of the writer Henry Miller, for whom Barbara was a typist. Barbara’s father, Harvey Pinson, dies.
1940:
Unsatisfied with the English Department at UCLA, Barbara took a leave of absence for a year to attend a junior college where she felt the faculty had a better understanding of modern poetry.
1941:
Returned to the University of California, Los Angeles.
1942:
Transferred to the University of California, Berkeley and moved to a Leroy Street apartment in Berkeley.
1943:
Graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor of arts degree in English Literature.
1943–45:
Returned to Los Angeles and took a job as a social worker for the city. Worked with Air Force flyers recuperating from bombing missions during World War II. Married John Dudley.
1946:
After living briefly with John Dudley’s parents in Kansas, the couple moved to New York City where they lived in a Greenwich Village apartment and became friends with several artists, some of whom would later become members of what John Bernard Myers called in his 1969 book “The Poets of the New York School,” a tongue-in-cheek designation that set the little-known group of young poets apart from the well-known and appreciated abstract expressionist artists of the “New York School.” Barbara and John Dudley were divorced later in the year.
1947:
Met Stephen Guest (later known as Lord Stephen Haden Haden-Guest) who came to New York in the 1930s from London. They lived together in a Greenwich Village apartment where Stephen Haden Haden-Guest introduced Barbara to the poet H.D. (Hilda Doolittle).
1948:
Married Stephen Haden Haden-Guest and took the pen name “Barbara Guest.”
1949:
Daughter Hadley Haden-Guest born on March 22 in Pinehurst, North Carolina, while Barbara visited her sister Mary Patricia Pinson Howe. Lived briefly in Washington, D.C., in an apartment with her mother, brother David, and daughter.
1950s:
Became a central member of “The Poets of the New York School” along with Edwin Denby, Frank O’Hara, James (?) Schuyler, Kenneth Koch, John Ashbery, Kenward Elmslie, and others.
1952:
Wrote art reviews for the publication Art News.
1953:
The Ladies Choice, a play written by Barbara, staged at the Artists Theater in New York.
1954:
Barbara and Stephen Haden Haden-Guest were divorced. Barbara and the World War II historian Trumbull Higgins were married soon after.
1955:
Son Jonathan van Lennep Higgins born.
1958:
Received the Yaddo Fellowship.
1960:
The Location of Things, a book of poetry edited by John Bernard Myers and featuring a collage by Robert Goodnough, published by the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York.
1961:
Moved to a rental house in Washington, D.C., with her son, daughter, and husband while Trumbull worked for the Institute for Defense Analysis.
1962:
Poems: The Location of Things, Archaics, The Open Skies published by Doubleday in New York. The artist Grace Hartigan created two lithographs inspired by poems from the book.
1963:
The Office: A One Act Play in Three Scenes produced and directed by John Bernard Myers; staged at Café Cino in New York.
1965:
Port: A Murder in One Act produced and directed by John Bernard Myers; staged at the American Theater for Poets in New York.
1966:
Wrote a play entitled The Diving Board; never staged. Friend and fellow New York School poet Frank O’Hara died.
1967:
Wrote a play entitled Chinese Ghost Restaurant; never staged.
1968:
The Blue Stairs published by Corinth Books in New York featuring cover art by Helen Frankenthaler. Received Longwood Award for The Location of Things.
1969:
I Ching published by Mourlot Graphics in Paris featuring lithographs by Sheila Isham. Barbara Guest Reading Her Poems with Comment in the Recording Laboratory recorded at the Library of Congress.
1971:
Essay “Jeanne Reynal” published in Craft Horizons.
1973:
Moscow Mansions published by the Viking Press in New York. Awarded the Poetry Foundation Prize.
1975:
Served as Editor of the Partisan Review. Essay “Helen Frankenthaler” published in Arts Magazine. Wrote a play entitled The Swimming Pool; never staged.
1976:
The Countess from Minneapolis published by Burning Deck in Providence, Rhode Island.
1978:
Seeking Air: A Novel published by Black Sparrow Press in Santa Barbara, California, featuring cover art by Robert Fabian. Received a National Endowment for the Arts grant and the Fund for Poetry Award.
1979–83:
Rented the back section of a house in Long Island for her family in addition to a cottage behind the main house where Barbara worked on a biography of H.D.
1979:
The Türler Losses published by Mansfield Book Mart Ltd. in Montreal, Canada.
1980:
Biography published by Burning Deck in Providence, Rhode Island.
1981:
Quilts published by Vehicle Editions in New York.
1982:
Exhibition “Poets and Artists” at the Guild Hall Museum in Long Island featured Barbara’s poem “Tessera” with a painting by Fay Lansner.
1983:
Served on The Poetry Society of America Board of Governors for two years.
1984:
Herself Defined: The Poet H.D. and Her World published by Doubleday and Quill in New York. Essay “A Reason for Poetics” published in Ironwood.
1985:
Herself Defined published by Collins in Great Britain. Essay “Leatrice Rose” published in Arts Magazine. Essay “June Felter at 871 Fine Arts” published in Art in America.
1986:
The Nude, published by The Arts Publisher in New York featuring etchings by Warren Brandt. Essay “Mysteriously Defining the Mysterious: Byzantine Proposals of Poetry” published in How(ever).
1988:
Musicality published by Kelsey St. Press in Berkeley, California, featuring art by June Felter.
1989:
Fair Realism published by Sun & Moon Press in Los Angeles, California, featuring cover art by Leatrice Rose. A Grace Hartigan lithograph entitled “The Hero Leaves His Ship,” inspired by Barbara’s poem of the same name, appeared in Universal Limited Art Editions: A History and Catalog. Began service on the Poets Advisory Committee in New York, a position she would hold for the next ten years.
1990:
Trumbull Higgins died. Essay “The Vuillard of Us” published in Denver Quarterly. Awarded the Lawrence J. Lipton Prize for Fair Realism.
1991:
The Countess from Minneapolis, second edition, published by Burning Deck in Providence, Rhode Island. Essay “Shifting Personas” published in Poetics Journal.
The Altos published by Hank Hine Editions in San Francisco, California, featuring art by Richard Tuttle. Received the Jerome J. Shestack Poetry Prize for poems appearing in The American Poetry Review. Recorded Barbara Guest Reading Selections from Her Poetry for the Poetics Program in Buffalo, New York.
1993:
Defensive Rapture published by Sun & Moon Press in Los Angeles, California. Received the Poetry Center Book Award.
1994:
Festchrift held at Brown University to honor Barbara. Received the Fund for Poetry Award and the Jerome J. Shestack Poetry Prize for “Motion Pictures,” appearing in The American Poetry Review. Barbara and daughter Hadley moved to Berkeley, California.
1995:
Stripped Tales published by Kelsey St. Press in Berkeley, California, featuring art by Anne Dunn. Selected Poems published by Sun & Moon Press in Los Angeles, California, featuring a 1950 collage by Barbara entitled “Ninth Street, New York.” Fair Realism, paperback edition, published by Sun & Moon Press in Los Angeles, California. Received the San Francisco State University Poetry Center Book Award for Defensive Rapture and the America Awards for Literature in the Best Poetry category for Selected Poems.
