Richard Wilbur

Richard Wilbur, born in 1921, American poet and university professor, born in New York City, known for imbuing formal and traditional verse forms with urbanity and wit. The Beautiful Changes (1947) was Wilbur's first volume of verse; Things of This World (1956) won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1957. Other volumes include Ceremony (1950), Advice to a Prophet (1961), Walking to Sleep (1969), The Mind Reader: New Poems (1976), and New and Collected Poems (1989), for which he won a second Pulitzer Prize. Loudmouse (1963) and Opposites (1973) are collections of poems for children. Wilbur also translated two plays, The Misanthrope and Tartuffe, both by French dramatist Molière, and he collaborated with American playwright Lillian Hellman on the libretto for a 1956 musical version of Candide, by French writer Voltaire. Wilbur's literary criticism has been collected in Responses: Prose Pieces 1953-1976 (1976). In 1987 he was appointed United States poet laureate, succeeding Robert Penn Warren. Wilbur was awarded a National Medal of Arts in 1994.