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A Study Guide for Frank O'Hara's "Autobiographia Literaria"
A Study Guide for Frank O'Hara's "Autobiographia Literaria"
A Study Guide for Frank O'Hara's "Autobiographia Literaria"
Ebook33 pages21 minutes

A Study Guide for Frank O'Hara's "Autobiographia Literaria"

By Gale and Cengage

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A Study Guide for Frank O'Hara's "Autobiographia Literaria," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 2, 2016
ISBN9781535818933
A Study Guide for Frank O'Hara's "Autobiographia Literaria"

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    A Study Guide for Frank O'Hara's "Autobiographia Literaria" - Gale

    10

    Autobiographia Literaria

    Frank O'Hara

    1950

    Introduction

    In Autobiographia Literaria, Frank O'Hara describes a lonely child who hides from schoolmates on the playground, who feels no connection to other children or to the animals and birds around him. In the end, he explains, the suffering of his childhood is redeemed: He grows up to be a talented poet with the ability to create unprecedented beauty. The blossoming of the dejected child into a skilled artist is as unexpected as it is amazing, and the poet with a degree of self-mockery expresses awe at his own achievement.

    Frank O'Hara wrote Autobiographia Literaria before 1950, when he was still a student at Harvard. Along with other New York writers who were closely connected to painters of the time, he became a founder and guiding force in the short-lived New York School of Poets. As an openly gay man living in a time when homosexuality was socially scorned, O'Hara was keenly aware of how it felt to be marginalized by the dominant culture; as an accomplished writer, though, he also knew how it felt to overcome that loneliness with the sense that he had something significant to offer.

    Frank O'Hara died young, as the result of an accident. All of his poetry, including Autobiographia Literaria, is available in one book, The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara, published by University of California Press in 1995.

    Author Biography

    Francis Russell O'Hara was born on March 27, 1926, in Baltimore, Maryland. Throughout his life, he believed his stated birth date to be three months later than the actual one: His parents were strict Irish Catholics who wanted to conceal the fact that their child was conceived before they were married. O'Hara's father, Russell O'Hara, was an English teacher. He met Katherine Broderick on a bus ride and then

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