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Raymond P. Hammond

Poet, critic and editor

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ7299052
Source-derived summary

Raymond P. Hammond is an American poet, critic and editor of the New York Quarterly magazine since assuming control after the death of William Packard in 2002.

Hammond was born August 31, 1964, in Roanoke, Virginia. Packard had "willed" the magazine by asking Hammond in writing to take control of the magazine should anything happen to him.

Hammond is the author of Poetic Amusement. Originally written in 2000 as his Master's thesis, Poetic Amusement was passed around underground as a digital file for ten years among those associated with the New York Quarterly. What began as Hammond's observations of the influence of "po' biz" and writing programs on contemporary American poetry became a timeless treatise on poetry itself. Using his experience with NYQ and devouring many literary critics across the ages from the ancient Greeks to contemporary critics, Hammond examines at once both our current literary environment and the essence of poetry. In seeking to answer the questions "What is poetry?" and "Where does poetry come from?" for himself, he encourages readers to ask those questions for and of themselves as well.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Raymond P. Hammond” as poet, critic and editor. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Raymond, Hammond and Poet.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2002, 1964, 2000—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1964-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Raymond, Hammond and Poet providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Raymond P. Hammond”, the useful work is to connect “poet, critic and editor” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7299052. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2002, 1964 and 2000.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Raymond P. Hammond”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Raymond P. Hammond primary sources, Raymond P. Hammond archive and Raymond research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Raymond P. Hammond” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.