Born in 1913 and raised in New York City, Schwartz attended NYU and took his bachelor’s degree in 1935. Schwartz’s first work, In Dreams Begin Responsibilities (1938), established him as a major creative force in the arena of American letters. It was praised by the poetic giants of the day, from T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound to Wallace Stevens and John Crowe Ransom. Allen Tate called it “the only genuine innovation we’ve had since Eliot and Pound.” A decade later, his collection of short stories, The World is A Wedding (1948), was met with similar praise, and from 1943-1955 Schwartz functioned as an editor for the Partisian Review. Unfortunately, his talent and passion were accompanied by a descent into alcoholism and paranoia. Schwartz died in a midtown Manhattan hotel at the age of 52 after his career and most of his relationships had fully deteriorated.

 

Delmore Schwartz’s literary archive is housed at the Beinecke Library; for a detailed description of the collection visit the Guide to the Delmore Schwartz Papers. Selected materials from the archive can be seen online in the Beinecke’s Digital Library: Delmore Schwartz Papers. Additional related resources in Beinecke Library collections may be found in Orbis and the Finding Aid Database.