Louis Untermeyer

Poet, author and humorist Louis Untermeyer was born in New York City in 1885. Like many at the turn of the century, he quit high school to go to work at his father's jewelry manufacturing business. He was known primarily as an anthologist of poetry, but was an excellent poet in his own right. His only public entertainment appearance was on TV's classic show What's My Line? (1950), a show on which he thrived and used as a perfect venue for trading his amusing stories and anecdotes with publisher 'Bennett Cerf', investigative journalist/writer Dorothy Kilgallen and others who appeared on the show. Unfortunately, as it did many wonderful entertainers of the 40s & 50s, the Hollywood Blacklist - created as a result of the red-scare tactics of the House of Un-American Activities Committee - added him to the Blacklist because of his liberal, left-wing views and Communist connections. Like many others, he didn't realize that freedom of speech was all but forsaken in those days. He was fired without notice upon his arrival at the studio one day as a result of the efforts of a small handful of people who made a concerted effort to lobby the advertisers for his removal, a typical ploy in those days used by right-wingers as advertisers virtually owned the TV shows in the 50s. Like many others bitten by the HUAC's Blacklist, Untermeyer never again appeared on TV or film. According to his friend and playwright Arthur Miller, Untermeyer became a virtual recluse for more than a year after his blacklisting. In 1956, Untermeyer was awarded the prestigious Gold Medal from the Poetry Society of America, he also served as a poet in residence at many major universities including The University of Michigan and served as a consultant in English Poetry for the United States Library of Congress from 1961-63. He was the author of many compendiums of verse, including "Modern American Poetry" (1919); "Modern British Poetry" (1920); "This Singing World" (1923); "Fifty Modern American and British Poets: 1920-1970" (1973), and his own work was featured in "Selected Poems and Parodies" (1935). Louis Untermeyer, a man who had been knocked down but not beaten in the twilight of his life, died December 18, 1977 at age 92.