John Ciardi

In this study of Ciardis life, Edward Cifelli has captured all the deep concern, passion, and thoughtfulness that marked Ciardis long career in American letters. With care and penetrating detail, Cifelli evokes Ciardis early childhood in Boston, his Italian heritage, his service as a gunner on a B-29 during World War II, and his years teaching at Harvard and Rutgers. Illuminated here are Ciardis widely read contributions as an editor of Saturday Review and World magazines, as well as his tireless effort to bring an awareness and love of language and poetry to America through radio, television, the lecture circuit, and his twenty-six years on the staff of the famous Bread Loaf Writers Conference, a gathering he directed for seventeen years.