Rose Schwartz gave birth to a second child, Kenneth, in 1916. Marital problems, caused in part by Harry Schwartz's philandering, plagued their relationship. The couple separated for a time in 1923.
A precocious child with a flair for mimicry, Delmore Schwartz nonetheless had a difficult time in grade school. His only good subject was English, because it engaged his active imagination. His parents' tumultuous marriage, which ended in divorce in 1927, gave the boy plenty of material for morose reflection. He spent his time writing about his feelings in a series of journals. Early in childhood, Schwartz decided to become a poet.
Teachers who read Schwartz's early writing encouraged him to develop his talents. As a teenager, he began to identify with the European avant-garde. His early verses were published for the first time in the Poet's Pack of George Washington High School in 1929. That same year, Schwartz's family lost much of its savings in the stock market crash. His father died in June 1930. An unscrupulous executor embezzled the small amount of money that remained in hie estate after the collapse. At the age of 16, Delmore Schwartz was left practically penniless and without an inheritance.
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