William Carlos Williams

Virginia Kouidis (Auburn University)

Ed. by Wendy Roy, University of Saskatchewan
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 17 Sep 1883
Died 4 Apr 1963
Activity 1909-1963

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Autobiographer
Essayist
Poet
Story-writer

Other

Letter-writer/ Diarist
Literary Critic/ Historian
Memoirist
Novelist
Physician/ Doctor

Resources

Williams' Works

Save to Bookshelf

William Carlos Williams defined his life and writing against the expatriation of other American modernists. He was especially bitter about the defections of his friends Ezra Pound and H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), as well as T. S. Eliot, whom he singled out as his literary antagonist. Williams admired Eliot’s talent but believed that the pessimism and virtuosity of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1915) and

The Waste Land

(1922) subverted and redirected the revolution in American poetry begun by Walt Whitman. Eliot and Pound individually redefined literary tradition so that their own innovative work became its culminating achievement. Williams wanted a more radical break with the past. In the Preface to

Paterson

he defends his decision to remain in his hometown of Rutherford, New…

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2993 words

Citation: Kouidis, Virginia. "William Carlos Williams". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 July 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4739, accessed 21 November 2024.]