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Laureates From: 1981-1990
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1981-1982
Maxine Kumin
(1925- ) Kumin, born and raised in Philadelphia, received a
bachelor's degree in 1946 and a master's in 1948 from
Radcliffe College. Her poetry themes include family
relationships, rural life in New England and the inner life of
women. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for "Up Country:
Poems of New England." The mother of three children, she
published 11 books of poetry, taught for several years at
Tufts and served as poet in residence at many colleges and
universities. She and her husband raised horses on their
farm in New Hampshire.
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1982-1984
Anthony Hecht
(1923-2004) Hecht, born in New York City, graduated from
Bard College in 1944. He served in the Army, saw a lot of
combat and witnessed the liberation of the Flossenburg
concentration camp, an event that affected him deeply.
While Hecht wrote formal verse expressing dark observations
of mankind, he also wrote lyrical evocations of love and, in
the 1950s, he invented a humorous poetic form similar to a
limerick called the double dactyl. "The Hard Hours" won the
Pulitzer Prize in 1968. He received the Bollingen Prize in
1983, and taught at the University of Rochester and
Georgetown.
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1984-1985
Robert Fitzgerald
(1910-1985) Fitzgerald served as Consultant in Poetry in a
health-limited capacity. He arranged several programs, but
did not come to the Library. Fitzgerald grew up in Springfield,
Ill., and received a bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1933.
He is best known as a translator of ancient Greek and Latin.
He also worked as a journalist and an educator.
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1984-1985
Reed Whittemore
Whittemore, who previously served as Consultant in Poetry in
1964-65, served an interim appointment to assist the ailing
Fitzgerald.
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1985-1986
Gwendolyn Brooks
(1917-2000) Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas, and raised
in Chicago, where she spent most of her life. She was
interested in poetry from an early age and published her first
poem in American Childhood Magazine at 13. Starting in
1934, she joined the Chicago Defender, an African-American
newspaper, and published nearly 100 poems in a weekly
poetry column. Her second book of poems, "Annie Allen,"
won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize, making Brooks the first African-
American recipient of the Pulitzer. She received many poetry
awards and honors, and actively brought poetry classes and
contests to young people in the inner city.
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1986-1987
Robert Penn Warren
Warren, who served as Consultant in Poetry from 1944-45,
became the first to be designated Poet Laureate Consultant
in Poetry.
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1987-1988
Richard Wilbur
(1921- ) Wilbur, born in New York City in 1921, earned a
bachelor's from Amherst in 1942 and a master's from
Harvard in 1947. He served in the U.S. Army as a
cryptographer in World War II. His book of poetry, "Things of
This World," won the 1957 Pulitzer Prize. He won a second
Pulitzer in 1989 for "New and Collected Poems." Wilbur won
many awards and honors, including the Bollingen Prize, the
Robert Frost Medal and the Shelley Memorial Award. He
taught at Harvard, Wesleyan University and Smith College.
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1988-1990
Howard Nemerov
Nemerov previously served at Consultant in Poetry from
1963-64.
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