Philip Booth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Philip Booth (born 1925) is an American poet and educator.

Contents 1 Life 2 Awards 3 References 3.1 Poetry Collections 3.2 Additional Bibliography 4 External Links

[edit] Life

Booth was born in 1925 in Hanover, New Hampshire. Booth served in the United State Air Force in the Second World War. He then attended Dartmouth College, where he studied with Robert Frost; he received his B.A. in 1947. He subsequently received an M.A. from Columbia University. He presently (2006) lives in Castine, Maine in a house that has been handed down through his family for five generations; he has been called "Maine's clearest poetic voice."^[1]

He has been an instructor and professor of English and of creative writing at Dartmouth College, Wellesley College, and at Syracuse University, where he is presently an emeritus professor.^[2] Booth was one of the founders of the Creative Writing program at Syracuse. One of his students, the poet Stephen Dunn, has written of his 1969-70 experience at Syracuse that "We had come to study with Philip Booth, Donald Justice, W.D. Snodgrass, George P. Elliott,^[3] arguably the best group of writer-teachers that existed at the time."^[4]

Booth's poetry has been published in many periodicals including The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and Denver Quarterly. As of 2006, he has published 10 poetry collections and one book about writing poetry (see references below).

[edit] Awards

Beth Hokin Prize (1955). Lamont Poetry Prize for Letter from a Distant Land (1956). Syracuse University Chancellor's Citation (1981). Fellowships from the American Academy of Poets (1983), the Guggenheim Foundation (1958, 1964),^[5] and the Rockefeller Foundation. Poem selected for The Best American Poetry 1999.^[6] Poets' Prize (2001) for Lifelines.

[edit] References

1. ^ Anonymous editor of Wilson Museum calendar, 2006. Retrieved December 20, 2006.
2. ^ Biography at the Academy of American Poets website. Retrieved December 19, 2006.
3. ^ Elliott, George P. (1918-1980). American author, poet, and educator. Elliott's papers are in the Washington University Library; see "Finding-aid for the George P. Elliott papers," retrieved December 22, 2006.
4. ^ Dunn, Stephen (2006). "Larry Levis in Syracuse," Blackbird: An Online Journal of Literature and the Arts, Vol. 5, #2. Retrieved December 22, 2006.
5. ^ Listing of Fellows, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation website. Retrieved December 20, 2006.
6. ^ "Narrow Road: Presidents' Day," from American Poetry Review, reprinted in Bly, Robert (1999). The Best American Poetry 1999 (Scribner, 1999). ISBN 0-684-86003-1

[edit] Poetry Collections

• Lifelines: Selected Poems, 1950-1999 (Viking Press, 1999). ISBN 0-670-88287-9
• Pairs (Viking Penguin, New York, 1994). ISBN 0-140-58724-1
• Selves (Viking Penguin, New York, 1990). ISBN 0-140-58646-6
• Relations (Viking Penguin, 1986). ISBN 0-140-58560-5
• Before Sleep (Viking Adult, 1980). ISBN 0-670-15529-2
• Available Light (Viking Adult, 1976). ISBN 0-670-14310-3
• Margins (Viking Adult, 1970). ISBN 0-670-45623-3
• Weathers and Edges (Viking Adult, 1966). ISBN 0-670-75509-5
• The Islanders (Viking Adult, 1961). ISBN 0-670-40221-4
• Letter from a Distant Land (Viking, 1957). ASIN B000BYR9AE

[edit] Additional Bibliography

• Booth, Philip (1996). Trying to Say It: Outlooks and Insights on How Poems Happen (University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor). ISBN 0-472-06586-6
• Booth, Philip and Ibatoulline, Bagram (2001). Crossing (Candlewick) ISBN 0-763-61420-3 . Children's book based on the poem "Crossing" from Letter from a Distant Land; the book was illustrated by Ibatoulline.

[edit] External Links

• "Post-Equinox Spectra," poem posted at website of Beloit Journal of Poetry. Retreived December 21, 2006.
• "Adding It Up," poem posted at website of The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved December 21, 2006.
• "Terms," poem posted at website of The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved December 21, 2006.
• 12 poems posted at the PoemHunter.com website; retrieved December 21, 2006.
• 3 songs composed in 1996-7 by Arnold Berleant to poems by Philip Booth.