With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
William Meredith
Education/Curation, Poetry
1919 – 2007
Influenced by the work of Robert Frost, William Meredith’s poetry offers observations of the human condition and is imbued with concepts of fairness and morality. His academic career in Connecticut was from 1955 to his retirement in 1983. From the 1960s, when he bought ‘Riverrun,’ he found inspiration in the landscape around him.
- Biography/Description of Work
A graduate of Princeton University, Meredith’s poetry was first noticed when his work was published in the Yale Series of Younger Poets in 1944. He began teaching English and poetry at Connecticut College in 1955. In the mid 1960s, he founded and taught in the college’s first enrichment program for low-income inner city high school students, and encouraged emerging local artists through art exhibitions from Norwich, to Westerly to New Haven. Meredith authored nine books of poetry. Later in life, he received both a National Book Award (1987) and a Pulitzer Prize (1988).
- Sources view
- [ http://www.loc.gov/poetry/laureate-1971-1980.html ]
[ http://www.williammeredithfoundation.org/ ]
[ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/books/01meredith.html ]
[ http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/william-meredith ]
[ http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/william-meredith ]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morris_Meredith_Jr. - Associated Resource(s)