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William Stafford was born in
U.S.A in 1914. The eldest of
three children, Stafford grew
up with an appreciation for
nature and books. During the
Depression the family moved
from town to town as Earl Stafford
searched for jobs. William helped
to support the family also,
by delivering papers, working
in the sugar beet fields, raising
vegetables, and as an electrician's
mate. In 1933 Stafford graduated
from high school in Liberal,
Kansas, and attended Garden
City and El Dorado junior colleges,
graduating from the University
of Kansas in 1937.
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In 1939 Stafford enrolled
at the University of
Wisconsin to begin graduate
studies in Economics,
but by the next year
he had returned to Kansas
to earn his master's
degree in English. Following
the war Stafford taught
one year at a high school,
spent a year working
for relief organization
Church World Service,
and finished his master's
degree at the University
of Kansas in 1947. His
master's thesis, memoirs
of his time spent as
a conscientious objector,
was published as a book
of prose, Down in
My Heart (Brethren
Publishing House, 1947). |
In 1944 while in California
Stafford met and married Dorothy
Frantz, the daughter of a minister
of the Church of the Brethren.
He took a doctorate at the University
of Iowa. His first book was
not published until 1959 (The
Poems), when he was forty-five,
but he has published a great
deal during the ensuing years
(Traveling Though the Dark
1962, The Rescued Year
1966, Temporary Facts
1970, In the Clock of Reason,
1973, Things That Happen
When There Aren’t Any
People 1980, Listening
Deep 1984, Stones,
Storms, and Strangers
1984 Wyoming 1985).
His poems mostly have a non-urban
locale. His other works include
Down in My Heart (1947,
rev.1985), You Must Revise
Your Life (1986).
Stafford's poems are often deceptively
simple. Like Robert Frost's,
however, they reveal a distinctive
and complex vision upon closer
examination. Among his best-known
books are The Rescued Year
(1966), Stories That Could
Be True: New and Collected Poems
(1977), Writing the Australian
Crawl: Views on the Writer's
Vocation (1978), and An
Oregon Message (1987). |
