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Laureates From: 1937-1960
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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 German-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
Robert Lowell
(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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