On Poetry and Craft

Theodore Roethke was a poet and educator. He was born on May 25, 1908 in Saginaw, Michigan. Roethke graduated from the University of Michigan in 1929. He entered Michigan Law School, but withdrew in 1930 to pursue a master's degree in literature at Harvard. Roethke did not complete his degree due to financial problems.

Roethke worked as an instructor at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania State University, and Bennington College. His 1951 book, Praise to the End, won the Bollington Prize and his 1953 volume, The Waking, Poems 1933-1953, won the Pulitzer Prize. Roethke was also a two-time winner of the National Book Award and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Roethke died on August 1, 1963.

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