CIARDI, JOHN

born June 24, 1916, Boston, Mass., U.S. died March 30, 1986, Edison, N.J. in full John Anthony Ciardi American poet, critic, and translator who contributed to making poetry accessible to both adults and children. Educated at Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, Tufts University (A.B., 1938), and the University of Michigan (M.A., 1939), Ciardi served in the U.S. Army Air Corps (194245) and then taught at universities until 1961. Thereafter he devoted himself full-time to literary pursuits. He served as poetry editor of the Saturday Review from 1956 to 1972. He felt that interaction between audience and author was crucial, and he generated continuous controversy with his critical reviews. Ciardi's first volume of poetry, Homeward to America, appeared in 1940. His How Does a Poem Mean? (1960; rev. ed., with Miller Williams, 1975) found wide use as a poetry textbook in high schools and colleges. His other books of poetry include Person to Person (1964), The Little That Is All (1974), and For Instance (1979). He also wrote many books of prose and verse for children. His translation of Dante's Divine Comedy (The Inferno, 1954; The Purgatorio, 1961; The Paradiso, 1970) was highly acclaimed. Rather than following Dante's rhyme scheme, Ciardi attempted to capture the feeling of the original in a tense and economical modern verse idiom. Ciardi's writings were characterized by clarity, immediacy, and an effort to make poetry more accessible to the public. His later works included two books written with Isaac Asimov: Limericks, Too Gross (1978) and A Grossery of Limericks (1981). Ciardi also wrote A Browser's Dictionary and Native's Guide to the Unknown American Language (1980) and A Second Browser's Dictionary and Native's Guide to the Unknown American Language (1983).