John Gould Fletcher Jr (1886 - 1950)

Born 3 Jan 1886 in Little Rock, Pulaski, Arkansas, United States

Husband of Florence Emily (Goold) Arbuthnot — married 5 Jul 1916 in Croydon, Surrey, England, United Kingdom

Husband of Charlie May (Hogue) Fletcher — married 18 Jan 1936 in Pulaski, Arkansas, United States

Died 10 May 1950 at age 64 in Little Rock, Pulaski, Arkansas, United States

Biography

John Fletcher Jr is Notable.

John Fletcher Jr was born in Arkansas.

John Gould Fletcher Jr. is a notable figure in American literature due to his significant contributions to poetry and his role in the development of modernist and imagist movements. Despite his struggles with bipolar disorder and periods of personal turmoil, Fletcher's poetic works challenged conventional norms and explored themes of social and political upheaval. His experimentation with free verse and focus on evoking emotions through the sound of words marked a departure from traditional poetic forms. Fletcher's engagement with the Agrarian movement and his deep connection to his native region also showcased his commitment to exploring the complexities of the American South. His recognition as the first Southern poet to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry further solidifies his place in literary history.

John Gould Fletcher Jr. was a renowned American poet born on January 3, 1886, in Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas. He was the son of John Gould Fletcher Sr., a successful cotton broker, and Adolphine Habermann (Krause) Fletcher. Raised in an affluent household, Fletcher was educated by tutors alongside his two sisters, Adolphine and Mary. Due to the family's protective nature and the post-Civil War circumstances, he spent much of his childhood confined to the grounds of their antebellum mansion. However, this seclusion allowed him to cultivate a rich imaginative life, influenced by his avid reading of literary giants such as Edgar Allan Poe, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

In 1900, Fletcher resided on 7th Street in Little Rock, Arkansas. Two years later, he enrolled at Phillips Andover Academy in Massachusetts and subsequently attended Harvard University. Despite his father's desire for him to study business law, Fletcher chose to pursue the arts, influenced by his mother's belief that artistic accomplishment held greater value than commercial success.

During a train journey out west in 1905, the American landscape deeply inspired Fletcher and ignited his passion for poetry. Following the death of his father, he left Harvard without obtaining a degree and embarked on a journey to Italy in 1908. With the family fortune providing him financial security, Fletcher dedicated his life to writing, although his recurring bipolar disorder, which had emerged during his college years, caused periods of anxiety and sudden rages.

In 1913, Fletcher settled in London, where he sought the support of influential American poet Ezra Pound, whom he had met previously in Paris. Pound introduced Fletcher's free-verse experiments to Harriet Monroe, the founder of Poetry magazine, and invited him to join a group of poets known as Des Imagistes. However, Fletcher resisted Pound's attempts to revise his poems. It was only when Amy Lowell assumed leadership of the group, being more flexible in poetic principles, that Fletcher agreed to include his work in Imagist anthologies.

In 1914, Fletcher returned to America and embarked on a writing tour. He received critical acclaim for his newly published collection "Irradiations: Sand and Spray" (1915) and sparked controversy with the experimental anthology "Some Imagist Poets" (1915). Fletcher then went back to England and resumed his relationship with Florence Emily "Daisy" Arbuthnot, a recently divorced woman. They married on July 5, 1916, and while their marriage did not produce children, Arbuthnot's two children from her previous marriage lived with them.

After World War I, Fletcher's poetic style underwent a transformation that surprised his fellow Imagist poets, including Amy Lowell. His early works, represented in "Irradiations" and "Goblins and Pagodas" (1916), aimed to evoke strong emotions in readers through the sound of words rather than their meanings. Throughout the 1920s, Fletcher crafted poems that aimed to awaken readers from complacency and address a society corrupted by industrialism and mass politics. His approach, which drew inspiration from nineteenth-century Romanticism, put him at odds with influential modernists such as T.S. Eliot and Pound, who believed poetry should not overtly engage with contemporary issues. One of Fletcher's significant contributions in this Romantic vein was the epic poem "Branches of Adam" (1926), echoing the prophetic works of William Blake.

In early 1927, Fletcher met young Southern poets John Crowe Ransom, Donald Davidson, and Allen Tate during a visit to America. They had formed the Fugitive group of poets at Vanderbilt University but were dissatisfied with the direction of industrial society. Together, they established the Agrarian movement, advocating for the traditional hierarchical values of the Old South as a model for a better society. Fletcher eagerly joined their cause, but his passionate and anti-democratic essay on education in the Agrarian symposium "I'll Take My Stand" (1930) marked the onset of a depressive crisis. Following a suicide attempt in late 1932 and subsequent institutionalization at Royal Bethlehem Hospital, Fletcher permanently left his English family and returned to live in Little Rock.

Seeking stability for his bipolar condition, Fletcher began collaborating with folklorist Vance Randolph in collecting upland folk songs and stories. He played a crucial role in discovering and promoting the renowned Mena folk singer Emma Dusenbury. However, Fletcher remained unsettled, and within a few years, he distanced himself from the Agrarians and contemplated moving away from the South. For a brief period, he resided with his older sister, Adolphine Fletcher Terry, a civic leader in the community. Despite his family's prominence, many regarded Fletcher in his hometown as remote and temperamental. His primary source of stability during this time was his wife, the talented writer Charlie May Simon, whom he married on January 18, 1936, shortly after divorcing his first wife. The couple frequently traveled to places like New York, Santa Fe, and the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire but settled in Little Rock in 1941, building a home they named Johnswood.

Simon's book royalties provided financial support as publishers grew less willing to publish Fletcher's work. A notable opportunity arose when John Netherland Heiskell of the Arkansas Gazette commissioned Fletcher to write an epic poem commemorating the state's centennial in 1936. A revised version of the poem, titled "The Story of Arkansas," appeared in Fletcher's collection "South Star" (1941). While the Arkansas poem suggested a renewed allegiance to his native region, his memoir, "Life is My Song" (1942), focused primarily on his early Imagist career.

In May 1939, Fletcher learned that he had received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his collection "Selected Poems" (1938). He was the first Southern poet to be honored with the prize, although the volume primarily showcased his early free verse experiments rather than his more explicitly Southern-themed work. Despite this prestigious recognition and his induction into the National Institute of Arts and Letters, Fletcher struggled to gain a new readership. His final collection, "The Burning Mountain" (1946), contained well-crafted poems but did not receive widespread acclaim. His impressionistic history book, "Arkansas" (1947), became one of the most readable and accessible histories of the state but garnered little attention beyond its borders.

The knowledge that he was gradually fading into obscurity, coupled with worsening arthritis and bouts of depression, deeply affected Fletcher. Tragically, he took his own life on May 10, 1950, by jumping into a lake and drowning in Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas. His death was ruled a suicide. He was laid to rest at Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock. In 1974, the John Gould Fletcher Library was established as a branch of the Central Arkansas Library System. Starting in 1988, the University of Arkansas Press began reprinting some of Fletcher's works as part of the John Gould Fletcher series, ensuring his legacy and contributions to American poetry endure.

Sources

• 1900 United States Federal Census: Year: 1900; Census Place: Little Rock Ward 2, Pulaski, Arkansas; Roll: 73; Page: 3; Enumeration District: 0074 Ancestry Record 7602 #35794901
• 1940 United States Federal Census: Year: 1940; Census Place: Owen, Pulaski, Arkansas; Roll: m-t0627-00170; Page: 16A; Enumeration District: 60-121B Ancestry Record 2442 #102064381
• Arkansas, Death Certificates, 1914-1969: Arkansas Department of Vital Records; Little Rock, Arkansas; Death Certificates; Year: 1950; Roll: 2 Ancestry Record 61777 #608974
• Arkansas, Marriage Certificates, 1917-1972: Arkansas Department of Vital Records; Little Rock, Arkansas; Marriage Certificates; Year: 1936; Film: #8 Ancestry Record 61775 #564479
• Pulaski County, Arkansas, Marriages 1838-1999: Pulaski County Clerk; Little Rock, Arkansas; Marriage Records Ancestry Record 61797 #152249
• U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918: Registration State: Arkansas; Registration County: Pulaski Ancestry Record 6482 #24297953
• U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942: The National Archives At St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147 Ancestry Record 1002 #1695748
• U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current: Ancestry.com. U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Find a Grave. Find a Grave®. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi. Ancestry Record 60525 #1426861
• Johnson, Ben, Southern Arkansas University, Encylopedia of Arkansas, last updated on 16 Jun 2023. "John Gould Fletcher (1886–1950)." Accessed 7 Jul 2023.
• Wikipedia Contributors. Wikipeida, The Free Encyclopedia, last edited on 15 Dec 2022. "John Gould Fletcher." Accessed 7 Jul 2023.
• See Also: family tree handed down to Sir William (Arbuthnot) Arbuthnot of Kittybrewster Bt.