Berryman’s Bridge

Washington Avenue Bridge, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 2013

John Berryman was a Pulitzer prize winning poet and scholar, active from the 1940s into the early 1970s. I always think of him when I walk over this bridge. He taught at the University of Minnesota. More than one of his students said that he was the best teacher they had ever had. He was a truly gifted writer, especially when he dealt with his personal demons in his various Dream Songs.

He also wrote a book dealing with his alcoholism, titled Recovery. But he didn't recover.



He jumped to his death here on a cold January day in 1972.