Sol Funaroff

Sol Funaroff (May 1, 1911-October 29, 1942) was an American poet.

Biography

Funaroff was born in Beirut, to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants.^[1] His family moved across several European countries before immigrating to New York.^[2] He was educated at Franklin Lane High School in Brooklyn, where he edited the high school literary magazine, and he later took evening courses at City College.^[3] At the beginning of his literary career he joined the John Reed Clubs, a group he later described as "instrumental in raising the battle-cry of proletarian art"^[4]

He was a follower of the Dynamo school of poetry, along with Muriel Rukeyser and Kenneth Fearing.^[5] In 1933, Funaroff founded Dynamo Press.^[6] The first book Funaroff published in the Dynamo Press poetry series was his friend Edwin Rolfe's book To My Contemporaries.^[7] In 1938, Funaroff worked on the Federal Writers' Project guidebook to New York City, collaborating on the book with Richard Wright and Maxwell Bodenheim.^[8]

In his poetry, Funaroff avoided abstract themes and focused on modern society and the depictions of the working class.^[9] In common with other poets of the Dynamo School, his works depict modern machinery as a symbol of progress and the improvement of humanity.^[10] In many works, he used assemblage to depict the lives of the American workers.^[11] Mike Gold described Funaroff's works as a combination of "abstract manifesto and personal lyricism".^[12] Funaroff's works used modernist techniques influenced by the cinematic montage "to visualize the social and political themes" of his works.^[13] Funaroff's Marxist politics made him critical of other prominent poets. Funaroff published "What the Thunder Said: A Fire Sermon", a 1938 parody of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, that used montage techniques in its depiction of Communist revolution.^[14] He also criticized the limited focus of William Carlos Williams, comparing him to a painter of miniatures, rather a muralist who could depict society on a large scale.^[15] Funaroff wrote that Objectivism lacked a purpose and an understanding of the capitalist roots of poverty.^[16]

Funaroff was active in the Keep America Out of War Committee, arranging a reading of anti-war poetry for the group.^[17] He also wrote the poem for Anna Sokolow's solo dance The Exile.^[18]

His funeral was organized by the International Workers Order and featured tributes from Samuel Sillen and Joy Davidman.^[19] Kenneth Rexroth wrote about Funaroff in his poem "Thou Shalt Not Kill", along with other dead poets from the 1930s, asking "What became of Jim Oppenheim? Where is Sol Funaroff?"^[20]

Bibliography

• The Spider and the Clock. New York: International Publishers, 1938.
• Exile From a Future Time: The Posthumous Poems of Sol Funaroff. New York: Dynamo, 1943.