Richard Wilbur

Richard Wilbur
Pekka Tarkka · Public domain · source
Name	Richard Wilbur
Birth date	March 1, 1921
Birth place	New York City, New York, United States
Death date	October 14, 2017
Occupation	Poet, translator, playwright, critic
Nationality	American
Notable works	"Things of This World", "New and Collected Poems", translations of Molière
Awards	Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress

Richard Wilbur was an American poet, translator, and educator whose work epitomized formal skill, elegant diction, and moral seriousness. He became one of the leading figures in 20th-century American letters, known for balancing classical meter and rhyme with contemporary sensibility, and for translations that brought French drama into English-speaking repertoires.

Early life and education

Born in New York City in 1921, he grew up amid the cultural milieu of Manhattan and the intellectual circles of Harvard University and Barnard College that would later shape his literary formation. He attended Amherst College before military service during World War II, where he served in the United States Army and experienced events that influenced later poems about mortality and duty. After the war he completed studies at Williams College and undertook postgraduate work connected to libraries and literary societies including associations with the Library of Congress and academic appointments tied to institutions such as Wellesley College and Smith College.

Career and major works

Wilbur's career spanned poetry collections, translations, stage adaptations, and public service in cultural institutions. His early volumes include collections that drew attention from editors at journals like The New Yorker and Poetry (magazine). The 1956 collection "Things of This World" won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and established his reputation alongside contemporaries such as Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, John Berryman, and W. H. Auden. Later books such as "New and Collected Poems" appeared with publishers connected to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and academic presses that cultivated poetic modernism and postwar poetics. He served as Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress (a post later known as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry), participating in national programs alongside successors and predecessors like Ted Kooser, Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Louise Glück.

Poetry and literary style

Wilbur's verse is noted for formal control, clear diction, and an often conversational yet metaphysical tone that dialogues with traditions represented by figures such as John Donne, Alexander Pope, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Wordsworth. Critics compared his attention to craft with that of T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden, while poets including Richard Wilbur's contemporaries Robert Frost and R. S. Thomas served as points of contrast in Anglo-American verse. His work engages themes resonant with events such as World War II and cultural currents linked to organizations like the Academy of American Poets and debates in periodicals such as The Paris Review and Harper's Magazine. He frequently employed meter and rhyme forms rooted in sonnet traditions and stanzaic patterns associated with Alexander Pope and John Milton, while maintaining modern imagery akin to Wallace Stevens and Elizabeth Bishop.

Translations and theatrical work

Wilbur achieved wide recognition for English translations of French playwrights and poets, notably rendering works by Molière and Jean Racine into verse suited for Anglo-American stages. His adaptations were produced in theaters tied to institutions like The Public Theater, Guthrie Theater, and university drama departments at Yale University and Harvard University. These translations allowed collaborations with directors and actors associated with Joseph Papp, Peter Brook, Sir Peter Hall, and repertory companies that staged classical repertoire alongside contemporary drama. He also contributed to libretti and dialogue used in productions connected with festivals such as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Stratford Festival.

Awards and honors

Over his lifetime he received honors from major cultural organizations including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1957), fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, awards from the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and distinctions from the National Endowment for the Arts. He was elected to bodies such as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and served on panels for prizes administered by institutions like The Wallace Stevens Award committees, the MacArthur Foundation jury panels, and foundations that fund literary translation including the American Translators Association affiliates. Academic institutions conferred honorary degrees from universities such as Columbia University, Brown University, Dartmouth College, and Princeton University.

Personal life and legacy

Wilbur married and maintained residences in cultural centers tied to American letters, participating in lecture circuits that brought him to venues such as Brandeis University, Colgate University, Oxford University, and Cambridge University. His influence is noted in anthologies edited by figures like Donald Hall, Helen Vendler, Harold Bloom, and in curricula at creative writing programs including those at Iowa Writers' Workshop and Stanford University. Collections of his papers are held in archival repositories such as the Library of Congress and university special collections at institutions like Yale University. His legacy persists through translations, recorded readings archived by The Poetry Foundation and broadcast appearances on networks like NPR and programs produced by BBC Radio 4. He is remembered alongside twentieth-century poets such as Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, Howard Nemerov, and James Merrill for sustaining formal poetry in American letters.

Category:American poets Category:1921 births Category:2017 deaths