William Stafford (poet)

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William Edgar Stafford , (born January 17, 1914 in Hutchinson , Kansas , † August 28, 1993 in Lake Oswego , Oregon ), was an American poet and pacifist , and the father of the poet and essayist Kim Stafford. He was named 20th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1970.

biography

Stafford was born in Hutchinson, Kansas, the oldest child in an educated family of four children. During the Great Depression, his family moved from town to town so his father could find work. Stafford contributed to the family's livelihood with numerous activities, such as a newspaper boy, field worker or apprentice electrician.

In 1933 he graduated from high school in Liberal, Kansas. After attending junior college in 1937, he received a BA from the University of Kansas. In 1941 he was drafted into the US Army, but because of his master's degree from the University of Kansas, he did community service instead of military service.

Career

One of the most striking features of his career was that it started relatively late. The first large collection of poems Traveling Through the Dark was published when Stafford was 48 years old. The poem of the same name became one of Stafford's most famous. It describes the encounter with a freshly killed deer on a mountain road. Before removing the alleged carcass, he notices that the doe was pregnant and the fawn is still alive ... The following year, 1963, Stafford won the National Book Award .

He received his own journal in which he presented his works to the public for 50 years. He wrote around 22,000 poems, of which around 3,000 were published. In 1992 he won the Western States Book Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry.

On August 28, 1993, Stafford died of a heart attack in Lake Oswego .

bibliography

poetry
  • West of Your City, Talisman Press, 1960.
  • Traveling through the Dark, Harper, 1962.
  • The Rescued Year, Harper, 1965.
  • Eleven Untitled Poems, Perishable Press, 1968.
  • Weather: Poems, Perishable Press, 1969.
  • Allegiances, Harper, 1970.
  • Temporary Facts, Duane Schneider Press, 1970.
  • Poems for Tennessee, (With Robert Bly and William Matthews) Tennessee Poetry Press, 1971.
  • In the Clock of Reason, Soft Press, 1973.
  • Someday, Maybe, Harper, 1973.
  • That Other Alone, Perishable Press, 1973.
  • Going Places: Poems, West Coast Poetry Review, 1974.
  • The Earth, Graywolf Press, 1974.
  • North by West, (With John Meade Haines) edited by Karen Sollid and John Sollid, Spring Rain Press, 1975.
  • Braided Apart (With son, Kim Robert Stafford), Confluence, 1976.
  • I Would Also Like to Mention Aluminum: Poems and a Conversation, Slow Loris Press, 1976.
  • Late, Passing Prairie Farm: A Poem, Main Street Inc., 1976.
  • The Design on the Oriole, Night Heron Press, 1977.
  • Stories That Could Be True: New and Collected Poems, Harper, 1977.
  • The Design on the Oriole, Night Heron Press, 1977.
  • Smoke's Way (chapbook), Graywolf Press, 1978.
  • All about Light, Croissant, 1978.
  • A Meeting with Disma Tumminello and William Stafford, edited by Nat Scammacca, Cross-Cultural Communications, 1978.
  • Passing a Creche, Sea Pen Press, 1978.
  • Tuft by Puff, Perishable Press, 1978.
  • Two about Music, Scepter Press, 1978.
  • Tuned in Late One Night, The Deerfield Press, 1978, The Gallery Press, 1978.
  • The Quiet of the Land, Nadja Press, 1979.
  • Around You, Your Horse & A Catechism, Scepter Press, 1979.
  • Absolution, Martin Booth, 1980.
  • Things That Happen When There Aren't Any People, BOA Editions, 1980.
  • Passwords, Sea Pen Press, 1980.
  • Wyoming Circuit, Tideline Press, 1980.
  • Sometimes Like a Legend: Puget Sound Country, Copper Canyon Press, 1981.
  • A Glass Face in the Rain: New Poems, Harper, 1982.
  • Roving across Fields: A Conversation and Uncollected Poems 1942-1982, edited by Thom Tammaro, Barnwood, 1983.
  • Smoke's Way: Poems, Graywolf, 1983.
  • Segues: A Correspondence in Poetry, (With Marvin Bell) David Godine, 1983.
  • Listening Deep: Poems (chapbook), Penmaen Press, 1984.
  • Stories and Storms and Strangers, Honeybrook Press, 1984.
  • Wyoming, Ampersand Press, Roger Williams College, 1985.
  • Brother Wind, Honeybrook Press, 1986.
  • To Oregon Message, Harper 1987.
  • You and Some Other Characters, Honeybrook Press, 1987.
  • Annie-Over (With Marvin Bell), Honeybrook Press, 1988.
  • Writing the World, Alembic Press, 1988.
  • A Scripture of Leaves, Brethren Press, 1989.
  • Fin, Feather, Fur, Honeybrook Press, 1989.
  • Kansas Poems of William Stafford, edited by Denise Low, Woodley Press, 1990.
  • How to Hold Your Arms When It Rains, Confluence Press, 1991.
  • Passwords, HarperPerennial, 1991.
  • The Long Sigh the Wind Makes, Adrienne Lee Press, 1991.
  • History is Loose Again, Honeybrook Press, 1991.
  • The Animal That Drank Up Sound (a children's book, illustrated by Debra Frasier), Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1992.
  • Seeking the Way (with illuminations by Robert Johnson), Melia Press, 1992.
  • My Name is William Tell, Confluence Press, 1992.
  • Holding Onto the Grass, Honeybrook Press, 1992, reprinted, Weatherlight Press, 1994.
  • Who Are You Really Wanderer ?, Honeybrook Press, 1993.
  • The Darkness Around Us Is Deep: Selected Poems of William Stafford, edited and with an introduction by Robert Bly, HarperPerennial, 1993.
  • Learning to Live in the World: Earth Poems by William Stafford, Harcourt, Brace, & Company, 1994.
  • The Methow River Poems, Confluence Press, 1995.
  • Even In Quiet Places, Confluence Press, 1996.
  • The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems, introduction by Naomi Shihab Nye, Graywolf Press, 1998.

At the Un-National Monument Along The Canadian Border

prose
  • Down in My Heart (memoir). 1947. Reprint. Elgin, Ill .: Brethren Publishing House; Columbia, SC: Bench Press, 1985.
  • Winterward. Ph.D., diss. University of Iowa, 1954.
  • Writing the Australian Crawl. Views on the Writer's Vocation (essays and reviews). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1978.
  • You Must Revise Your Life (essays and interviews). Ann Arbor. University of Michigan Press, 1986.
  • The Animal That Drank Up Sound (children's book, with illustrations by Debra Frasier). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992.
Translations
  • Poems by Ghalib . New York: Hudson Review, 1969. First Edition in wrappers. Translated by Stafford, Adrienne Rich and Ajiz Ahmad.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Stafford, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stafford, William Edgar (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American poet and pacifist
DATE OF BIRTH January 17, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Hutchinson , Kansas
DATE OF DEATH August 28, 1993
Place of death Lake Oswego , Oregon