship (1977, 1981, 1992)|Whiting Award (1989)}} |occupation={{cslist|Poet, Novelist, Illustrator}} }} '''Russell Edson''' (né Edelstein; 12 December 1928<ref>{{cite web |last1=Edelstein |first1=Russell |title=United States Census 1930 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X4V2-BMP |website=FamilySearch |access-date=22 July 2025}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> – April 29, 2014) was an American poet, novelist, writer, and illustrator. He was the son of the cartoonist-screenwriter Gus Edson and Gladys Cedar Edson.

Born in Manhattan, New York City,<ref name=":0">{{cite web |last1=1928 Birth Index |first1=Vol 1 |title=New York City Birth Index {{!}} New York Genealogical & Biographical Society |url=https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/online-records/new-york-city-birth-index/617-1928-1a/119 |website=www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org |access-date=22 July 2025}}</ref> Edson studied art early in life and attended the Art Students League as a teenager. He began publishing poetry in the 1950s. His honors as a poet include a Guggenheim fellowship,<ref name="guggenheim">{{cite web |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/russell-edson/ |title=Russell Edson |publisher=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |access-date=December 9, 2021 |archive-date=October 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001122410/https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/russell-edson/ |url-status=live }}</ref> a Whiting Award,<ref name="whiting">{{cite web | url=https://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/russell-edson#/ | title=Russell Edson, 1989 Winner in Poetry |publisher=Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation | access-date=February 25, 2019 |archive-date=March 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210323211105/https://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/russell-edson#/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and several fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.<ref name="nea poetry foudnation">{{cite web |url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=1990 |title=Russell Edson | publisher=Poetry Foundation |access-date=December 9, 2021 |archive-date=October 14, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081014190741/http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=1990 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Edson self-published several chapbooks and later, numerous collections of prose poetry, fables, two novels, ''Gulping's Recital'' and ''The Song of Percival Peacock'', and a book of plays under the title, ''The Falling Sickness''. His final book was ''See Jack'' (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009).

He lived in Darien, Connecticut with his wife Frances.<ref>[http://www.webdelsol.com/LITARTS/edson Russell Edson, Poet<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cas.sc.edu/engl/LitCheck/edson|title = Department of English Language and Literature - Department of English Language and Literature &#124; University of South Carolina}}</ref>

==Selected bibliography== ===Prose poems collections=== * ''See Jack'' (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009) * ''The Rooster's Wife: Poems'' (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2005) * ''The Tormented Mirror'' (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001) * ''The Tunnel: Selected Poems of Russell Edson'' (Oberlin College Press, 1994) * ''The Wounded Breakfast'' (Wesleyan University Press, 1985) * ''With Sincerest Regrets'' (Burning Deck Press, 1980) * ''The Reason Why the Closet-Man Is Never Sad'' (Wesleyan University Press, 1977) * ''Edson's Mentality'' (OINK! Press, 1977) * ''The Intuitive Journey and Other Works'' (Harper & Row, 1976) * ''Gulping's Recital'' (Guignol Books, 1984) * ''The Clam Theater'' (Wesleyan University Press, 1973) * ''The Childhood Of An Equestrian'' (Harper & Row, 1973) * ''Ceremonies in Bachelor Space'' (Grapnel Press, Black Mountain College, 1951)

===Chapbooks=== * ''Wuck Wuck Wuck!'' (with linocut by Richard Mock, Red Ozier Press, 1984)

===Novels=== * ''Gulping's Recital'' (Guignol Books, 1984) * ''The Song of Percival Peacock: A Novel'' (Coffee House Press, 1992)

===Short fiction and fables=== * ''Tick Tock: Short Stories'' (illustrated with woodcuts, Demitasse/Coffee House Press, 1992) * ''What a Man Can See: Fables'' (with drawings by Ray Johnson, 1969) * ''The Brain Kitchen: Writings and Woodcuts'' (Thing Press, 1965) * ''The Very Thing That Happens: Fables and Drawings'' (New Directions Publishing, 1964) * ''Appearances: Fables and Drawings'' (Thing Press, 1961) * ''A Stone Is Nobody's: Fables and Drawings'' (Thing Press, 1961)

===Plays=== * ''The Falling Sickness: A Book of Plays'' (New Directions Publishing, 1975)<ref name="falling sickness">{{cite web |url=https://lccn.loc.gov/74023986 |title=The falling sickness : a book of plays |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=December 9, 2021 |archive-date=December 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20211209171224/https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchCode=LCCN&searchArg=74023986&searchType=1&permalink=y |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Music=== * ''Ketchup'' opera in 2 acts. Text By Russell Edson, music by Franklin Stover. Scored for 2 voices & chamber orchestra. * ''The Song of Percival Peacock'' - an entertainment for reed quintet and narrator set to prose poems of Russell Edson, by Franklin Stover. (Edition Hohenstaufen, 2017)

==Honors and awards== * 1992 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship<ref>[http://www.nea.gov/pub/NEA_lit.pdf National Endowment for the Arts > Forty Years of Supporting American Writers > Literature Fellowships] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090612220201/http://www.nea.gov/pub/NEA_lit.pdf |date=2009-06-12 }}</ref> * 1989 Whiting Award * 1981 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship * 1976 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship * 1974 Guggenheim Fellowship

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/author.php?auth_id=1390 Audio: Garrison Keillor's ''The Writer's Almanac'': Poems by Russell Edson] * [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=1990 Biography & Poems: Russell Edson] *[http://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/russell-edson#/ Profile at The Whiting Foundation] * [http://www.believermag.com/issues/200403/?read=article_manguso ''The Believer'' (March 2004) ''Why The Reader of Good Prose Poems Is Never Sad: An Appreciation of Russell Edson'' by Sarah Manguso] * [http://webdelsol.com/LITARTS/edson/ Poems: ''Webdelsol'' > Featured Prose Poet: Russell Edson] * [http://www.cricketonlinereview.com/vol3no1/johnson1.htm Review: ''Cricket Online'': Corey Johnson review of ''The Rooster's Wife'' by Russell Edson]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Edson, Russell}} Category:1935 births Category:2014 deaths Category:20th-century American novelists Category:National Endowment for the Arts Fellows Category:People from Darien, Connecticut Category:Novelists from Connecticut Category:20th-century American poets Category:American male novelists Category:American male poets Category:20th-century American male writers Category:Black Mountain College alumni