Robert Frost

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Lore & Background

Wilbur was born in New York City on March 1, 1921, and grew up in North Caldwell, New Jersey. In 1938 he graduated from Montclair High School, where he worked on the school newspaper. At Amherst College, he also displayed his 'ample literary gifts' as one of the 'sharpest' reporters for the college newspaper, edited by upperclassman Robert Morgenthau. After graduation in 1942, he served in the United States Army from 1943 to 1945 during World War II. He attended graduate school at Harvard University. Wilbur taught at Wellesley College, then Wesleyan University for two decades and at Smith College for another decade. At Wesleyan he was instrumental in founding the award-winning poetry series of the Wesleyan University Press. He received two Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry and taught at Amherst College as late as 2009, where he also served on the editorial board of the literary magazine The Common. When only eight years old, Wilbur published his first poem in John Martin's Magazine. His first book, The Beautiful Changes and Other Poems, appeared in 1947. Thereafter he published several volumes of poetry, including New and Collected Poems (Faber, 1989). Wilbur was also a translator, specializing in the 17th century French comedies of Molière and dramas of Jean Racine. His translation of Tartuffe has become the play's standard English version and has been presented on television twice (a 1978 production is available on DVD). Wilbur also published several children's books, including Opposites, More Opposites, and The Disappearing Alphabet. In 1959 he became the general editor of The Laurel Poetry Series (Dell Publishing). He provided lyrics to several songs in Leonard Bernstein's 1956 musical Candide, including the famous 'Glitter and Be Gay' and 'Make Our Garden Grow'. He also produced several unpublished works, including 'The Wing' and 'To Beatrice'. Wilbur died on October 14, 2017, at a nursing home in Belmont, Massachusetts, from natural causes aged 96.

Reader's Guide

Wilbur's honors included the 1983 Drama Desk Special Award and the PEN Translation Prize for his translation of The Misanthrope, the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the National Book Award for Things of This World (1956), the Edna St Vincent Millay award, the Bollingen Prize, and the Chevalier, Ordre des Palmes Académiques. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1959. In 1987 Wilbur became the second poet, after Robert Penn Warren, to be named U.S. Poet Laureate after the position's title was changed from Poetry Consultant. In 1988 he won the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry and in 1989 he won a second Pulitzer, for his New and Collected Poems. On October 14, 1994, he received the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton. He also received the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation in 1994. In 2003 Wilbur was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. In 2006 he won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. In 2010 he won the National Translation Award for the translation of The Theatre of Illusion by Pierre Corneille. In 2012 Yale University conferred an honorary Doctor of Letters on Wilbur. He had a literary correspondence with Catholic nun, literary critic and poet M. Bernetta Quinn. Continuing the tradition of Robert Frost and W. H. Auden, Wilbur's poetry finds illumination in everyday experiences.

Did You Know?

• Wilbur published his first poem at age eight in John Martin's Magazine.
• He collaborated with Leonard Bernstein as lyricist for the 1956 musical Candide, writing 'Glitter and Be Gay' and 'Make Our Garden Grow'.
• His translation of Molière's Tartuffe has become the play's standard English version and was televised twice.
• Wilbur was appointed the second U.S. Poet Laureate in 1987 after the title was changed from Poetry Consultant.
• He received the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton on October 14, 1994.