Felix Pollak

Felix Pollak (November 11, 1909 – November 19, 1987) was an American librarian, translator, and poet.

Pollak was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1909 to Geza Pollak and Helene Schneider Pollak. A Jew and liberal anti-fascist, he studied law and theater at the University of Vienna before emigrating to the United States in 1938

While working as a librarian, Pollak was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943, where he worked as a translator for German prisoners of war. After the war, he enrolled at the University of Michigan, where he received a master's degree in library science in 1949. Pollak also received a Dr.Jur. from the University of Vienna in 1953. which is one of the world's finest collections of small literary magazines and publications by independent poetry presses. After his retirement, Pollak continued to reside in Madison, Wisconsin, until his death in 1987.

In addition to his work as a librarian, Pollak was an accomplished poet.

Since 1994, the University of Wisconsin Press has annually awarded a poetry prize named after Pollak.

Works Pollak, Felix. The Castle and the Flaw. New Rochelle, New York: Elizabeth Press, 1963. Pollak, Felix. Say When. La Crosse, Wisconsin: Juniper Press, 1969. Pollak, Felix. Ginkgo. New Rochelle, New York: Elizabeth Press, 1973. Pollak, Felix. Subject to Change. La Crosse, Wisconsin: Juniper Press, 1978. Pollak, Felix. Prose and Cons. La Crosse, Wisconsin: Juniper Press, 1983. Pollak, Felix. Tunnel Visions. Peoria, Illinois: Spoon River Poetry Press, 1984. Pollak, Felix. Benefits of Doubt. Peoria, Illinois: Spoon River Poetry Press, 1988. Pollak, Felix. Vom Nutzen des Zweifels. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1989. Pollak, Felix. Lebenszeichen. Aphorismen und Marginalien. Vienna: Verlag für Gesellschaftskritik, 1992. Mason, Gregory H. (ed.). Arrows of Longing: The Correspondence between Anaïs Nin and Felix Pollak, 1952–1976. Ohio University Press: 1998.