William F. Claire Papers 1

William F. Claire was born in Northampton, Massachusetts. Claire graduated from Deerfield Academy in 1954 and received his bachelor's degree in 1958 from Columbia University. He studied at Georgetown University before joining the military. Claire also worked for the Pentagon, as well as in various public and private jobs in Washington DC early in his career.A notable writer and poet in his own right, Claire founded the literary magazine "Voyages" in 1967. Since its inception, "Voyages" has won a number of awards including a National Endowment for the Arts award. Claire's work has been published in "The American Scholar", "Antioch Review", "New York Times", "Smithsonian Magazine", "The Poetry Pilot" of the Academy of American Poets, as well as numerous other major publications. His poems have also been recorded for the Library of Congress archives. Honors include winning a Rockefeller Foundation Grant for residency in Belagio, Italy and he is a Yaddo and MacDowell scholar. Claire currently lives in both Lewes, Delaware and Naples, Florida. Biographical information from The Quotations page on William Claire.

****** Katherine Garrison Chapin Biddle was born in Waterford, Connecticut on September 4, 1890 to parents Lindley Hoffman Chapin and Cornelia Garrison Van Auken. Biddle had 3 siblings; Lindley Hoffman, Paul Chapin, and sculptor Cornelia Chapin, and half sister Marguerite Caetani, who married Roffredo Prince Di Bassiano, the Duke of Semoneta. She studied in private schools and with well known individuals such as Kurt Schindler, Max Eastman, and Rachel Crothers. She then married Francis Biddle in 1918, who was the U.S. attorney general from 1942-1945, and later had two sons, Edmund Randolph and Garrison Chapin (1923-30). A great fan of poetry, Katherine Biddle began her career writing poetry, essays, reviews, etc. for a number of journals and magazines. Notable works include "Outside of the World" (1930), "Bright Mariner" (1933), "Lament for the Stolen" (1938), "The Other Journey" (1959), "The Chinese Deer" (1975), and plays such as "The Tapestry for the Duchess" (1925) and "Sojourner Truth" (1948). "And They Lynched Him from a Tree" and "Plain Chant for America", two of her poems advocating civil rights, were set to music and performed in 1940 and 1941 after the performance of "Lament for the Stolen" in 1938. Biddle received many honors in her career, including appointment as a fellow in American letters of the Library of Congress in 1944 by Archibald MacLeish, a judge for the Bollingen Prize in Poetry of Yale University and a judge for the National Book Award in Poetry and the Shelley Memorial award. Katherine Biddle was also a member of the Poetry Society of America, Poetry Society of Virginia, Sulgrave Club, Cosmopolitan Clubs of New York and Philadelphia, and the Acorn Club. Katherine Biddle died in Devon, Pennsylvania on December 30, 1977. Biographical data for Katherine Chapin Biddle comes from the Katherine Biddle papers from Part 1 of the Biddle Family papers also housed at Georgetown University.

****** Born February 7, 1913, Donald Elwin Stanford grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts before studying English at Stanford and Harvard. He married Maryana Petersob in 1953. In his career as a writer, Stanford published books of poems such as "New England Earth", "The Traveler", as well as critiques of poetry such as "Revolution and Convention in Modern Poetry" and "In the Classic Mode: The Achievement of Robert Bridges. After 1953, Donald Stanford became a Professor of English at Louisiana State University and became the editor of "The Southern Review", the university's literary magazine, in 1963. He is also notable for having founded the "Winters Circle", a literary group focusing on the work of Yvor Winters. Stanford retired in 1983 but continued publishing until 1984. Biographical data for Donald E. Stanford the "Donald E. Stanford Papers" at Stanford University and "Order in Variety: Essays and Poems in Honor of Donald E. Stanford."

****** Marie Leontine Graves Bullock, born Marie Leontine Graves in 1911, founded the Academy of American Poets in 1934 with her husband Hugh Bullock. She was schooled in France and corresponded with notable individuals such as Bernard Shaw and Walter de La Mare over her love and support of poetry. She also edited "The Poetry Pilot", the journal of the Academy of American Poets. Marie Bullock died in 1986, leaving behind two daughters, Fleur Weymouth and Fair Alice McCormick. Biographical data for Marie Bullock from NY Times Obituary and The Poetry Library of Marie Bullock.