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1937-1941
Joseph Auslander (1897-1965) Auslander, who was born in Philadelphia and graduated
Harvard College, was appointed in 1937 as the first Consultant in Poetry without a
definite term and served four years. He was noted for his war poems, and his best-
known work is "The Unconquerables" (1943), a collection of poems addressed to the
occupied countries of Europe.
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1943-1944
Allen Tate
(1899-1979) Tate, born in Kentucky and graduated from Vanderbilt University, was a
poet and a literary critic, who wrote at least 20 books and received many honors,
including the Bollingen Prize for Poetry in 1956. He was the founding editor of The
Fugitive, from 1922 to '25. Tate is noted for his poem "Ode to the Confederate Dead"
(1927).
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1944-1945
Robert Penn Warren
(1905-1989) Although he was an award-winning poet, better known for his novel, "All
the King's Men" which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947. He received Pulitzers for two
volumes of poetry, "Promises" in 1958 and "Now and Then" in 1979. He taught at
Vanderbilt, Louisiana State, the University of Minnesota and Yale. He wrote
"Understanding Poetry" (1938), a textbook that widely influenced the study of poetry on
the college level.
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1945-1946
Louise Bogan
(1897-1970) Bogan, who was born in Livermore Falls, Maine, and attended Boston
University for one year, was a poet and a critic. She reviewed poetry for 38 years for the
New Yorker magazine. Her best-known book of poems, "Collected Poems 1923-1953,"
won a shared Bollingen Prize in 1954. Her highly formal poetry usually explored the
themes of love and grief.
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1946-1947
Karl Shapiro
(1913-2000) Shapiro, born in Baltimore, graduated Johns Hopkins University in 1939.
He served in World War II and sent poems home to his fiancée, who then had them
printed. Shapiro won a Pulitzer Prize in 1945 for "V-Letter and Other Poems." He taught
at the University of Nebraska, where he edited the Prairie Schooner from 1956-1966.
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1947-1948
(1917-1977) Lowell, born into a prominent Boston family, left Harvard College after two
years and finished his bachelor's at Kenyon College in 1940. He received a Pulitzer
Prize in 1947 for "Lord Weary's Castle." Lowell's style was rigorously formal, until he
loosened his adherence to meter and form with "Life Studies," which received the
National Book Award in 1960. He is considered the father of "confessional poetry."
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1948-1949
Leonie Adams
(1899-1988) Adams was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduated from Barnard College.
In the 1920s, she worked as an editor for Wilson Publishing and for the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, and went on to teach English at several colleges and universities. Her
collection of poetry "Poems: A Selection" received the 1954 Bollingen Prize.
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1949-1950
Elizabeth Bishop
(1911-1979) Born in Worcester, Mass., Bishop's father died before her first birthday and
her mother was committed to a mental asylum several years later. She was raised by
grandparents and graduated from Vassar College in 1934. Bishop traveled widely and
lived for 18 years in Brazil. Her book "Poems: North and South * A Cold Spring" won the
Pulitzer Prize in 1956.
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1950-1952
Conrad Aiken
(1889-1973) Aiken was born in Savannah, Georgia, and lost his father and mother in a
tragic murder-suicide. His poetry, which explored themes of psychology and
development of identity, won many prizes, including the Pulitzer in 1930 for "Selected
Poems," the National Book Award in 1954 for "Collected Poems," and the Bollingen
Prize.
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1952
William Carlos Williams
(1883-1963) Williams was appointed as Consultant in Poetry but did not serve. Born in
Rutherford, N.J., Williams became a doctor, as well as a poet, novelist and essayist. He
is noted for creating a fresh, free metrical rhythm based on the American speech of his
subjects, local New Jersey people mired in the everyday circumstances of life.
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1956-1958
Randall Jarrell
(1914-1965) Jarrell, born in Nashville, Tenn., socialized with the Fugitive group of
Southern poets. His first important poetry book, "Little Friend, Little Friend" (1945)
documented the fears and struggles of young soldiers. His 1960 book of poetry "The
Woman at the Washington Zoo" won the National Book Award. Jarrell was instrumental
in establishing Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop and William Carlos Williams as
significant American poets.
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1958-1959
Robert Frost
(1874-1963) Frost, the best known and most beloved American poet of the 20th
century, won the Pulitzer Prize four times for "New Hampshire" (1924), "Collected
Poems" (1931), "A Further Range" (1937) and "A Witness Tree" (1943). Much of Frost's
work dealt with the life and landscape of New England. Frost taught primarily at Amherst,
1917-1963. He received 44 honorary degrees, many government tributes and the
Bollingen Prize posthumously.
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1959-1961
Richard Eberhart
(1904-2005) Eberhart, born in Austin, Minn., and graduated from Dartmouth College, is
considered one of the major lyric voices of the 20th century. He received the Pulitzer
Prize in 1966 for "Selected Poems 1930-1965," and a 1977 National Book Award for
"Collected Poems 1930-1976." In 1962, he won a shared Bollingen Prize. He taught
English for many years at Darmouth College.
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