Poet, Author. After serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War, he graduated from Vanderbilt University, with degrees in English and philosophy. He was a teacher of composition at the University of Florida and Rice University in the early 1950s. He then worked for several years in advertising, writing creative work for the Coca-Cola and Lay's Potato Chips campaign. Turning to poetry, his first book, "Into the Stone and Other Poems", was published in 1960, followed by "Drowning with Others", published in 1962. Among his known poems are "The Performance", "Cherrylog Road", "The Firebombing", "May Day Sermon", "Falling" and "For the Last Wolverine". His novels included "Helmets", "The Firebombing", "The Eagle's Mile", "The Early Motion" and "Deliverance", which was made into the feature film with the same name in 1972. In 1965, he was awarded the National Book Award, appointed the 18th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the U.S. Library of Congress 1966 and also is a recipient of the Order of the South Award. He spent his last years in and out of hospitals due to ill health until his death at age 73.
Poet, Author. After serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War, he graduated from Vanderbilt University, with degrees in English and philosophy. He was a teacher of composition at the University of Florida and Rice University in the early 1950s. He then worked for several years in advertising, writing creative work for the Coca-Cola and Lay's Potato Chips campaign. Turning to poetry, his first book, "Into the Stone and Other Poems", was published in 1960, followed by "Drowning with Others", published in 1962. Among his known poems are "The Performance", "Cherrylog Road", "The Firebombing", "May Day Sermon", "Falling" and "For the Last Wolverine". His novels included "Helmets", "The Firebombing", "The Eagle's Mile", "The Early Motion" and "Deliverance", which was made into the feature film with the same name in 1972. In 1965, he was awarded the National Book Award, appointed the 18th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the U.S. Library of Congress 1966 and also is a recipient of the Order of the South Award. He spent his last years in and out of hospitals due to ill health until his death at age 73.
Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith
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