Wallace Stevens

Today is the birthday of Modernist poet Wallace Stevens (books by this author), born in Reading, Pennsylvania (1879). His collections include Ideas of Order (1936), Owl’s Clover (1936), The Man with the Blue Guitar (1937), Parts of a World (1942), Transport to Summer (1947), The Auroras of Autumn (1950), Opus Posthumous (1957), and The Palm at the End of the Mind (1972).

Stevens went to Harvard and wanted to study literature, but his father wanted him to be a lawyer.

Stevens moved to New York and took a job with the New York Tribune. He loved to explore the city, and enjoyed his work, but really wanted to be a poet. His father still disapproved of Stevens’ literary aspirations so, in 1901, Wallace Stevens finally caved to the pressure and went to law school. He passed the bar in 1905 and practiced law at various New York firms for more than a decade.

In 1909, after a lengthy courtship, he married Elsie Kachel. She was an uneducated country girl, and his parents considered her “lower class.” They refused to come to the wedding, and Stevens never spoke to his father again.

In 1916, Stevens moved to Hartford and took a job as an insurance lawyer with the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company. He worked there for the rest of his life, eventually becoming the company’s vice president. His colleague Manning W. Heard said of Stevens, “He was at the time, and for many years before his death, the dean of surety-claims men in the whole country.” And Charles O’Dowd, an underwriter at the company, said, “His [business] letters were as clear as his poetry was obtuse.”

Stevens walked two miles to and from work every day, and that was when he wrote most of his poetry. “I write best when I can concentrate,” he said, “and do that best while walking.” He would carry slips of paper in his pockets, and jot down notes, which he would later give to his secretary to type up for him. He published his first book, Harmonium (1923), when he was 44.

Writer's Almanac