Herbert Randolph Coursen … died Saturday
Herbert Randolph ( H. R.) Coursen was passionate about Shakespeare, poetry, sports, music and politics. They enlivened his conversation and defined his life.
Coursen — a talented, brilliant, witty and sometimes irascible man — died Saturday in his sleep at his home in Brunswick.
H.R. Coursen was born in 1932 in Newark, N. J. He attended Amherst College, where he was a member of Sphinx, an honor society. He went on to attend Wesleyan University and the University of Connecticut, from which he received a Ph.D. in English.
He taught at Newark Academy; the Choate School; Bowdoin College, where he was chairman of the English Department; Clemson University; Ohio University; The University of London; Embry Riddle Aeronautical University; the University of Maine at Augusta; and Southern New Hampshire University.
A fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force during the 1950s, he was an early opponent of the war in Vietnam and one of the original members of Veterans for Peace.
Robert Chute of Poland Springs, noted poet and Bates professor emeritus of biology, joined Coursen at local poetry readings.
They were helpful to each other, Chute explained.
“ I knew Herb as a fellow U.S. Air Force veteran in Veterans for Peace — his war Korea, mine, World War II. I knew him as a fellow poet, exchanging, without offense or favor, suggestions, edits, corrections. He was an insightful scholar and a writer of astounding diversity. His life, as are all lives, was many things, but much of it was Literature, with a capital L.”
Coursen leaves a plethora of writing — 18 critical books on Shakespeare, 33 books of poetry, 25 novels, an eightbook fantasy series and seven classic stories adapted into modern verse. He will be missed in the literary world of Maine and beyond.
His “ Mythos” was a Writer’s Digest finalist in 2001. He won the Motton Award from the New England Poetry Club in 1998 for best book of poems in the previous year, and the Warren Award from the New England Poetry Club in 1992, 1995, 1997, 2000 and 2005 for best published poem of the previous year. He has won the Maine Poets Society Award for best poem several times.
In 1996, a poll conducted by Penn State University named him one of the “ 25 Master Teachers of Shakespeare during the past 100 years.” He lectured on Shakespeare extensively in Great Britain, Spain, Mexico, Canada and the United States.
After most would have retired, Coursen continued to lecture on Shakespeare at Bowdoin College and teach Shakespeare courses in the community.
Coursen was the subject of an essay in The Hollins Critic in 1996 by Lewis Turco — “The Protean Poetry of Herbert Coursen.” His latest book of poems is “ Blues in the Night” from Moon Pie Press.
Coursen was active in Maine’s poetry community from the Maine Poetry Society, to local poetry readings and slams to providing guidance to the Longfellow Days Committee.
“Herb was indispensable to the Longfellow Days poetry readings at Curtis Memorial Library, and before his death had booked all the poets for the 2012 readings. He was planning to lead poetry workshops at Thornton Oaks, The Highlands and the Brunswick Inn at Park Row. These plans will be realized and a special tribute offered in his memory,” according to Claudia Knox, a member of the Longfellow Days Committee.
Longfellow Days chairwoman Maryli Tiemann said that she was overwhelmed by Coursen’s death. “The entire Longfellow Days committee joins me in mourning the loss of Herb. For over seven years, he has been our Longfellow poet.”
John Ambrose, a retired Bowdoin College professor, said he will miss his Sunday sports buddy. “ Herb and I were close friends while colleagues on the Bowdoin College faculty. The friendship extended to the tennis courts, where we often played together.”
During the summer of 1977, Ambrose and Coursen won the town of Brunswick doubles tournament. Ambrose still has the trophy.
“Herb was an excellent athlete. His tennis strokes were as precise as his quotations from Shakespeare.”
During the football season, they got together to watch the New York Giants on Sundays, usually in Coursen’s cozy TV room.
An aficionado of bullfighting, Coursen made many trips to Spain to pursue his passion and returned with posters, glasses and figurines to add to his ever increasing collections of overlapping Shakespeare, sports and travel souvenirs.
“ Herb was an absolutely devoted and knowledgeable Giants supporter,” Ambrose said. “We talked about players, coaches, strategy, as we did every game. Herb’s observations were often more incisive than even the game announcers. I’ll never be able to watch a Giants game without thinking of Herb by my side to cheer or grouch with. As he liked to say, ‘Grouching is part of watching football.’”
Herb was a New York Giants fan — but more than that — he was the ultimate sports fan. He knew the statistics for baseball, football and most other sports to the degree that one wonders how he found the time to write so prolifically.
But he did write and his “ October Saturday: 1949” headed an article “ Seeing Daylight” in the Jan. 10 issue of Sports Illustrated.
“I’m probably the only poet who has had two poems in Sports Illustrated,” he joked to a reporter in 2005.
Coursen’s writing also appeared on the editorial pages of nearly every publication in New England that accepted letters to the editor, including The Times Record, the New York Times and The Nation. His subjects were anti- war, social programs, education and the vulnerability of electric delivery grid.
His essays — what some would call rants — pointed out the ever-widening gap of the rich and the rest. His clear evaluations of topics and ardent calls for action will be missed.
For many years, he conducted a big band show for WYAR in Yarmouth, using his vast collection of records as the basis of the program. That ended at the beginning of the new century. Coursen collected hundreds of vinyl records, continuing to play them for his own enjoyment, sometimes playing along on his cornet.
Another group that will miss him is his family, which has grown to include grandchildren. Speaking with his publisher in 2008, Coursen agreed that his grandchildren brought out the best in him.
He was predeceased by his companion of 20 years, Pam Mount, in March 2011.
He is survived by brothers Franklin H. Coursen of Chelmsford, Mass., and Dean Coursen of Massachusetts; daughters Susan Leigh Coursen of Tampa, Fla., Virginia Coursen Wyatt of Sarasota, Fla., and Elizabeth Coursen of Sarasota; and grandchildren Susan Randolph Wyatt, Bruce Edwin Wyatt III, Virginia Kathleen Coursen and Margaret Leigh Wyatt. Memorial arrangements have yet to be announced.
NANCY RANDOLPH lives in Topsham. Her company, Just Write Books, published some of H.R. Coursen’s works.
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