William Stafford (poet) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
William Stafford
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William Stafford
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| Born | William Edgar Stafford January 17, 1914 Hutchinson, Kansas, USA |
| Died | August 28, 1993 (aged 79) Lake Oswego, Oregon, USA |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1962–1993 |
| Notable awards | National Book Award for Poetry (1963), Guggenheim Fellowship (1966), Western States Book Award (1992), Robert Frost Medal (1993) |
| Spouse | Dorothy Hope Frantz |
| Children | Kim Stafford, Kit Stafford, Barbara Stafford |
William Edgar Stafford (born January 17, 1914 – died August 28, 1993) was an American poet. He was also a pacifist, meaning he believed that all wars and violence are wrong. William Stafford was the father of another poet and writer, Kim Stafford. In 1970, he became the twentieth Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a special role now known as the Poet Laureate.
Contents
Early Life and Education
William Stafford was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. He was the oldest of three children in a family that loved reading and writing. During the Great Depression, a time when many people lost their jobs, his family moved often to find work for his father. Young William helped his family earn money by delivering newspapers, working in sugar beet fields, growing vegetables, and helping an electrician.
He finished high school in Liberal, Kansas in 1933. He later earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas in 1937.
Serving His Country Differently
When he was studying for his master's degree, William Stafford was called to join the United States military in 1941. However, he declared himself a pacifist. This meant he believed he could not fight in a war.
Because of his beliefs, he became a conscientious objector. This is someone who, for moral or religious reasons, refuses to serve in the armed forces. Instead of fighting, he worked in Civilian Public Service camps from 1942 to 1946. In these camps, he did important work like forestry and helping to protect soil in places like Arkansas, California, and Illinois. For this work, he earned a small amount of money each month.
While working in California in 1944, he met Dorothy Hope Frantz. They got married and later had four children: Bret, Kim, Kit, and Barbara.
William Stafford earned his master's degree from the University of Kansas in 1947. His master's paper was a book called Down In My Heart. It shared his experiences from his time in the forest service camps. After teaching for a short time in California, he moved to Oregon to teach at Lewis & Clark College. He later earned his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1954.
A Poet's Journey
William Stafford's career as a famous poet started a bit later in his life. He was 48 years old when his first major book of poems, Traveling Through the Dark, was published. This book won the 1963 National Book Award for Poetry, which is a very important award.
The poem "Traveling Through the Dark" is one of his most famous. It tells the story of finding a deer that had been hit by a car on a mountain road. Before pushing the deer into a canyon, the person in the poem discovers the deer was pregnant, and the baby deer inside was still alive.
His Writing Style
William Stafford had a quiet daily habit of writing. His poems often focused on everyday things and simple moments. Many people describe his writing as gentle and easy to understand, much like talking to a friend. He admired poets like William Wordsworth and Emily Dickinson.
His poems are usually short and focus on details from nature and the places he lived. In an interview in 1971, he said:
I keep following this sort of hidden river of my life, you know, whatever the topic or impulse which comes, I follow it along trustingly. And I don't have any sense of its coming to a kind of crescendo, or of its petering out either. It is just going steadily along.
Stafford was good friends with another poet, Robert Bly. Even though he started publishing later, he wrote a lot! He contributed poems to many magazines and books and eventually published fifty-seven books of poetry. He kept a daily journal for 50 years and wrote nearly 22,000 poems. About 3,000 of these poems were published.
Achievements and Recognition
In 1970, William Stafford was named the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. This important role is now called the Poet Laureate, which means he was recognized as a leading poet in the country.
Later, in 1975, he became the Poet Laureate of Oregon, serving in that role until 1990. He retired from teaching at Lewis & Clark College in 1980 but continued to travel and share his poetry by giving readings to audiences. In 1992, he won the Western States Book Award for his lifetime of amazing poetry.
Later Life
William Stafford passed away at his home in Lake Oswego, Oregon, on August 28, 1993. On the very morning he died, he had written a poem that included these lines: "'You don't have to / prove anything,' my mother said. 'Just be ready / for what God sends.'"
In 2008, William Stafford's family gave all his papers, including the 20,000 pages of his daily writings, to Lewis & Clark College. His son, Kim Stafford, who is also a writer, wrote a book about his father called Early Morning: Remembering My Father, William Stafford.
See also
- Lawson Fusao Inada, named state Poet Laureate in 2006
