Eli Siegel
| Eli Siegel | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 16, 1902 Dvinsk, Latvia |
| Died | November 8, 1978 Greenwich Village, New York City, New York, United States |
| Occupation | poet, critic, and educator |
| Known for | Aesthetic Realism |
Eli Siegel (August 16, 1902 – November 8, 1978) was the poet, critic, and educator who founded Aesthetic Realism, the philosophy that sees reality as the aesthetic oneness of opposites. An idea central to this philosophy—that every person, place or thing in reality has something in common with all other things—was expressed in his award-winning poem, "Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana."
Two highly acclaimed volumes of poetry were also published during his lifetime, and in 1958, he was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Siegel’s philosophic works include Self and World: An Explanation of Aesthetic Realism, and Definitions, and Comment: Being a Description of the World. His teaching of Aesthetic Realism spanned almost four decades and included thousands of extemporaneous lectures on poetry, the arts and sciences, religion, economics, and national ethics, as well as lessons to individuals and general classes dealing with the aesthetic and ethical questions of everyday life.
His lecture on the poetry of William Carlos Williams, which Williams attended, is published in The Williams-Siegel Documentary, and his lectures on Henry James's The Turn of the Screw were edited into a critical consideration titled James and the Children. Siegel’s philosophy, and his statement, “The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites,” has influenced artists, scientists, and educators.
Born in Dvinsk, Latvia, Siegel emigrated to the United States in 1905 with his parents, Mendel and Sarah (Einhorn) Siegel. The family settled in Baltimore, Maryland, where Siegel attended Baltimore City College and joined the speech and debate team now referred to as the Bancroft/Carrollton-Wight Literary Societies. He contributed to the senior publication, The Green Bag and graduated in 1919. In 1922, together with V.F. Calverton [George Goetz], he co-founded The Modern Quarterly, a magazine in which his earliest essays appeared, including “The Scientific Criticism” (Vol. I, No. 1, March 1923) and “The Equality of Man” (Vol. I, No. 3, December 1923).
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