A Sunday in Purgatory
Poetry | Soft cover | 81 pages
The poems in A Sunday in Purgatory combine memoir, reflections on aging, sexuality, and wrestling with the tension that exists between being part of a famous American family and wanting to be an individual, separate from family history. Morgenthau writes, “In these precious days I dress my private demons in scribblings to come out from behind the shadows that have darkened my long and privileged life…in a purgatory where I wait to pass through the open gates.”
Having reached his centennial year, Henry Morgenthau III found a delayed vocation: writing poetry. Formerly a producer and writer for WBGH in Boston, a major contributor to PBS, he received many awards for his pioneering documentaries and talk shows. He produced the series, Eleanor Roosevelt: Prospect of Mankind, which she hosted during the last three years of her life. His memoir, Mostly Morgenthaus, won the annual Jewish Book Council prize for autobiography/memoir. He recently published poetry in Nimrod and an essay, “The White House Revisited,” in District Lines, published by Politics and Prose. Morgenthau lived in Washington, D.C.
The Morgenthau Prize
The Henry Morgenthau III Poetry Prize is a $3,000 prize for a first book of poetry by a writer age 70 or older. The prize was established in 2018 by the Morgenthau children to honor their father, who began writing poetry in his 90s. It is awarded every other year. Read more about the prize and its latest winners here.
“Morgenthau’s poems are crisp, elegant forays into memory both personal and cultural, as he engages, with an ironic, Lowellian eye, a rich cultural history of growing up in affluent Manhattan during the 1920s and 30s. His surgical examinations of self and his unflinching stare into mortality define the unique and honest voice of this remarkable first book of poems.”
Peter Balakian, Author of Ozone Journal, 2016 Pulitzer Prize for poetry
Morgenthau talks about becoming a poet in his 90s, and the success of his first book at age 99. From “Of Some Renown,” a video series. Recorded July 2017. Watch on YouTube.
Centennial poet Henry Morgenthau III reads from his debut book of poems, A Sunday in Purgatory. Recorded February 20th, 2017, at the University of Baltimore. Watch on YouTube.
A slideshow about the poet behind the Henry Morgenthau III Poetry Prize for a Writer over 70. Watch on YouTube.
Poets & Writers “Book Prize Celebrates Older Poets”
NPR “Remembering Henry Morgenthau III, Whose Poetry Debut Came at Age 99”
The Atlantic Poem of the Week: “A Sunday in Purgatory,” by Henry Morgenthau III
Princeton Alumni Weekly “Poetry of Past and Present”
YouTube: Henry Morgenthau III at The University of Baltimore
The Mountain Times “Spring Into Reading”
Baltimore Style Magazine “LATE BLOOMER: Henry Morgenthau III just published his first book of poetry—at the age of 100”
Deerfield Magazine “Recently Published: A Sunday in Purgatory”
The Boston Globe “Celebrated documentary maker and scion of prominent family publishes 1st book of poetry”
The Jewish Times “100-Year-Old Henry Morgenthau III Waxes Poetic at Baltimore Reading”
The Baltimore Sun “Spotlighting a press for older writers”
The Washington Post “Scion of prominent Jewish American family publishes first book of poetry at the age of 100”
NPR “A Century-Old Poet Looks Back — And Fearlessly Forward — In ‘Purgatory'”
Congressional Record “Honoring the 100th Birthday of Mr. Henry Morgenthau, III”
Erickson Tribune “Passager Publishing focuses solely on senior writers”
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