William Morris Meredith, Jr.

Infobox Writer
name = William Morris Meredith, Jr.


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birthdate = January 9, 1919
birthplace = New York City,
deathdate = May 30, 2007 (age 88)
deathplace = New London, Connecticut
occupation = Author, poet, professor
nationality = United States
spouse = Richard Harteis
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William Morris Meredith, Jr. (January 9, 1919 - May 30, 2007) was an American poet and educator. He graduated from with Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University in 1940 . He was Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1978 to 1980.

Biography

Meredith was born in New York City in 1919. He graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1940 , writing a senior thesis on Robert Frost.

He worked briefly for the "New York Times" before joining the United States Navy as a flier. Meredith re-enlisted in the Korean War receiving two Air Medals.

Meredith started writing while still a college student. His first volume of poetry "Love Letter from an Impossible Land" was selected by Archibald MacLeish for publication as part of Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition.

In 1988 Meredith was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and a Los Angeles Times Book Award for "Partial Accounts: New and Selected Poems" and in 1997 he was awarded the National Book Award for "Effort at Speech". [cite news | url=http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct--obit-meredith0531may31,0,4507163.story?coll=ny-region-apconnecticut | title=Pulitzer Prize-winning Connecticut poet dies | publisher=Newsday | author= | date=May 31 2007 | accessdate=2007-06-03] Meredith was also awarded a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, the Harriet Monroe Memorial Prize, the Carl Sandburg Award, and the International Vaptsarov Prize in Poetry.

From 1964 to 1987 Meredith served as Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

From 1978 to 1980, Meredith was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, the position which in 1985 became the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. He has the distinction of being the first gay poet to receive this honor.

Meredith taught at Princeton University, the University of Hawaii and from 1955 to 1983 at Connecticut College. In 1983, he suffered a stroke and was immobilized for two years. As a result of the stroke he suffered with expressive aphasia, which effected his ability to produce language. Meredith ended his teaching career and could not write poetry during this period. He regained many of his language skills after intensive therapy and traveling to Britain for treatment.

A long time admirer of the Irish poet W. B. Yeats, in the summer of 2006 Meredith fulfilled a long-time ambition of visiting Yeats's spiritual homeplace of Sligo, Ireland. While there he also attended the renowned Yeats International Summer School, which attracts many renowned academics and admirers of Yeats to Sligo every summer.

Meredith died on 31 May 2007 in New London, Connecticut, near his home in Montville, where he lived with his partner of 36 years, the poet Richard Harteis. [cite news | url=http://archive.theday.com/re.aspx?re=a68c25df-e837-45f0-9593-db39b0db5d66#a68c25df-e837-45f0-9593-db39b0db5d66 | title=William M. Meredith, Noted Poet, Dies At 88 | publisher=TheDay | author=Elaine Stoll | date=31 May 2007 | accessdate=2007-06-03] cite web |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/books/01meredith.html |title= William Meredith, 88, Poet Who Wed Depth to Form, Dies |first=Margalit |last=Fox |date=2007-06-01 |accessdate=2008-03-29 |work=New York Times]

Bibliography

Poetry

* "Love Letter from an Impossible Land" (1944)
* "Ships and Other Figures" (1948)
* "The Open Sea and Other Poems" (1957)
* "The Wreck of the Thresher and Other Poems" (1964)
* "Partial Accounts: New and Selected Poems" (1987)
* "Effort at Speech: New and Selected Poems" (1997)

Essays

* "Reasons for Poetry, and The Reason for Criticism" (1982) [cite web | url=http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/print.asp?page=2006%5C06%5C07%5Cstory_7-6-2006_pg3_6 | title=Reasons for poetry | publisher= | author=William Meredith | date= | accessdate=2007-06-03]
* "Poems Are Hard to Read" (1991)

Awards

* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry 1988 for "Partial Accounts"
* National Book Award for Poetry 1997 for "Effort at Speech"
* Guggenheim Fellowship 1975

References

External links

* [http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/121 William Meredith biography] at the Academy of American Poets

* [http://www.conncoll.edu/meredith/ William Meredith page] , Connecticut College Library, Department of Special Collections

*William Meredith movie [http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=6e30df71-e775-4f6e-9053-612dac466387] __NOTOC__