W. D. Snodgrass

Roy Scheele

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Ed. by Nick Selby, University of East Anglia
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 5 Jan 1926
Died 13 Jan 2009
Activity 1959-2009

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Essayist
Poet
Scholar
Teacher/ Professor
Translator

Resources

Snodgrass' Works

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W(illiam) D(eWitt) Snodgrass was born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania on January 5, 1926. He attended Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania from 1943 to 1944 and again, after serving in the U.S. Navy, in 1946, then took his B.A. (1949), M.A. (1951), and M.F.A. (1953) from the University of Iowa. His first book of verse,

Heart’s Needle

, grew out of his time at Iowa and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1959, largely on the recommendation of Robert Lowell; it won the Pulitzer Prize the following year. This successful debut volume was followed by

After Experience

(1968),

The Fuehrer Bunker

(1977),

Selected Translations

(1998), and

Not for Specialists: New and Selected Poems

(2006), as well as a number of limited edition/small press collections. In addition to the Pulitzer, Snodgrass…

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2333 words

Citation: Scheele, Roy. "W. D. Snodgrass". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 July 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4137, accessed 01 April 2025.]

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