David Ignatow

David Ignatow (February 7, 1914—November 17, 1997) was an American poet.

Life
David Ignatow was born in Brooklyn on February 7, 1914, and spent most of his life in the New York City area. He died on November 17, 1997, at his home in East Hampton, New York. His papers are held at University of California, San Diego.

Career
Ignatow began his professional career as a businessman. After committing wholly to poetry, Ignatow worked as an editor of American Poetry Review, Analytic, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Chelsea Magazine, and as poetry editor of The Nation.

He taught at the New School for Social Research, the University of Kentucky, the University of Kansas, Vassar College, York College, City University of New York, New York University, and Columbia University. He was president of the Poetry Society of America from 1980 to 1984 and poet-in-residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association in 1987.

Recognition
Ignatow's many honors include a Bollingen Prize, two Guggenheim fellowships, the John Steinbeck Award, and a National Institute of Arts and Letters award "for a lifetime of creative effort." He received the Shelley Memorial Award (1966), the Frost Medal (1992), and the William Carlos Williams Award (1997) of the Poetry Society of America.

Publications
The Notebooks of David Ignatow, edited by Ralph Mills, Jr., Swallow (Athens, OH), 1973, Sheep Meadow (Bronx, NY), 1981.
 * Poems. Decker, 1948.
 * The Gentle Weightlifter. Morris Gallery, 1955.
 * Say Pardon. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1961.
 * Figures of the Human. Wesleyan University Press, 1964.
 * Rescue the Dead. Wesleyan University Press, 1968.
 * Earth Hard: Selected Poems. Rapp & Whiting, 1968.
 * Poems: 1934-1969. Wesleyan University Press, 1970.
 * Facing the Tree: New Poems. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1975.
 * Selected Poems (edited by Robert Bly). Wesleyan University Press, 1975.
 * The Animal in the Bush: Poems on Poetry (edited by Patrick Carey). Slow Loris, 1977.
 * Tread the Dark. Little, Brown, 1978.
 * Sunlight: A Sequence for My Daughter. Brockport, NY: BOA, 1979.
 * Conversations. Survivors' Manual, 1980.
 * Open between Us (edited by Ralph J. Mills, Jr.). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1980.
 * Whisper the Earth. Little, Brown, 1981.
 * Leaving the Door Open. Sheep Meadow, 1984.
 * New and Collected Poems, 1970-1985. Wesleyan University Press, 1987.
 * Shadowing the Ground, Wesleyan University Press, 1991.
 * Despite the Plainness of the Day: Love Poems. Pittsburgh, PA: Mill Hunk, 1991.
 * Against the Evidence: Selected Poems, 1934-1994. Wesleyan University Press, 1993.
 * I Have a Name. Wesleyan University Press, 1996.
 * Gleanings: Uncollected Poems, 1950s and 1960s. BOA, 1997.
 * At My Ease: Uncollected Poems of the Fifties and Sixties (edited by Virginia R. Terris). Rochester, NY: BOA, 1998.
 * Living Is What I Wanted: Last Poems. BOA, 1999.

Prose

 * The One in the Many: A Poet's Memoirs. Wesleyan University Press, 1988.
 * The End Game and Other Stories, Cathedral Publishers, 1996.

Edited

 * Political Poetry Chelsea, 1960.
 * Walt Whitman: A Centennial Celebration. Beloit, WI: Beloit College, 1963.
 * William Carlos Williams: A Memorial Chapbook. Beloit College, 1963.