- William Wantling
William Wantling (
November 23 ,1933 –May 2 ,1974 ) was an Americanpoet ,novelist , ex-Marine, ex-convict, and collegeprofessor born inEast Peoria ,Illinois . After graduating high school he joined the Marine Corps until 1955. He served in Korea during 1953. After leaving the Marines he moved to California and eventually had a son with his then-wife Luana. Wantling went toSan Quentin State Prison in 1958 convicted of forgery and possession of narcotics. During his imprisonment Luana divorced him and took custody of the child. He was released in 1963, and returned to Peoria. There he married Ruth Ann Burton, a fellow divorcee in 1964. In 1966 he enrolled atIllinois State University where he received both a BA and MA. He taught at the university up until his death onMay 2 ,1974 . Wantling died of heart failure, possibly brought about by his extensive drug use.Wantling's life as a Marine
Wantling alleged that he was the youngest Marine Sergeant (at 18) in combat. He also claimed that he spent ten days in a coma and eight weeks in the hospital recovering from burns after the
jeep he was riding in hit alandmine , causing a 50-gallon barrel of gasoline on the jeep to ignite.Poetry
Much of his poetry deals with his time spent in Korea during the war. "Pusan Liberty" is a first person account of the life of a heroin dealer in
Pusan ,South Korea . And "without laying claim" is a short and shocking poem about the indifference with which the American forces treated killing."Initiation" is about a couple trying to raise money to sustain their drug (presumably heroin) addiction. Unwilling to rob a stranger, the girlfriend offers to sell her body.
"Poetry" is about the failure of classic poetic devices to capture the reality and brutality of prison life.
Biographical inaccuracies
W.D. Ehrhart attempted to reconstruct Wantling's life by looking at military and prison records. He concluded that:...what little we know about his life has already become distorted and mythologized, fiction made fact by constant repetition." [Ehrhart, W.D.: "Setting the Record Straight on William Wantling", http://www.wlajournal.com/12_2/Ehrhart.pdf, p.224-230]
As a consequence it seems that much of Wantling's biography must be taken with a certain amount of scepticism.ee also
*
Penguin Modern Poets anthologies. Wantling appears in collection 12 of the first series along withAlan Jackson andJeff Nuttall .
*Second Aeon - a British literary periodical. Wantling appears in the double issue 8&9.
*Korean War
*Heroin
*Beat generation References
External links
* [http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=5743 Essay by Yann Lovelock on Wantling]
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