# Ruth Stone

Ruth Stone (June 8, 1915 – November 19, 2011) was an American poet.

## Life and poetry

Stone was born in Roanoke, Virginia and lived there until age 6, when her family moved back to her parents' hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana. She attended the University of Illinois. Her first marriage was to John Clapp in 1935, and they had one daughter. Her second marriage was to professor and poet Walter Stone, in 1944, with whom she had two daughters. Walter Stone, who served in World War II, received a PhD from Harvard University, and taught at University of Illinois, and then at Vassar College. Walter Stone committed suicide in 1959; this tragedy shaped the path of Ruth Stone's life, as she sought ways to support herself and her daughters by teaching poetry at universities across the United States.
Her work is distinguished by its tendency to draw imagery and language from the natural sciences.
Stone died at her home in Goshen, Vermont, on November 19, 2011. She was buried near the raspberry bushes behind her Goshen home.

## Career

Stone's verse was published widely in periodicals, and she was the author of thirteen books of poetry.
In 1990 Stone became a professor of English and Creative Writing at Binghamton University, and retired from this position at the age of 85.
Early on, Stone's work was recognized by editors. While her husband was teaching at Vassar College, Stone received the Kenyon Review Fellowship in Poetry.

## House in Goshen, Vermont

When Stone received the Kenyon Review Fellowship in Poetry, she and Walter used the funds to buy a house in Goshen, Vermont, expecting that it would be a place to go in the summers, and to eventually retire. The house became a refuge for Stone after Walter's death, and over the years, became an intellectual center for her students and other poets.

## Awards

* Poetry Magazine Bess Hoken Prize, 1953
* Kenyon Review Fellowship in Poetry, 1956
* Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, 1963-1965
* Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, 1965
* Guggenheim Fellowship, Poetry, 1971
* Guggenheim Fellowship, Poetry, 1975
* Delmore Schwartz Award, 1983
* Whiting Award, 1986
* Paterson Poetry Prize, 1988
* Cerf Lifetime Achievement Award, State of Vermont
* National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry for Ordinary Words, 1999
* Eric Mathieu King Award from the Academy of American Poets, 1999
* National Book Award for In the Next Galaxy, 2002
* Wallace Stevens Award, Academy of American Poets, 2002
* Poet Laureate of Vermont, 2007
* Finalist, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for What Love Comes To: New and Selected Poems, 2009

## Legacy

Stone's long-time residence in Goshen, Vermont was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. Her heirs (both literary and family) — including her granddaughter, poet and visual artist Bianca Stone — have established a foundation to convert the property into a writer's retreat.
Paintbrush: A Journal of Poetry and Translation 27 (2000/2001) was devoted entirely to Stone's work.
The Ruth Stone Poetry Prize awarded by The Vermont College of Fine Arts and their literary journal Hunger Mountain is in its sixth year.
Stone's daughters Phoebe Stone and Abigail Stone, and her granddaughters Hillery Stone and Bianca Stone, are all published writers.

## Cultural references

The voice of Ruth Stone reading her poem "Be Serious" is featured in the film USA The Movie.
A documentary film by Nora Jacobson, Ruth Stone's Vast Library of the Female Mind, was released in 2022.