William Matchett

by George J. Dance

William Henry Matchett (born 1923) is an American poet and academic.

William Matchett. Photo by Judith Matchett. Courtesy Antrim House Books.

Life

Youth and education

Matchett was born into a quaker family, in Chicago, Illinois.

He was educated in the Chicago public school system except for his final 2 years, which he spent at Westown, a Quaker boarding school.

He enrolled in Swarthmore College in 1941; however, his education there was interrupted almost immediately, when the United States joined World War II. A conscientious objector, Matchett was assigned to a Civilian Public Service camp in New Hampshire, and then (as a guinea pig) to the Psycho-Acoustical Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Career

Matchett graduated from Swarthmore in 1949. He then married, and returned to Cambridge to attend Harvard University, where he was a teaching assistant to Archibald MacLeish and a founder of the Poets' Theatre. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy from Harvard in 1954.

In 1954 Matchett joined the University of Washington (UW), where he taught English until his retirement in 1982. During that period he spent 19 years as the editor of Modern Language Quarterly, a year editing Poetry Northwest in association with Carolyn Kizer, and a term chairing the UW faculty Senate.

Matchett also served on the University Hospital Board (1978-1988), the King County Planning Commission (1990-2003), and the Hood Canal Environmental Council (1992-2012). Since his retirement he and his wife have lived on the Hood Canal, where they had already been spending summers.

His poetry has appeared in many literary magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper's, The New Republic, Southern Review, Shenandoah, Harvard Magazine, and New World Writing. He published 2 full-length collections, The Water Ouzel and Fireweed, during his time at UW, and a third, Airplants, since. He is also the author of Shakespeare and Forgiveness and the co-author (with his colleague Jerome Beaty) of Poetry: From statement to meaning.

Recognition

Matchett's poem "Ruby Throat” won the Furioso Poetry Prize in 1952, and Fireweed was awarded the Washington State Governor’s Award.

Publications

Poetry

• Water Ouzel, and other poems. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1955.
• Fireweed, and other poems. Cranberry Isles, ME: Tidal Press, 1980.
• Elementary. Seattle, WA: Wood Works, 2004.
• Airplants: Selected poems. Simsbury, CT: Antrim House, 2013.

Non-fiction

• The Phoenix and the Turtle: Shakespeare's poem and Chester's 'Loues martyr'. The Hague: Mouton, 1965.
• Poetry: From statement to meaning (with Jerome Beaty). New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.
• Shakespeare and Forgiveness. Santa Barbara, CA: Fithian Press, 2002.

Edited

• William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John. New York & Toronto: New American Library / London: New English Library, 1966.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of U.S. poets

External links

Poems

• Sample Poems (7 poems)

Books

• William H. Matchett at Amazon.com

About

• William Matchett at Antrim House Books.
• Interview: Noted poet William Matchett on his book 'Airplants" and life at 90 at the Examiner, 2013.

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