A.R. Ammons

(1926 - 2001)

“Ammons is our Lucretius,” poet and translator Richard Howard has written, “swerving and sideswiping his way into the nature of things.” Born in North Carolina in 1926, A.R. Ammons began writing poetry while serving on a U.S. Navy destroyer escort in the South Pacific during World War II. His debut collection, published in 1955, was the first of nearly thirty, including Garbage from 1993, which won a National Book Award, and Glare, from 1997, his final work.