Henry S. Taylor

This article is about the 20th-century American poet. For the 19th-century English poet and dramatist, see Henry Taylor.

Henry Splawn Taylor (born June 21, 1942 - October 13, 2024) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet, author of more than 15 collections of poetry.

Henry Taylor. Courtesy the Encyclopedia Virginia.

Life

Youth and eduation

Taylor was born in rural Loudoun County, Virginia, where he was raised as a Quaker.

He went to high school at George School in Newtown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania.

He graduated from the University of Virginia, in 1965 and earned an M.A. from Hollins Colleges (now Hollins University) in 1966.

Career

Taylor taught literature and co-directed the Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing at American University from 1971 to 2003.

Recognition

Taylor won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1986 for his collection, The Flying Change.

His additional honors include 2 fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, 2 awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry.

Publications

Poetry

• The Horse Show at Midnight. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1966.
• The Girl in the Black Raincoat, Duell, Sloan, & Pearce, 1966.
• Breakings. San Luis Obispo, CA: Solo Press, 1971.
• An Afternoon of Pocket Billiards. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 1975.
• Desperado. Greensboro, NC: Unicorn Press, 1979.
• Artichoke. Winston-Salem, NC: Palaemon Press, 1979.
• The Flying Change: Poems. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1985.
• The Horse Show at Midnight / An Afternoon of Pocket Billiards. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1992.
• Understanding Fiction: Poems, 1986-1996. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University, 1996.
• Brief Candles: 101 clerihews. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2000.
• Crooked Run: Poems. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2006.

Non-fiction

• Compulsory Figures: Essays on recent American poets. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University, 1992.

Translated

• Euripides, The Children of Herakles (translatd with Robert A. Brooks; edited by William Arrowsmith). New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
  • Titus Maccius Plautus, "Curculio", in Plautus: The comedies: Volume I. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-5070-7
• Vladimir Levchev, Leaves From the Dry Tree. Merrick, NY: Cross-Cultural Communications, 1996.
• Sophocles, Electra, in Sophocles I. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0-8122-1653-0

Edited

• May Sarton, Home to a Place Beyond Exile: The collected poems. Hollins, VA: Hollins College, 1974.
• Poetry: Points of departure. Cambridge, MA: Winthrop, 1974.
• The Water of Light: A miscellany in honor of Brewster Ghiselin. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 1976.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

Audio / video

• Landscape with Tractor (cassette). Washington, DC: Watershed Foundation, 1985.
• Henry Taylor Reading (CD). Aspen, CO: Aspen Writers' Foundation, 1987.

Riding Lesson By Henry Taylor

Except where noted, discographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of U.S. poets

External links

Poems

• "The Way It Sometimes Is" at Poetry Out Loud
• Henry Taylor profile & 1 poem at the Academy of American Poets
• Henry Taylor b. 1942 at the Poetry Foundation
• Henry Taylor: 5 poems from Beltway Poetry Quarterly

Audio / video

• Henry Taylor at YouTube

Books

• Henry Taylor at Amazon.com

About

• Henry Taylor (1942-) at the Encyclopedia Virginia
• Interview with Taylor in the Cortland Review, February 1999