Biography

            As one of the most noted poets of the early and mid 20^th century, William Carlos Williams lead an eventful life. Despite working as a doctor for most of his life, Williams still managed to find time to write a variety of short stories, novels and many anthologies of poems. He served as a key member in a variety of writing movements, all while working with, and mentoring many of the younger authors of his time. Williams’ contributions to American poetry were massive, and his influence can still be seen in the poets of today.

            Williams was born in Rutherford, New Jersey on September 17, 1883 to parents who were deeply involved in the arts. His mother was an avid painter who loved the theater, while his father was a book lover who introduced Williams to famous classic works such as Shakespeare. Because of this, from early on in his life, William Carlos Williams lived in an environment that appealed to his creative side. However, his childhood was by no means easy. As a deeply religious man, Williams’ father sought to raise a child with a perfect set of morals. Along with this, Williams learned from an early age that he was expected to succeed, so he worked as hard as he could to fulfill these expectations. With a focused work ethic, William Carlos Williams was able to graduate from high school, and attend college at the University of Pennsylvania to study medicine.

            In college, Williams truly began to immerse himself in the world of writers and poets. He found idols in the noted poets of the time such as Walt Whitman. Williams studied the works of the noted poets of his time, and was able to develop his own writing to mirror their styles. However, the biggest influence on Williams’ writing during his college career came in his long time friend Ezra Pound. Through Pound, Williams met a circle of young artists who helped him discover the freedom in writing and art, which he had never found before. Previously, his writing strictly conformed to the carefully measured meter like that of Walt Whitman, but with the help of this new circle of friends, William Carlos Williams was able to leave behind the binding structure of older poets.

This circle of friends, including poet Hilda Doolittle and artist Charles Demuth, began to form the center of what is known as the Imagist movement. Although this movement had previously been seen in the areas of painting and fiction, poetry remained an area where conformity to the traditional style was necessary for success. In his second published book of poems, The Tempers, Williams’ work resembled the Imagist ideals, as he broke free from the traditional meter of poetry.

After graduating college, Williams began forty years of work at a private practice as a doctor. This work, although taxing on him, proved to be one of the greatest influences to his poetry. Through his work as a doctor, he was able to see all different kinds of humanity, and apply the stories he witnessed to his poetry. By spending years constantly seeing births, deaths, suffering, and rehabilitation, Williams witnessed many of the beautiful, and ugly aspects of life often never seen by a single individual. After witnessing any particularly remarkable event, Williams would simply write down his feelings on any piece of paper at hand. Because of this, despite working long hours at his practice, Williams was able to remain a prolific writer throughout the middle of his life.

During his lifetime, Williams always steered away from the traditional sense of writing poetry. Despite being good friends, it was noted that Williams disliked Ezra Pound’s writing style as it used too many unnecessary allusions. Instead of this, Williams was know for not using the typical meter of poetry, while still keeping his poems simple and to the point. The language he used was simple and American, playing into the nationalism that was present in the late 40s after World War II. However, one of the biggest impacts on American poetry that Williams had was in the generation of poets that followed him. William Carlos Williams was always willing to mentor any developing poets that sought him out. He had profound influence on many different poetic movements, and helped fashion developing poets into masters of the literary art. By helping to refine the styles of young poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Theodore Roethke, and H. H. Lewis, Williams firmly established his legacy among the future generation of writers.

Late in his life, Williams’ health began deteriorating immensely. After a heart attack in 1948, his body began to shut down entirely. Shortly after the initial trauma, Williams suffered from a series of strokes that left him unable to work as a doctor anymore. He was admitted into a psychiatric ward briefly due to immense depression. However, despite all of these physical traumas, Williams continued to write. The events that took place in his own life simply gave him more to write about using his intense realism to depict the human side of suffering and aging. During this time, Williams released numerous anthologies of his work, and continued to mentor any young poets who sought him out. However, on March 4, 1963, Williams died in his home.

The legacy of William Carlos Williams is that of a poet who broke ground in removing the boundaries that used to restrict the creative process. Along with that, a generation of poets emerged under Williams’ mentoring that would prove to spearhead many literary movements into modern times. During his lifetime, Williams’ works were only predominately known in the United States. However, shortly after his death, his work was published in Europe, and he gained worldwide acclaim. For Williams, though, writing was never about the fame and notoriety. Rather, he saw poetry as a way of sharing with people stories that display the aspects of humanity that bind us all.