{{Short description|American poet (1934–1983)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2014}} {{Infobox writer | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Edmund Joseph Michael Berrigan Jr. | birth_date = {{birth date|1934|11|15}} | birth_place = [[Providence, Rhode Island]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1983|07|04|1934|11|15}} | death_place = New York City, U.S. | spouse = Sandy Alper 1962-1969<ref name="DearSandy review" /><br/>{{marriage|[[Alice Notley]]|1972}} | children = 4, inc. [[Anselm Berrigan]] | occupation = Poet | education = | alma_mater = [[University of Tulsa]] | genre = | subject = | notableworks = ''The Sonnets'' | awards = | website = }} '''Edmund Joseph Michael Berrigan Jr.''' (November 15, 1934 – July 4, 1983) was an American poet.
==Early life== Berrigan was born in [[Providence, Rhode Island]], on November 15, 1934. After high school, he spent a year at [[Providence College]] before joining the [[U.S. Army]]. Following his three-year service obligation, he enrolled at the [[University of Tulsa]] in [[Oklahoma]], where he received a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] degree in [[English studies|English]] in 1959 and fell just short of the requirements for an [[Master of Arts|M.A.]] in 1962. He founded the literary magazine ''C'' in 1964.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wright |first1=Alicia |title=On Get The Money!: Collected Prose (1961—1983) by Ted Berrigan |journal=The Poetry Project |date=2022 |volume=270 |page=2 |url=https://www.poetryproject.org/publications/newsletter/270-fall-2022/on-get-the-money-collected-prose-by-ted-berrigan-1961-1983?page=2 |access-date=14 January 2026}}</ref>
Berrigan married Sandra in 1962, also a poet,<ref name="DearSandy review">{{cite web |title=Book review: Dear Sandy, Hello: Letters from Ted to Sandy Berrigan by Ted Berrigan |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781566892490 |website=www.publishersweekly.com |access-date=14 January 2026 |date=2 October 2010}}</ref> and they had two children: David Berrigan (a medical researcher and director of the US National Cancer Institute) and Kate Berrigan.<ref name="degruyter">{{cite web |title=Glossary of Names |url=https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1525/9780520940826-020/html |website=The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan |publisher=University of California Press |access-date=14 January 2026 |pages=723–724 |language=en |doi=10.1525/9780520940826-020/html |date=22 July 2019}}</ref> He and his second wife, the poet [[Alice Notley]], married in 1972 and were active in the poetry scene in Chicago for several years, then moved to New York City, where he edited various magazines and books.<ref name="Poetry Foundation">{{cite web |title=Ted Berrigan |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ted-berrigan |website=[[Poetry Foundation]] |access-date=12 September 2021}}</ref>
In 1970, Berrigan was hired as a faculty member at the [[Iowa Writers' Workshop]], where he me Alice Notley. His C Press published Notley's first book ''165 Meeting House Lane'' in [[Bolinas, California]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jackmagazine.com/issue3/renhist.html |title=Kevin Opstedal: Bolinas |access-date=2015-10-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160118060058/http://www.jackmagazine.com/issue3/renhist.html |archive-date=January 18, 2016 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>
In 1972, Berrigan was appointed to a teaching position at [[Northeastern Illinois University]], formerly held by [[Ed Dorn]]. A group of his students started a small poetry press, The Yellow Press, which published a book by Berrigan, and awarded an annual Ted Berrigan Prize for a first book.<ref>{{cite web |title=Three Generations in the 70s: Memoir of a Chicago Poetry Renaissance (Berrigan in Chicago) |url=http://poetry.about.com/od/poetryhistory/a/chicago70s.htm|website=About Poetry |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070101145149/http://poetry.about.com/od/poetryhistory/a/chicago70s.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 January 2007}}</ref>
In 1974, Berrigan was selected as a visiting poet at the [[University of Essex]], and relocated with his family to [[Brightlingsea]] in Essex.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://barzakh.net/site/issue-01/286 |title=Alice Notley Collage Poems |access-date=2015-10-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908091945/http://barzakh.net/site/issue-01/286 |archive-date=September 8, 2015 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> They returned to the United States in 1976, living on the [[Lower East Side]] of New York City at 101 [[St. Mark's Place]]. Their apartment was a gathering place for young writers and Berrigan's contemporaries. Berrigan was a frequent instructor at [[Naropa University]]'s summer writing program.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/naropa?sort=titleSorter|title=Naropa Poetics Audio Archives: Internet Archive|website=Archive.org|access-date=April 21, 2019}}</ref>
==The New York School== A prominent figure in the second generation of the [[New York School (art)|New York School]] of poets, Berrigan was a peer of [[Jim Carroll]], [[Anselm Hollo]], [[Ron Padgett]], [[Anne Waldman]], [[Bernadette Mayer]], and [[Lewis Warsh]]. He collaborated with Padgett and [[Joe Brainard]] on ''Bean Spasms'', a work significant in its rejection of traditional concepts of ownership. Though Berrigan, Padgett, and Brainard all wrote individual poems for the book, and collaborated on many others, no authors were listed for individual poems.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bohemian Ink: Ted Berrigan |url=http://www.levity.com/corduroy/berrigan.htm |website=www.levity.com |access-date=14 January 2026}}</ref> Berrigan also collaborated with Padgett on work published in the literary magazine [[0 to 9 Magazine|''O to 9'']], which experimented with language and meaning-making.
In 2005, Berrigan's published and unpublished poetry was compiled and published in a single volume edited by Notley and their two sons, Anselm and Edmund Berrigan.
==''The Sonnets''== The poet [[Frank O'Hara]] called Berrigan's most significant publication, ''The Sonnets'', "a fact of modern poetry". A telling reflection of the era that produced it, ''The Sonnets'' beautifully weaves together traditional elements of the Shakespearean sonnet form with the disjunctive structure and cadence of [[T. S. Eliot]]'s ''[[The Waste Land]]'' and Berrigan's own literary innovations and personal experiences. In the words of Berrigan's editor and second wife Alice Notley, the product was a composition "[that is] musical, sexy, and funny."
Berrigan was initially drawn to the sonnet form because of its inherent challenge; in his own words, "the form sort of [stultifies] the whole process [of writing]." The procedure that he ultimately concocted to write ''The Sonnets'' is the essence of the work's novelty and ingenuity. After attempting several sonnets, Berrigan decided to go back through what he had written and take out certain lines, one line from each work, until he had six lines. He then went through the poems backwards and took one more line from each until he had accumulated six more lines, twelve lines total. Based on this body of the work, Berrigan knew what the final couplet would be; this process became the basis for The Sonnets. Addressing claims that the method is utterly mechanical, Berrigan explains that some of the seventy-seven sonnets came to him "whole", without needing to be pieced together. The poet's preoccupation with style, his concern for form and his own role as the creator, as evinced by ''The Sonnets'', pose a challenge to traditional ideas about poetry and signify a fresh and innovative artistic approach.<ref name="jacket40 sonnets">{{cite web |last1=Henry |first1=Timothy |title=“Time And Time Again”: The Strategy of Simultaneity in Ted Berrigan’s «The Sonnets» |url=https://www.jacketmagazine.com/40/henry-berrigan.shtml |website=www.jacketmagazine.com |publisher=Jacket |language=en |date=2010}}</ref>
The book recognizes the eternal possibility for invention in a genre seemingly overwhelmed by the success of its traditional forms. By imitating the forms and practices of earlier artists and recreating them to express personal ideas and experiences, Berrigan demonstrates the potential for poetry in his and subsequent generations. As [[Charles Bernstein (poet)|Charles Bernstein]] succinctly comments: "Part collage, part process writing, part sprung lyric, Ted Berrigan's ''The Sonnets'' remains…one of the freshest and most buoyantly inspired works of contemporary poetry. Reinventing verse for its time, ''The Sonnets'' are redolent with possibilities for our own.”<ref name="jacket40 sonnets" />
==Death== Berrigan died in [[Greenwich Village]] on July 4, 1983, of [[cirrhosis]] of the liver brought on by [[hepatitis]].<ref name="Poetry Foundation" /><ref>{{cite news|url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/706492270/|title = Ted Berrigan, 48; Poet Published 'C' |date = July 7, 1983|accessdate = June 2, 2025|newspaper = [[Newsday]]|agency = [[Associated Press]]|page = 33|via = [[Newspapers.com]] |url-access = subscription}}</ref>
==Selected publications== *''Dear Sandy, Hello: Letters from Ted to Sandy Berrigan'' (1962) {{ISBN|978-1-56689-249-0}} *''The Sonnets'' (1964, 1967, 1982, 2000) *''Seventeen Plays'', with [[Ron Padgett]] (1964) *''Living With Chris'' (1965) *''Some Things'' (1966) *''Bean Spasms'', with Ron Padgett and [[Joe Brainard]] (1967) *''Many Happy Returns'' (1969) *''Peace: Broadside'' (1969) *''In the Early Morning Rain'' (1971) *''Memorial Day'', with Anne Waldman (1971) *''Back in Boston Again'', with Ron Padgett and [[Tom Clark (poet)|Tom Clark]] (1972) *''The Drunken Boat'' (1974) *''A Feeling For Leaving'' (1975) *''Red Wagon'' (1976) *''Clear The Range'' (1977) *''Nothing For You'' (1977) *''Train Ride'' (1978) *''Yo-Yo's With Money'', with Harris Schiff (1979) *''Carrying a Torch'' (1980) *''So Going Around Cities: New & Selected Poems 1958–1979'' (1980) ({{ISBN|0-912652-61-6}}) *''In a Blue River'' (1981) *''A Certain Slant of Sunlight'' (1988) *''Selected Poems'' (1994) *''Great Stories of the Chair'' (1998) *''The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan'' (University of California Press, 2005), NOH (1969) * ''Get the Money!: Collected Prose (1961–1983)'', a collection of prose published by City Lights Books. 09/13/2022. {{ISBN|9780872868953}}.
==Further reading== *Clark, Tom. ''Late Returns, a Memoir of Ted Berrigan'' (Tombouctou Books, 1985) {{ISBN|0-939180-35-9}} *[[Anne Waldman|Waldman, Anne]]. ''Nice To See You: Homage to Ted Berrigan'' (Coffee House Press, 1991) {{ISBN|0-918273-11-0}} *''GAS #3'' (Ted Berrigan Issue) Tom Clark [editor] (1991): includes contributions by [[Charles Bukowski]], Alice Notley, Anne Waldman, [[Anselm Hollo]], [[Bill Berkson]], Annie Laurie, Jim Carroll, [[Eileen Myles]], Joe Brainard, Owen Hill, [[Tom Veitch]], Ron Padgett, [[Steve Carey (poet)|Steve Carey]], [[Clark Coolidge]], et al.)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/berrigan/ EPC author page] *[http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Berrigan.html PennSound page] *[http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/724 Academy of American Poets: Ted Berrigan] *[http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/8z09f Ted Berrigan and Alice Notley collection] at [https://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University] * [https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/252 Finding aid for the Ted Berrigan Papers] at the [[University of Connecticut Archives and Special Collections]] *[https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079232 Finding aid to Ted Berrigan papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.] *{{imdb name|0077386}} *{{discogs artist|Ted Berrigan}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Berrigan, Ted}} [[Category:1934 births]] [[Category:1983 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century American male writers]] [[Category:20th-century American poets]] [[Category:American male poets]] [[Category:Deaths from cirrhosis]] [[Category:Deaths from hepatitis in the United States]] [[Category:Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty]] [[Category:New York School poets]] [[Category:Poets from Chicago]] [[Category:Poets from New York City]] [[Category:Poets from Oklahoma]] [[Category:Poets from Rhode Island]] [[Category:Writers from Providence, Rhode Island]] [[Category:Writers from Tulsa, Oklahoma]]