Alan Dugan's career has been a happy marriage
as far as I'm concerned.
His good poetry and recognition therefore
began a long time ago in 1943 when
he was a student at Queens College in Brooklyn,
and was given a prize for his poetry.
Since that time, there's a long list,
in 1946 Poetry Magazine gave him its Young Poet's
Prize for a group of poems published in that magazine.
In 1961 he was chosen as the Yale Younger Poet
as we say, for that year.
And out of that publication drew the National Book Award,
the Pulitzer Prize, and the Prix de Rome.
And following upon that was the publication
of a second book in 1963, also Yale University Press.
And he tells me that next fall there
will be a third book, also Yale University Press.
He has until last year been what you
might call a non-campus poet, which is unusual today,
poets of this generation, that is he
has not been teaching poetry or poetry writing.
But last year when William Meredith
left his job at the Connecticut College and went to Princeton,
Mr. Dugan replaced him and has become interested
in the possibility of doing that again.
Meanwhile he said jobs and newspaper work publishing,
advertising, and building models in a medical supply
house in New York City.
The-- what all of this has had to do with his poetry or what
effect it's had on the quality of its poetry
I will leave it up to you to judge.
The next poet will be Wednesday, September 15 same time,
same place Louise Bogan.
And I'll now ask Mr. Dugan to take over.