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William Carlos Williams, "This Is Just to Say"

BIOGRAPHY

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[From The Norton Introduction to Literature]

(1883–1963)

Born in Rutherford, New Jersey, William Carlos Williams attended school in Switzerland and New York and studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Leipzig in Germany. He spent most of his life in Rutherford, practicing medicine and gradually establishing himself as one of the great figures in American poetry. Early in his writing career he left the European-inspired Imagist movement in favor of a more uniquely American poetic style comprised of vital, local language and “no ideas but in things.” His shorter poems have been published in numerous collected editions and other volumes, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning Brueghel, and Other Poems (1963); his five-volume philosophical poem, Paterson, was published in 1963. Among his other works are plays such as A Dream of Love (1948) and Many Loves (1950); a trilogy of novels: White Mules (1937), In the Money (1940), and The Build-Up (1952); his Autobiography (1951); his Selected Essays (1954); and his Selected Letters (1957).

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In The Portable Intro to Literature
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