Literary Birthday – 5 January – W.D. Snodgrass

W.D. Snodgrass was born 5 January 1926 and died 13 January 2009.

Quotes

1. If they all praise your first book, you can be sure that they will then all attack your second book violently. That’s the way those things always go.
2. I’ve been accused of humanising the Nazis, to which I can only say, you can’t blame me for that. God did that. Go talk to him. It’s a strange thing for an atheist to say.
3. I have not learned how often I can win, can love, but choose to die.
4. But I came to a point where I had to rebel against my teachers, including Lowell. I wanted to use a much more simple and direct kind of language, something that would be common without feeling worn out or used. (via)
5. If you can be happy doing something else, do it.  Everything pays better. Everything is more honestly rewarded. But if you’ve got to do it, then you’re a life-termer. (via)

William De Witt Snodgrass was an American poet who also wrote under the pseudonym S. S. Gardons. He won the 1960 Poetry Pulitzer Prize for Heart’s Needle. Snodgrass was classified as one of the ‘Confessional Poets’ – a group of post-war poets that included Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Theodore Roethke, and John Berryman. These poets wrote from a deeply personal viewpoint.

Source for image

 by Amanda Patterson

Are you interested in more authors’ birthdays? Please click here: Literary Birthday Calendar