Pulitzer Prize Recipient Poet. Louis Aston Marantz Simpson was a literary poet best known for his characteristically American tales of common people, often casting a skeptical eye on the American dream. As a child, he immigrated to New York, attended Columbia University, but left to serve in the US Army during World War II. Injured in battle, he later wrote extensively about his experiences in both poetry and prose. After recovering he returned to Columbia University, received a bachelor's degree in 1948 and the next year, while studying at the University of Paris, wrote and published his first book of poetry, "The Arrivistes" in 1949. He returned to the United States, received a master's degree from Columbia in 1950, was an editor at the Bobbs-Merrill publishing company for five years and was an instructor at Columbia, where he was earned a Ph.D. in 1959. He was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in the early 1960s, when he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1964, for his "At the End of the Open Road", a collection of poems, which described a grim picture of the American temperament in the last half of the 20th Century. In 1957, he also received the Rome Prize, given by the American Academy in Rome and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in literature in 1976. His many other noted works included "North of Jamaica" in 1972, "Three on the Tower" in 1975, "Searching for the Ox" in 1976, "In the Room We Share" in 1990, "The King My Father's Wreck" in 1995 and "The Owner of the House: New Collected Poems" in 2003. In 1990s, he also taught at the State University of New York at Stony Brook for many years. He died from Alzheimer's disease at age 89.
Pulitzer Prize Recipient Poet. Louis Aston Marantz Simpson was a literary poet best known for his characteristically American tales of common people, often casting a skeptical eye on the American dream. As a child, he immigrated to New York, attended Columbia University, but left to serve in the US Army during World War II. Injured in battle, he later wrote extensively about his experiences in both poetry and prose. After recovering he returned to Columbia University, received a bachelor's degree in 1948 and the next year, while studying at the University of Paris, wrote and published his first book of poetry, "The Arrivistes" in 1949. He returned to the United States, received a master's degree from Columbia in 1950, was an editor at the Bobbs-Merrill publishing company for five years and was an instructor at Columbia, where he was earned a Ph.D. in 1959. He was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in the early 1960s, when he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1964, for his "At the End of the Open Road", a collection of poems, which described a grim picture of the American temperament in the last half of the 20th Century. In 1957, he also received the Rome Prize, given by the American Academy in Rome and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in literature in 1976. His many other noted works included "North of Jamaica" in 1972, "Three on the Tower" in 1975, "Searching for the Ox" in 1976, "In the Room We Share" in 1990, "The King My Father's Wreck" in 1995 and "The Owner of the House: New Collected Poems" in 2003. In 1990s, he also taught at the State University of New York at Stony Brook for many years. He died from Alzheimer's disease at age 89.
Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith
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