Richard Eberhart | |
---|---|
Born | Richard Ghormley Eberhart April 5, 1904 Austin, Minnesota, USA |
Died | June 9, 2005 Hanover, New Hampshire, USA |
(aged 101)
Occupation | Poet |
Nationality | United States |
Alma mater |
University of Minnesota Dartmouth College Harvard University |
Notable awards |
National Book Award 1966 |
Spouse | Helen Butcher (m. 1941) |
National Book Award
1977
Richard Ghormley Eberhart (April 5, 1904 – June 9, 2005) was an American poet who published more than a dozen books of poetry and approximately twenty works in total. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Selected Poems, 1930–1965 and the 1977 National Book Award for Poetry for Collected Poems, 1930–1976. He is the grandfather of former Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington.
Eberhart was born in 1904 in Austin, a small city in southeast Minnesota. He grew up on an estate of 40 acres (16 ha) called Burr Oaks, since partitioned into hundreds of residential lots. He published a volume of poetry called Burr Oaks in 1947, and many of his poems reflect his youth in rural America.
Eberhart began college at the University of Minnesota, but following his mother's death from cancer in 1921—the event which prompted him to begin writing poetry—he transferred to Dartmouth College. After graduation he worked as a ship's hand, among other jobs, then studied at St. John's College, Cambridge, where I.A. Richards encouraged him to continue writing poetry, and where he took a further degree. After serving as private tutor to the son of King Prajadhipok of Siam in 1931–1932, Eberhart pursued graduate study for a year at Harvard University. During his time at Harvard, Eberhart met and spoke with T. S. Eliot.