Theodore Roethke

(1908 - 1963)

Theodore Roethke graduated from the University of Michigan in 1929 and held various teaching positions across the country before publishing his first collection of poetry, Open House, in 1941. Suffering from bipolar disorder, he experienced a bout of mania in 1945 and underwent shock therapy treatment. Between 1954 and 1965 he received a Pulitzer Prize, two National Book Awards, and a Bollingen Prize.