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ROBERT HAYDEN
1913—1980
Robert Earl Hayden was born in Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A., on 4 August 1913 of poor, uneducated parents. At birth he was named Asa Bundy Sheffey, ‘Asa’ being his father’s name and ‘Bundy’ the name of the family doctor who had attended his birth. After the separation and divorce of his parents while he was still an infant, his mother put him in the care of friends, William and Sue Ellen Hayden, while she set about finding work to provide for him. A job was found in Buffalo, New York, and she moved there, visiting Robert and the Haydens occasionally. The Haydens did not like the name ‘Asa’ for the boy and, hoping that they would be permitted to adopt him as their own, renamed him ‘Robert Earl’. His mother did not object to this, especially since she felt that the child had a good home while she was working.
It was during his pre-school years that it was discovered how little sight he had. Nevertheless, he was provided with glasses and eagerly learned to read before entering school. During his elementary school years he read a dictionary, an encyclopedia and any other available material, although he was placed in the sightsaving class. When Robert entered school he
3 Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu'l—Bahd, p. 23.
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Robert Hayden
was registered as Robert Earl Hayden. Not until his fortieth year did he come to know that this was not his legal name. Only in 1978 was it made legal.
All his basic education was received in Detroit. Since there was no money for college when he finished high school, he gave up hope of acquiring a higher education. However, the social worker who served his family interceded because of the obvious capabilities of the young man and enabled him to receive a fouryear scholarship to Detroit City College, now known as Wayne State University. In the summer of 1938, four years after completing his college work, he entered the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for advanced study. It was there that he entered a competition for a Hopwood Award, and that summer won a minor award for poetry.
In 1940 he married Erma Inez Morris. The following year they moved to Ann Arbor where Robert began graduate work in earnest and also took advantage of the opportunity to study with W. H. Auden, who at that time was visiting poet at the University of Michi THE Bahá’í WORLD
gan. In 1940 Robert Hayden‘s first book of poetry Heart-Shape in the Dust was published by a small press in Detroit.
A daughter, Maia, was born in 1942, and that same year Robert won a major Hopwood Award for Poetry. He received a Master of Arts degree in English in 1944 and that fall was appointed Teaching Fellow in English. He held that position for two years, the first black person to have been given that opportunity at the university.
In 1946 Robert and his family moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he taught at Fisk University for twenty-two years. Meanwhile, he continued to write poetry, his first love. He could not find a publisher, but from time to time his poems would appear in magazines, including Atlantic Monthly and Poetry. In 1962 Ballad of Remembrance was published in England. Then, between 1966 and 1978, New York publishers and others brought out Selected Poems, Words in the Mourning Time, Angle ofAscent, Night-Blooming Cereus and American Joumal. These accomplishments led eventually to other recognition: the reception of the Grand Prize for Poetry at the first World Festival of the Arts in Dakar, Senegal, 1965; the Russell Loines Award for poetry, National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1970; election by the Academy of American Poets as its 1975 Fellow; membership in the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters; and appointment (1976—1978) to the post of Consultant in Poetry t0 the Library of Congress, Washington, DIC.—these are a few of the many honours given him. In the last-named post he was enabled to bring the Bahá’í teachings to the attention of the manager of the Senate Chambers and some other government officials. On 3 January 1980 he was invited to the White House to read, along with other poets, and was received with genuine warmth by President and Mrs. Carter.
Robert was not a joiner and past experience
had made him wary of institutional religion.
However, the Hand of the Cause Dorothy
Baker, through the instrumentality of Katherine Mills of Ann Arbor, had convinced him
of the truth of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh and he
joined the Faith in 1943. During his Bahá’í life
he served on the Local Spiritual Assemblies of
Nashville, Tennessee, and, while he held the
consultantship at the Library of Congress, of
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Falls Church, Virginia. He also spoke about
the Faith many times on television and radio.
Robert was often asked to give talks on the Faith. After a few such addresses he steadfastly refused these requests, firmly convinced that he could serve the Cause better as a poet. In this role he always strove for excellence. He received many requests to give readings of his poetry and always complied if it was at all possible. Readings took him to many places in the United States. At these presentations he usually read poems he had written containing direct reference to the Faith as well as those on other subjects. He prefaced the readings with explanatory information about the Bahá’í Revelation. Most of all, however, wherever he went he was recognized by all who met him as one who promoted a universal point of view as found in the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh: whether in the classroom, on the lecture platform, or in social gatherings, this was the only View he held valid. In his work this also was true. In a letter written to an inquirer in December 1970 he had this to say: ‘I think of the writing of poems as one way of coming to grips with inner and outer realities—as a spiritual act, really, a sort of prayer for illumination and perfection. The Bahá’í Faith, with its emphasis on the essential oneness of mankind and its vision of world unity, is an increasingly powerful influence on my poetry today—and the only one to which I willingly submit.’
From 1968 until his death Robert Hayden was an associate editor of World Order, a Bahá’í periodical published under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States. He made constant efforts to raise the standard of the poetry used in the publication. World Order was very close to his heart, and he thought of his work for it as a real service he could render the Faith.
On 28 February 1980 the Universal House of Justice cabled:
GRIEVED PASSING ESTEEMED SERVANT CAUSE ROBERT HAYDEN. HIS NUMEROUS HONOURS AND DISTINGUISHED CONTRIBUTION POETRY AMERICA ADDS LUSTRE ANNALS FAITH. KINDLY CONVEY TO FAMILY LOVING SYMPATHY ASSURANCE PRAYERS PROGRESS HIS SOUL.
ERMA HAYDEN
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