James Oppenheim
Encyclopedia
James Oppenheim was an American
poet, novelist, and editor. A lay analyst and early follower of C. G. Jung, Oppenheim was also the founder and editor of The Seven Arts
, an important early 20th-century literary magazine.
He was a well-known writer of short stories and novels. His poetry followed Walt Whitman
's model of free verse ruminations on "social and democratic aspects of life". Oppenheim depicted labor troubles with Fabian
and suffragist themes in his novel, The Nine-Tenths (1911) and in his famous poem Bread and Roses
(1911). The slogan Bread and Roses is now commonly associated with the pivotal 1912 textile workers' strike
in Lawrence
, Massachusetts
. The poem was later set to music in 1976 by Mimi Fariña
and again in 1990 by John Denver
.
Oppenheim's published works include Monday Morning and Other Poems (1909); Pay Envelopes (1911); The Nine-Tenths(1911); The Olympian
(1912); Idle Wives (1914); Songs For The New Age (1914); The Beloved (1915); War and Laughter (1916); The Book Of Self (1917); The Solitary (1919); The Mystic Warrior (1921); Golden Bird (1923); The Sea (collected poetry - 1924); Behind Your Front (1926); and American Types: A Preface To Analytic Psychology (1931). Additionally, he contributed short stories, articles, and poems to American Magazine, American Mercury, Century, Collier's, Freeman, Harper's, Hearst's, New Republic, and The Thinker.
At The Seven Arts
magazine he served as primary editor and worked with Waldo Frank
, George Jean Nathan
, Louis Untermeyer
and Paul Rosenfeld
from 1916-17, until he was blacklisted due to his opposition to US entry into World War I
. Notable writers who contributed to the magazine under his guidance included Sherwood Anderson
, Van Wyck Brooks
, Max Eastman
, Robert Frost
, D.H. Lawrence, Vachel Lindsay
and Amy Lowell
.
Personal Life
Oppenheim was born in St. Paul, Minnesota
, on May 24, 1882, the son of Joseph and Matilda (Schloss) Oppenheim. His father died when he was six and his family's circumstances changed. He was educated in public schools and at Columbia University
.
Oppenheim married Lucy Seckel and had two children, Ralph and James Jr. (alias Garrett). Seckel filed for divorce following the publication of his 1914 novel, Idle Wives.
Oppenheim was assistant head worker at the Hudson Guild Settlement in New York from 1901-03. He then worked as a teacher and acting superintendent at the Hebrew Technical School For Girls in New York from 1905-07. After the collapse of The Seven Arts, he studied and wrote about psychology, in particular the works of Carl Jung
. Oppenheim died in New York City on August 4, 1932.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
poet, novelist, and editor. A lay analyst and early follower of C. G. Jung, Oppenheim was also the founder and editor of The Seven Arts
The Seven Arts
The Seven Arts was a literary journal which flourished briefly in 1916-1917. It was edited by James Oppenheim, Waldo Frank, and Van Wyck Brooks. The magazine featured new American writing by figures such as Sherwood Anderson, Amy Lowell, Robert Frost, Eugene O'Neill, and John Dos Passos...
, an important early 20th-century literary magazine.
He was a well-known writer of short stories and novels. His poetry followed Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
's model of free verse ruminations on "social and democratic aspects of life". Oppenheim depicted labor troubles with Fabian
Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist movement, whose purpose is to advance the principles of democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary, means. It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning late in the 19th century and continuing up to World...
and suffragist themes in his novel, The Nine-Tenths (1911) and in his famous poem Bread and Roses
Bread and Roses
The slogan "Bread and Roses" originated in a poem of that name by James Oppenheim, published in The American Magazine in December 1911, which attributed it to "the women in the West." It is commonly associated with a textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts during January-March 1912, now often...
(1911). The slogan Bread and Roses is now commonly associated with the pivotal 1912 textile workers' strike
Lawrence textile strike
The Lawrence Textile Strike was a strike of immigrant workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912 led by the Industrial Workers of the World. Prompted by one mill owner's decision to lower wages when a new law shortening the workweek went into effect in January, the strike spread rapidly through the...
in Lawrence
Lawrence, Massachusetts
Lawrence is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States on the Merrimack River. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a total population of 76,377. Surrounding communities include Methuen to the north, Andover to the southwest, and North Andover to the southeast. It and Salem are...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. The poem was later set to music in 1976 by Mimi Fariña
Mimi Fariña
Mimi Baez Fariña was a singer-songwriter and activist, the youngest of three daughters to a Scottish mother and Mexican-American physicist Albert Baez .- Early years:Fariña's father, a physicist affiliated with Stanford University and MIT, moved his family...
and again in 1990 by John Denver
John Denver
Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. , known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer/songwriter, activist, and humanitarian. After growing up in numerous locations with his military family, Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s. His greatest commercial success...
.
Oppenheim's published works include Monday Morning and Other Poems (1909); Pay Envelopes (1911); The Nine-Tenths(1911); The Olympian
The Olympian (novel)
The Olympian: A Story of the City is a novel by the American writer James Oppenheim set in turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania....
(1912); Idle Wives (1914); Songs For The New Age (1914); The Beloved (1915); War and Laughter (1916); The Book Of Self (1917); The Solitary (1919); The Mystic Warrior (1921); Golden Bird (1923); The Sea (collected poetry - 1924); Behind Your Front (1926); and American Types: A Preface To Analytic Psychology (1931). Additionally, he contributed short stories, articles, and poems to American Magazine, American Mercury, Century, Collier's, Freeman, Harper's, Hearst's, New Republic, and The Thinker.
At The Seven Arts
The Seven Arts
The Seven Arts was a literary journal which flourished briefly in 1916-1917. It was edited by James Oppenheim, Waldo Frank, and Van Wyck Brooks. The magazine featured new American writing by figures such as Sherwood Anderson, Amy Lowell, Robert Frost, Eugene O'Neill, and John Dos Passos...
magazine he served as primary editor and worked with Waldo Frank
Waldo Frank
Waldo Frank was a prolific novelist, historian, literary and social critic. Most well-known for his studies of Spanish and Latin American literature, Frank served as chairman of the First Americans Writers Congress and became the first president of the League of American Writers.-Biography:Frank...
, George Jean Nathan
George Jean Nathan
George Jean Nathan was an American drama critic and editor.-Early life:Nathan was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana...
, Louis Untermeyer
Louis Untermeyer
Louis Untermeyer was an American poet, anthologist, critic, and editor. He was appointed the fourteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1961.-Life and career:...
and Paul Rosenfeld
Paul Rosenfeld
Paul Leopold Rosenfeld was an American journalist, best known as a music critic.He was born in New York City into a German-Jewish family...
from 1916-17, until he was blacklisted due to his opposition to US entry into World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Notable writers who contributed to the magazine under his guidance included Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson was an American novelist and short story writer. His most enduring work is the short story sequence Winesburg, Ohio. Writers he has influenced include Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, J. D. Salinger, and Amos Oz.-Early life:Anderson was born in Clyde, Ohio,...
, Van Wyck Brooks
Van Wyck Brooks
Van Wyck Brooks was an American literary critic, biographer, and historian.- Biography :Brooks was educated at Harvard University and graduated in 1908...
, Max Eastman
Max Eastman
Max Forrester Eastman was an American writer on literature, philosophy and society, a poet, and a prominent political activist. For many years, Eastman was a supporter of socialism, a leading patron of the Harlem Renaissance and an activist for a number of liberal and radical causes...
, Robert Frost
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and...
, D.H. Lawrence, Vachel Lindsay
Vachel Lindsay
Nicholas Vachel Lindsay was an American poet. He is considered the father of modern singing poetry, as he referred to it, in which verses are meant to be sung or chanted...
and Amy Lowell
Amy Lowell
Amy Lawrence Lowell was an American poet of the imagist school from Brookline, Massachusetts who posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926.- Personal life:...
.
Personal Life
Oppenheim was born in St. Paul, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, on May 24, 1882, the son of Joseph and Matilda (Schloss) Oppenheim. His father died when he was six and his family's circumstances changed. He was educated in public schools and at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
.
Oppenheim married Lucy Seckel and had two children, Ralph and James Jr. (alias Garrett). Seckel filed for divorce following the publication of his 1914 novel, Idle Wives.
Oppenheim was assistant head worker at the Hudson Guild Settlement in New York from 1901-03. He then worked as a teacher and acting superintendent at the Hebrew Technical School For Girls in New York from 1905-07. After the collapse of The Seven Arts, he studied and wrote about psychology, in particular the works of Carl Jung
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
. Oppenheim died in New York City on August 4, 1932.