About
Wallace Stevens was a major American poet of the twentieth century. Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, he studied at Harvard and earned a law degree. He led a dual career as an insurance executive at the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, where he became vice president, and as a poet. His first collection, Harmonium, appeared in 1923. His work explores the relationship between imagination and reality. He received the Bollingen Prize in 1949, the National Book Award twice, and the Pulitzer Prize in 1955 for his collected poems.
* 1879-10-02 — † 1955-08-02
Major works
- Harmonium (1923)poetry collection
- The Man with the Blue Guitar (1937)poetry collection
- Notes Towards a Supreme Fiction (1942)poetry collection
- Transport to Summer (1947)poetry collection
- The Necessary Angel (1951)essays
Key milestones
- 1934Becomes vice president of the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company.
- 1949Wins the Bollingen Prize in Poetry.
- 1955Wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens.
Themes
imaginationrealityperceptionartnature
Sources: poets.org · poetryfoundation.org