Beltway Poetry Quarterly

John Pauker (1920—January 22,1991) was born in Budapest, Hungary and moved to the US as a child in 1924. He is the author of fourteen books; four of his books of poems were published in the United States: Yoked by Violence (1949), Excellence (1968), Angry Candy (1976), and In Solitary and Other Imaginations (1977). He also published books in Iran, India, and France, and wrote fiction, criticism, plays (including one produced on Broadway in 1959, called Moonbirds), and translated literature from many languages.

As a representative of the American Information Services, Pauker served in Algiers and Germany during WWII. He was a political commentator for the Voice of America radio, and later worked for the US government is several capacities, including White House speechwriter, for the US Embassy in India, and the US Information Office, where he retired in 1975 as chief policy guidance officer.

Pauker was editor of the literary journal Furioso from 1947 to 1953, and also served as advisory editor to Voyages. His translation of Lajos Zilahy’s novel The Dukays from Hungarian into English became a bestseller in 1949.

Pauker, who lost many relatives in the Holocaust, sponsored a number of writers and intellectuals to the US. Solomon Deressa of Ethiopia and Arnost Lustig of Czechoslovakia are among those who credit Pauker with saving their lives. He regularly hosted evenings of international writers in his home, which he dubbed More Fun House, and helped exiles find teaching positions and other jobs. He was fluent in seven languages.

Thanks to The Word Works, Inc. for permission to reprint some of these poems.