William Carlos
Williams
William
Carlos Williams, (b. Sept. 17, 1883,
Rutherford, N.J., U.S.—d. March 4, 1963,
Rutherford), American poet who succeeded
in making the ordinary appear
extraordinary through the clarity and
discreteness of his imagery.
After
receiving an M.D. from the University of
Pennsylvania in 1906 and after
internship in New York and graduate
study in pediatrics in Leipzig, he
returned in 1910 to a lifetime of poetry
and medical practice in his hometown.
In Al
Que Quiere! (1917; “To Him Who Wants
It!”) his style was distinctly his own.
Characteristic poems that proffer
Williams’ fresh, direct impression of
the sensuous world are the frequently
anthologized “Lighthearted William,” “By
the Road to the Contagious Hospital,”
and “Red Wheelbarrow.”
In the
1930s during the Depression, his images
became less a celebration of the world
and more a catalog of its wrongs. Such
poems as “Proletarian Portrait” and “The
Yachts” reveal his skill in conveying
attitudes by presentation rather than
explanation.
In
Paterson (5 vol., 1946–58), Williams
expressed the idea of the city, which in
its complexity also represents man in
his complexity. The poem is based on the
industrial city in New Jersey on the
Passaic River and evokes a complex
vision of America and modern man.
A
prolific writer of prose, Williams’ In
the American Grain (1925) analyzed the
American character and culture through
essays on historical figures. Three
novels form a trilogy about a
family—White Mule (1937), In the Money
(1940), and The Build-Up (1952). Among
his notable short stories are “Jean
Beicke,” “A Face of Stone,” and “The
Farmers’ Daughters.” His play A Dream of
Love (published 1948) was produced in
off-Broadway and academic theatres.
Williams’ Autobiography appeared in
1951, and in 1963 he was posthumously
awarded the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for
his Pictures from Brueghel, and Other
Poems (1962). William Carlos Williams,
by the poet Reed Whittemore, was
published in 1975.
