born Oct. 2, 1879, Reading, Pa., U.S.
died Aug. 2, 1955, Hartford, Conn.
U.S. poet.
Stevens practiced law in New York City before joining an insurance firm in Hartford in 1916; he rose to vice president, a position he held until his death. His poems began appearing in literary magazines in 1914. In Harmonium (1923), his first and most verbally brilliant book, he introduced the theme that occupied his creative lifetime and unified his thought: the relationship between imagination and reality. His later poetry, in collections such as Ideas of Order (1936), The Man with the Blue Guitar (1937), and The Auroras of Autumn (1950), continued to explore this theme with greater depth and rigour. Not until his late years was he widely read or recognized as a major poet by more than a few; he received a Pulitzer Prize only with his Collected Poems in 1955. He is now often considered one of America's greatest 20th-century poets.
Wallace Stevens, 1952.
© Rollie McKenna