Stanley Kunitz

July 29, 1905–May 14, 2006

The Board and staff of Poets House mourn the loss of our cofounder Stanley Kunitz. We celebrate the extraordinary life of artistry, generosity and integrity that Stanley lived for over 100 years. His vision of community inspired Poets House, a home for poets and poetry lovers and a place where all are welcomed to step into the living tradition of the art. "Poetry is the most indelible testimony we have of the adventures of the spirit," wrote Stanley.

We know that Stanley's legacy will live on in his poems and the communities he hepled to create and nurture.

 

Stanley Kunitz was instrumental in shaping the poetry communities of the 20th century, inspiring younger poets through his writing, activism, teaching, and special projects.

Kunitz was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on July 29, 1905, child of an immigrant dressmaker from Lithuania. He graduated from Harvard summa cum laude in 1926 and early in his career worked as a reporter and editor. He served in the army during World War II.

His publishing career spanned an extraordinary 75 years. His first book, Intellectual Things, was published in 1930. His last book, The Wild Braid: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden, with Genine Lentine, features photographs by Marnie Crawford Samuelson, and was published by W.W. Norton on the occasion of his 100th birthday.

Other books include: Passing Through: The Later Poems, New and Selected (1995), which won the National Book Award; Next-to-Last Things: New Poems and Essays (1985); The Poems of Stanley Kunitz, 1928-1978, which won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Passport to War (1940); Selected Poems, 1928-1958, which won the Pulitzer Prize; and The Testing-Tree (1971). He also co-translated Orchard Lamps by Ivan Drach (1978), Story Under Full Sail by Andrei Voznesensky (1974), and Poems of Akhmatova (1973), and edited The Essential Blake (1987), Poems of John Keats (1964), and The Yale Series of Younger Poets (1969-77).

Stanley served twice as United States Poet Laureate, first in 1974-76 (when the official title was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress) and again in 2000-01. In 1993 President Clinton presented him with the National Medal of Arts, adding to a host of other awards and honors. Kunitz taught in the graduate writing program at Columbia University for over thirty years, mentoring many younger poets. His contributions to the field included serving as a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets, founding the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts and, together with Elizabeth Kray, founding Poets House.

He and his third wife, Elise Asher ( 1912-2004), divided their time between New York City and Provincetown. He is survived by a daughter, Dr. Gretchen Kunitz, and a stepdaughter, Dr. Babette Becker; five granchildren and three great-grandchildren.