A graduate of the University of Wisconsin in 1923, he was the author of eight books of poems. He translated poems by the Roman poets Catullus and Ovid, and wrote biographies of Whistler and Amy Lowell.[1] In 1925, he married poet and editor Marya Zaturenska (Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry, 1938; 1902–1982).[2] They had two children: Patrick Bolten Gregory and Joanna Elizabeth Zeigler née Gregory.[3]
His collected essays, Spirit of Time and Place, were published in 1973. He wrote book reviews that were published in The New York Times.[4] His work appeared in The New Yorker,[5]Contemporary Poetry,[6]The Wisconsin Literary Magazine,[7] and Poetry Magazine.[8]
Gregory's poetry has been described as "literary" and as "exhibit[ing] an awareness of the lives of working people, sometimes taking the form of the elegiac monologue."[9] Poet Richard Eberhart said: "The ruthlessness of the city used to be his interest; he used to depict realistic characters and situations within it. Now there is the general serenity, poise and lyrical concern with language." He added: "Gregory is lyrical and straight-forward in these poems."[9]Edgar Johnson, biographer of Charles Dickens and Sir Walter Scott among others, said that "Mr. Gregory is not one of those scholar-critics who write only for other scholar-critics. He is a scholar without pedantry, who concentrates not on exhibitionism but illumination."[10]
Gregory was a professor of English at Sarah Lawrence College for 26 years, from 1934 to 1960, when he became Professor Emeritus.[11] One of his students was future children's poet Myra Cohn Livingston.[12]
^Rochman, Hazel. "Myra Cohn Livingston." American Writers for Children Since 1960: Poets, Illustrators, and Nonfiction Authors, edited by Glenn E. Estes, Gale, 1987. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 61. Gale Literature Resource Center. Accessed 19 May 2023.
