James Tillotson Whitehead, 1936-2003

State of Arkansas House Memorial Resolution

1 84th General Assembly
2 Second Extraordinary Session, 2003 HMR 1001
3
4 By: Representative Edwards
5
6
7 HOUSE MEMORIAL RESOLUTION
8 MOURNING THE DEATH OF JAMES T. WHITEHEAD AND
9 HONORING HIM AS A CHAMPION OF EDUCATION.
10
11 Subtitle
12 MOURNING THE DEATH OF JAMES T. WHITEHEAD
13 AND HONORING HIM AS A CHAMPION OF
14 EDUCATION.
15
16

17 WHEREAS, the accomplished writer, poet, and teacher, James T. Whitehead
18 of Fayetteville, Arkansas died Friday, August 15, 2003, at the age of sixty-
19 seven (67); and
20
21 WHEREAS, Mr. Whitehead was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on March 15,
22 1936, grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, and stood six feet five inches (6'5")
23 tall by the time he went to Vanderbilt University on a football scholarship,
24 where he met William Harrison, the budding writer who became his life-long
25 friend and associate; and
26
27 WHEREAS, as a student Mr. Whitehead had a keen intellect, a firm sense
28 of justice on the race issue that was roiling the South at the time, and a
29 fully formed ferocity on a broad range of thought from the painting of
30 Vermeer to the theology of St. Augustine; and
31
32 WHEREAS, Mr. Whitehead left Vanderbilt with a bachelor's degree in
33 philosophy and a master's degree in English, graduated from the Creative
34 Writing Program at the University of Iowa, and then joined William Harrison
35 to found a similar program at the University of Arkansas; and
36

12-11-2003 15:53 DLP VJF985
1 WHEREAS, at the University of Arkansas Mr. Whitehead began a love
2 affair with all things "Razorback" and was one of the most ardent supporters
3 of both men and women's athletic programs; and
4
5 WHEREAS, the Master of Fine Arts Program Mr. Whitehead established at
6 the University of Arkansas in conjunction with his friend and poet, Miller
7 Williams, became one of the nation's most acclaimed, with students including
8 Barry Hannah, Ellen Gilchrist, and others who have made their mark in
9 fiction, poetry, translation, and film; and
10
11 WHEREAS, in 1971, Mr. Whitehead, then a poet and teacher at the
12 University of Arkansas, published the story of Sonny Joiner, an oversized
13 former football player and a man of excesses, intellectual and otherwise,
14 passionate about history, theological discourse, painting, politics,
15 quarreling, literature, and sports -- much like himself; and
16
17 WHEREAS, this coming-of-age novel "Joiner", Mr. Whitehead's only
18 published novel, about segregationist Mississippi has received critical
19 acclaim; and
20
21 WHEREAS, Mr. Whitehead, known as a skilled sonneteer favoring a
22 conversational style that drew on his affection for the country Southerner,
23 also published four (4) books of poetry, namely "Domains", "Local Men",
24 "Actual Size", and "Near Hand",
25
26 NOW THEREFORE,
27 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE EIGHTY-FOURTH GENERAL
28 ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS:
29
30 THAT the House of Representatives mourns the passing of James T.
31 Whitehead, and honors his years of service to the state and community as a
32 writer, poet, teacher, and champion of education.

My best memories of Jim

photo by Chris Boese, Copyright 2003-2005

This shot reminds me most of the glare Jim used to give me when I'd say something absurd that drove him up the wall. I didn't do it the day of this shoot, but Jim remembered giving me the look often enough, he had to do one goofing off when I was taking his portrait. He'd like to want to strangle me when I said mouthy things about Wallace Stevens or suggested that Emily Dickinson's "look of agony" came from Victorian "little death." Half the time I just did it to set him off.

He was a great poet, teacher, and friend. Every student I've ever taught has gotten some of Jim bleeding through. His house was the first place I went in 1987 after finishing my very first teaching job, creative writing, in the woods for 2 weeks with gifted and talented kids. He encouraged me and gave me confidence. He also helped me get my first tenure-track teaching position at Valdosta State in Georgia.

He's one of the main reasons I was ever a poet, and the one who made me memorize nearly the entire Norton Anthology of Poetry, while daring us to create our own canons. He let me work off an incomplete for an entire summer, writing a paper on Emily Dickinson that stretched to 60, then 70 pages while I also tried to memorize as many of those 1,789 poems as I could.

Nobody encounters Jim Whitehead and comes away the same. After I left Fayetteville, I still could drop by any time and we'd go into this intense, vulcan mind meld thing, I don't know what else you would call it. After about an hour of it, you'd go around the rest of the day a bit dazed. The last time I spoke with him was in 1998 or 1999, when I was getting settled in at Clemson.

Damn, I'm going to miss him.

Chris