Louis (Aston Marantz) Simpson was an influential American poet, editor, critic, and professor whose ironic lyrics written in a conversational tone helped revolutionize American poetry in the early 1960s. A prolific writer, he remained a visible literary presence from the late 1940s until the late 2000s.
Simpson was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on 27 March 1923. His father, Aston Simpson, was a prominent Jamaican lawyer of Scottish descent. Simpson’s mother, Rosalind de Marantz, was a Jewish-American immigrant with Russian and Polish roots who came to Jamaica from the United States to act in a film and stayed. Emulating British colonial upper-class conventions was crucial to the ambition of Simpson’s parents to win …
2438 words
Citation: Flajsar, Jiri. "Louis Simpson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 December 2020 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4081, accessed 20 April 2024.]
