Richard Purdy Wilbur

Richard Wilbur is the only living American poet to have won the Pulitzer Prize twice. The second Poet Laureate of the United States and recipient of countless honors and awards, including the Bollingen Prize, two PEN translation awards, and two Guggenheim Fellowships, he has displayed consistent eloquence and artistry over a career that spans more than half a century.Wilbur’s first book, The Beautiful Changes, was published in 1947 to much critical acclaim; the publication of the second, Ceremony and Other Poems, cemented his reputation as America’s finest poet writing in traditional meters and forms. Wilbur’s varied literary output of over thirty-five books has included poetry, prose, children’s books, a collection of essays, plays, translations, and editorial work on the collected poems of Shakespeare and Poe. The most prolific and gifted translator of Molière world-wide, Wilbur is credited with the explosive revival of his plays in North America, beginning in 1955 with The Misanthrope. Wilbur’s translations of Molière, Racine, Apollinaire, and others, are widely praised for incorporating the spirit of both language and author, while maintaining the original form and rhyme scheme. Having served on the faculties of Harvard, Wellesley, Wesleyan, and Smith (where he is Poet Emeritis), Wilbur is now retired from teaching, and lives in Cummington, Massachusetts and in Key West, Florida. His new book of poems is Mayflies.