National Book Award

Poet

b. February 21, 1907
d. September 29, 1973

“If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.”

Wystan Hugh (W.H.) Auden was a Pulitzer Prize-winning British-born poet who became an American citizen at age 39. Inspired by Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost and T. S. Eliot, he is considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th century.

Auden spent his childhood in Birmingham, England. His mother was a devout Anglican. His father was a renowned physician and academic. Auden’s poetry reflects both his mother’s Christian ideals and his father’s interest in folklore and mythology.

After receiving a scholarship to Oxford University, Auden studied science and engineering before switching to English. He developed a close friendship with Christopher Isherwood, a childhood acquaintance and fellow Oxford student. Auden later moved to Berlin with Isherwood, where they frequented a local gay bar and experienced the city’s “decadent homosexual subculture.”

In 1930 Faber & Faber published “Poems,” Auden’s first collection. He spent the next five years teaching English in private schools.

In 1935 Auden married Erika Mann, a lesbian writer and actress and the daughter of the novelist Thomas Mann. A marriage of convenience, the union helped Mann, who was a German Jew, obtain a British passport to escape the Nazis. The couple fled to Britain, where Auden worked as a freelance writer. He began traveling the world and writing about his experiences in Germany, Iceland and China.

Auden quickly earned recognition for his exceptional wit, fluency in virtually all forms of verse, and unique commentary on morals, love and politics. In 1937, motivated by leftist ideology, he traveled to Spain and participated the Spanish Civil War. He published his activist poem, “Spain 1937,” to raise money for Spanish medical aid.

In 1939 Auden and Isherwood moved to New York, where Auden met his lifelong love, Chester Kallman, and they began a relationship. Auden wanted monogamy with the aspiring young poet, but Kallman would not commit. Heartbroken, Auden eventually accepted it, telling Kallman, “We’re a funny pair, you and I.”

From 1942 to 1945, Auden taught at Swarthmore College. In 1946 he acquired U.S. citizenship. He and Kallman spent their summers together in Europe. Auden won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for “The Age of Anxiety” in 1948. He received the National Book Award for Poetry for “The Shield of Achilles” in 1956 and began lecturing at Oxford University as a professor of poetry.

Auden died unexpectedly in Vienna, Austria, in 1973. The attacks of 9/11 revived his poem, “September 1, 1939,” about the outbreak of World War II. It became one of Auden’s best-known works, even though he had grown to despise it during his lifetime.

Pulitzer-Winning Poet

b. September 10, 1935
d. January 17, 2019

"I want to say: all my life / I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms."

Mary Oliver was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet who wrote with reverence and poignancy about the natural world. She published 15 collections of poetry during her more than 50-year career.

Oliver was born and raised in Maple Heights, Ohio, outside of Cleveland. She was sexually abused as a small child. In her early teens, she wrote her first poems in the neighboring woods, where she sought refuge from a difficult homelife.

Oliver attended Ohio State University and Vassar College, but never completed her degree. Profoundly inspired by the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay, she lived for a time during the 1950s in Millay’s home, helping the poet’s sister organize papers after Millay’s death. There, Oliver met her life partner, Molly Malone Cook, a photographer.

In the 1960s Oliver moved to Provincetown, Massachusetts, to be with Cook, where the couple remained for more than 40 years. Though Oliver was open about her sexuality, she fiercely protected her privacy.

In 1963 Oliver published her first collection, “No Voyage and Other Poems.” Known for the accessibility of her writing, she intentionally avoided “fancy” words. Her blank verse is rich with earthy themes stemming from her observations of nature and the excesses of modern civilization. Many of her poems are based on memories of Ohio and Provincetown.

Oliver earned prestigious fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her list of honors includes an American Academy of Arts & Letters Award and the Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Memorial Prize. In 1984 Oliver won a Pulitzer Prize for “American Primitive,” her fifth collection of poetry. In 1990 her collection “House of Light” won the Christopher Award and the L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award. In 1992 her “New and Selected Poems” won the National Book Award.

Oliver held the Catharine Osgood Foster Chair for Distinguished Teaching at Bennington College in Vermont. She was a Poet in Residence at Bucknell University and the Margaret Banister Writer in Residence at Sweet Briar College. In 2003 Harvard University made her an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa. Dartmouth conferred her with an honorary doctorate in 2007.

Oliver died in Florida of lymphoma. She was 83. The New York Times published her obituary.

Author

b. October 3, 1925
d. July 31, 2012

"We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys, artists and clerks. Let them see that the important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself." 
    
Eugene Luther Gore Vidal's career as a novelist, essayist, screenwriter, critic and political activist spans six decades. Boldly challenging the status quo, Vidal has weathered censorship and criticism for his progressive writing and politics.

Vidal's childhood was marked by access and privilege. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy, one of the country's most prestigious preparatory high schools.

His family's political connections played a major role in shaping Vidal's life work. Vidal's maternal grandfather served as a Democratic senator from Oklahoma, while his father worked in the FDR administration as the Director of the Bureau of Air Commerce. Vidal has familial ties to the Kennedy family and is a distant cousin of Jimmy Carter and Al Gore.

After graduating from Exeter, Vidal joined the U.S. Army Reserve. He served in the Army Transportation Corps in Alaska, where he wrote much of his first novel, "Williwaw" (1946).

The release of Vidal's third novel, "The City and the Pillar," met scathing criticism for the book's homosexual themes. Major media publications, including The New York Times, refused to review his subsequent books. Vidal's sales declined.

Financially strained, Vidal explored alternate writing pursuits, leading to his success as a distinguished playwright and screenwriter. In 1957, Vidal's first political play, "Visit to a Small Planet," premiered in New York. A satire on post-World War II fear of communism, the play received critical acclaim and was adapted to film in 1960.

Vidal also excelled as an essayist and historian who often stirred controversy with his progressive political views.  In 1993, Vidal received the National Book Award for his collection of essays entitled "United States: Essays 1952-1992."His social and political commentary spans four decades and includes over 20 pieces. 

Vidal has published over 30 novels of various genres. His successful series of historical novels includes "Washington D.C." (1967), "Lincoln" (1984) and "The Golden Age" (2000). Vidal explores feminism and transsexuality in his satirical novel "Myra Breckinridge" (1968).

Historian

b. August 6, 1930

“I’m overwhelmed at the great distance that we have all traveled.”

Martin Duberman is a historian, a playwright, an LGBT activist and the founder of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School. He is an acclaimed author of more than 20 books. 

Duberman was born in New York City. He graduated with honors from Yale and received his Ph.D. in American history from Harvard. In 1961, Duberman won the prestigious Bancroft Prize in American history, and was subsequently named a full professor at Princeton. In 1971, he left Princeton and joined the faculty at CUNY as a Distinguished Professor of History. 

Duberman recounts questioning his sexuality in his 30s. He sought therapy to be “cured.” When he accepted his sexual orientation, Duberman began exploring gay activism. He challenged homophobia in academia and society. When he came out in the early ’70s, he was one of the few openly gay academics. 

A renowned essayist and playwright, Duberman is known for literature on African-American history and abolitionism, and for his biography of Paul Robeson. Critics have described his work as “refreshing and inspiring” (The New York Times) and “magnificent” (USA Today). He co-edited and contributed to the anthology “Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past,” a standard reference in the field of LGBT studies. Duberman’s biography “James Russell Lowell” was a finalist for the 1966 National Book Award.

Duberman wrote plays that deal with gender issues and the construction of male identity. In 1963, his play “In White America” won the Vernon Rice/Drama Desk Award for Best Off-Broadway Production.

In 1991, Duberman founded CUNY’s Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) to further LGBT scholarship and curriculum. CLAGS, one of the first organizations of its kind, hosts conferences and awards research grants.

His most recent publication, “The Martin Duberman Reader,” was published in May 2013. 

Poet and activist

b. June 3, 1926

d. April 5, 1997

"The only thing that can save the world is the reclaiming of the awareness of the world. That's what poetry does."

Allen Ginsberg was a revolutionary poet and committed activist. He was a leader of the Beat movement, which celebrated nonconformity and paved the way for many previously ignored poets. Ginsberg’s works captured his antiestablishment spirit and fostered social change.

He was born Irwin Allen Ginsberg and raised in Patterson, New Jersey. His father, Louis, was a successful poet who walked around the house reciting poetry. His mother suffered from paranoia and was in and out of mental hospitals. Three years after her death, Ginsberg wrote "Kaddish for Naomi Ginsberg" (1961), which is considered one of his finest works.

Ginsberg attended Columbia University, where he received a B.A. in 1948. The next year, he met Carl Solomon, whom he credited with "deepening his understanding of poetry and its power as a weapon of political dissent." His most celebrated poem, "Howl!" (1956), was dedicated to Solomon. Ginsberg was tried and acquitted of obscenity charges partially related to the poem’s homoerotic content. A judge found that the poem had "redeeming social importance," making "Howl!" a reference case for free-speech advocates.

Ginsberg is credited with coining the term "flower power," which encouraged protesters to engage in nonviolent rebellion. Once kicked out of Cuba for saying Che Guevara was "cute," Ginsberg was dubbed a social bandit. His frank writing about homosexuality made an important contribution to gay rights. 

In 1954, Ginsberg met the man who would become his life partner, Peter Orlovsky. Like  Ginsberg, Orlovsky was an American poet and experienced the mental illness of a family member. Their 43-year relationship ended with Ginsberg’s death in 1997.

Ginsberg’s honors include a National Book Award, a Robert Frost Medal for distinguished poetic achievement and an American Book Award for contributions to literary excellence. In 1987, he was named a distinguished professor at Brooklyn College, where he taught English and creative writing. In 1993, the French minister of culture awarded Ginsberg the Order of Arts and Letters.

Author and Feminist

b. February 9, 1944

“The truest and most enduring impulse I have is simply to write.”

Alice Walker is an award-winning writer, activist and self-proclaimed “Womanist”—a term she coined in her book “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens” (1974) to describe black feminists. The voices she brings to life in her novels, short stories and poems helped educate and inspire readers.

Walker was raised in Eatonton, Georgia, during segregation. She was the youngest of eight children born to poor sharecroppers.

Walker received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in 1965. She moved back to the South to pursue civil rights work and met Mel Leventhal. Walker and Leventhal, a Jewish civil rights lawyer, were the first interracial couple to be legally married in Mississippi. Walker had her only child during the marriage. The couple divorced in 1976.

Walker began teaching at Wellesley College in 1972. Her course, dedicated to the study of African-American women writers, was the first of its kind.

Her most famous novel, “The Color Purple” (1983), won a National Book Award and made Walker the first African-American woman to receive a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In 1985, the novel was made into a movie directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover. The film earned 11 Oscar nominations. In 2005, “The Color Purple” was adapted as a Broadway musical, with Winfrey as the lead financial backer.

Walker’s awards include a Guggenheim Foundation Grant, an American Book Award, a Lillian Smith Award and an O’Henry Award. She was inducted into the Georgia Writer’s Hall of Fame and the California Hall of Fame. In 1997, Walker was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association.