Martin S. Dworkin: Unfinished Ruins

Beyond being a poet, Martin S. Dworkin was a writer, photographer and editor of extraordinary ability. As a successful and widely published critic of film, Dworkin broke new ground in maintaining that everything we do in society has an educational aspect. During the fifties and early sixties, he was writing film criticism on a regular basis for such journals as The New Republic, The New Leader, The Progressive, and Canadian Commentator. As a teacher, throughout the sixties and seventies, he offered two highly praised courses of his own origination at Columbia’s Teachers College in New York City. He was a research associate at the Institute of Philosophy and Politics of Education at Teachers College and was General Editor of his own series, published by Teachers College Press. Also during the sixties and seventies, Dworkin was often invited to lecture at universities on such diverse subjects as photographic education, cinema, film study in higher education, and radio.

Dworkin’s poems are mined from the experiences of his life, especially what he lived through during World War II. According to Bernard Looks, the editor of this collection, "They are pervaded by a profound pessimism which, I can attest, characterized him throughout his life. But, despite this pessimism, Dworkin never ceased his struggle to make sense of the wreckage that the war brought and left in its wake during the post war period."