Reed Whittemore (1919-2012)
Reed Whittemore (1919-2012) wrote 11 poetry books and nine prose books. During his time at Yale University, he and his roommate James Angleton founded the literary magazine Furioso. He served in the Army for several years and then taught English at Carleton College, where he brought Furioso back under the title Carleton Miscellany. He also taught at the University of Maryland College Park. Whittemore went on to become the Poet Laureate of Maryland, and was the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress for two different terms. His poetry book The Mother’s Breast and the Father’s House (1974) was a finalist for the National Book Award, and he won the National Council on the Arts Award for his lifelong work in American writing as well as the Award of Merit Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His poetry was known for its dry humor and critique of anything ordinary. Some of his poetry books were Heroes & Heroines (1946), The Boy from Iowa (1962), and Ten from Ten & One More (2007).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_Whittemore Beltway Poetry Quarterly, 6 poems, Volume 5:1, Winter 2004: http://washingtonart.com/beltway/whittemore.html DC Writers' Homes: http://dcwriters.poetrymutual.org/pages/whittemore.html
Written by Monica Root, December 2013.
