David P. Young

David P Young, Longman Professor of English emeritus, at Oberlin College died May 3,2025 at Kendal at Oberlin.

He was a true man of letters with more than 37 published books of his own poetry as well as translations from multiple languages including German, Czech, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Italian and Spanish. He was an editor and founder of FIELD: Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, a nationally ranked poetry magazine, published biennially by the Oberlin College Press for 50 years. He wrote critical books on Yeats and modernist poets: Troubled Mirror, and Six Modernist Moments and edited several landmark anthologies of prose poems and magical realism.

A noted Shakespearean scholar, he published several books and articles including The Heart’s Forest, Something of Great Constancy, The Action to the Word, The King’s a Beggar, and Imagining Shakespeare’s Pericles.

He was the recipient of many awards including NEA and Guggenheim fellowships, a Pushcart prize, Ohioana Poetry award and Cleveland Arts prize among others.

Not least, he was a beloved teacher of English Renaissance literature, modern poetry and creative writing at Oberlin College and left a legacy of former students, many of whom kept in contact with him over the years. He also founded the successful Oberlin in London program.

He was born in Davenport, Iowa, attended Carleton College and received the PhD in English from Yale University. He is survived by his brother John Young, wife Georgia Newman, children Newell and Margaret Young, and stepchildren Darby, William and Thomas Saxbe. His parents, Cecil and Mary Young, sister Ruth, and his first wife, Chloe Hamilton Young, predeceased him.

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