Background
Dodson, Owen Vincent was born on November 28, 1914 in Brooklyn. Son of Nathaniel and Sarah Elizabeth (Goode) Dodson.
Dodson, Owen Vincent was born on November 28, 1914 in Brooklyn. Son of Nathaniel and Sarah Elizabeth (Goode) Dodson.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, United States of America, Dodson studied at Bates College (Bachelor 1936) and at the Yale School of Drama (Master of Fine Arts 1939).
He was one of the leading African-American poets of his time, associated with the generation of black poets following the Harlem Renaissance. He taught at Howard University, where he was chair of the Drama Department, from 1940 to 1970, and briefly at Spelman College and Atlanta University. James V. Hatch has explained that Dodson "is the product of two parallel forces—the Black experience in America with its folk and urban routes, and a classical humanistic education." Dodson"s poetry varied widely and covered a broad range of subjects, styles, and forms.
He wrote at times, though rarely, in black dialect, and at others quoted and alluded to classical poetry and drama.
One critic describes him as "a brilliant, gay man who discovered his sexual preference early in life, but who was nevertheless unlucky and unhappy in several ill-fated relationships." He was closely associated with poets West. H. Auden and William Stanley Braithwaite, but his influences were difficult to pin down. In an interview with Charles H. Rowell, he said: Well, every writer, at the beginning of his career, is influenced by somebody.
Surely it"s true that the ragtime rhythms of Langston Hughes and the order of Countee Cullen, his devotion to the church, have influenced medical But you know if you listen to Bach and then listen to the early Haydn you can see a cross between the two--you can see that Bach was influenced by Haydn.
Then, if you listen to Haydn at his maturity and then listen to Beethoven, then you can see that Beethoven was influenced at the beginning of his career.
And if you listen to the greatest Beethoven and then you listen to the early Brahms, you can see that the early Brahms was influenced by the later Beethoven. Then he became his own style. He got his own idea of life.
There is something about him that influences you.
But then as you grow older, you begin to get your own style, your own class, your own idea of what is going on. Oh, yes, it"s true that Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen influenced medical
In drama, he cited Henrik Ibsen as an influence, though again as an initial relationship later to be reworked and half-forgotten. Dodson"s two novels are generally considered to be autobiographical.
Dodson died from cardiovascular disease at the age of 69.
Dodson is one of the subjects of Hilton Als" 1996 book The Women. According to Als, Dodson was his mentor and lover.
(Farrar, Straus & Co, 1946)
(Book by Dodson, Owen)
Member Phi Beta Kappa.