title: Russell Edson
text: # Russell Edson
  
  Russell Edson (1935 – April 29, 2014) was an American poet, novelist, writer, and illustrator. He was the son of the cartoonist-screenwriter Gus Edson.
  
  Born in Connecticut, Edson studied art early in life and attended the Art Students League as a teenager. He began publishing poetry in the 1950s. His honors as a poet include a Guggenheim fellowship, a Whiting Award, and several fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.
  
  Edson self-published several chapbooks and later, numerous collections of prose poetry, fables, two novels, Gulping's Recital and The Song of Percival Peacock, and a book of plays under the title, The Falling Sickness. His final book was See Jack (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009).
  
  He lived in Darien, Connecticut with his wife Frances.
  
  ## Selected bibliography
  
  Full-length prose poetry collections
  
  * See Jack (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009)
  * The Rooster's Wife: Poems (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2005)
  * The Tormented Mirror (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001)
  * The Tunnel: Selected Poems of Russell Edson (Oberlin College Press, 1994)
  * The Wounded Breakfast (Wesleyan University Press, 1985)
  * With Sincerest Regrets (Burning Deck Press, 1980)
  * The Reason Why the Closet-Man Is Never Sad (Wesleyan University Press, 1977)
  * Edson's Mentality (OINK! Press, 1977)
  * The Intuitive Journey and Other Works (Harper & Row, 1976)
  * Gulping's Recital (Guignol Books, 1984)
  * The Clam Theater (Wesleyan University Press, 1973)
  * The Childhood Of An Equestrian (Harper & Row, 1973)
  * Ceremonies in Bachelor Space (Grapnel Press, Black Mountain College, 1951)
  
  Chapbooks
  
  * Wuck Wuck Wuck! (with linocut by Richard Mock, Red Ozier Press, 1984)
  
  Novels
  
  * Gulping's Recital (Guignol Books, 1984)
  * The Song of Percival Peacock: A Novel (Coffee House Press, 1992)
  
  Short Stories & Fables
  
  * Tick Tock: Short Stories (illustrated with woodcuts, Demitasse/Coffee House Press, 1992)
  * What a Man Can See: Fables (with drawings by Ray Johnson, 1969)
  * The Brain Kitchen: Writings and Woodcuts (Thing Press, 1965)
  * The Very Thing That Happens: Fables and Drawings (New Directions Publishing, 1964)
  * Appearances: Fables and Drawings (Thing Press, 1961)
  * A Stone Is Nobody's: Fables and Drawings (Thing Press, 1961)
  
  Plays
  
  * The Falling Sickness: A Book of Plays (New Directions Publishing, 1975)
  
  Music
  
  * Ketchup opera in 2 acts. Text By Russell Edson, music by Franklin Stover. Scored for 2 voices & chamber orchestra.
  * The Song of Percival Peacock - an entertainment for reed quintet and narrator set to prose poems of Russell Edson, by Franklin Stover. (Edition Hohenstaufen, 2017)
  
  ## Honors and awards
  
  * 1992 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship
  * 1989 Whiting Award
  * 1981 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship
  * 1976 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship
  * 1974 Guggenheim Fellowship
  