 richard joseph howard (born october 13, 1929; adopted as richard joseph orwitz) is an american poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, and translator. he was born in cleveland, ohio and is a graduate of columbia university, where he studied under mark van doren,"mark van doren", columbia 250 - colombian ahead of their times columbia university. and where he now teaches. he lives in new york city. ==life== after reading french letters at the sorbonne in 1952-53, howard had a brief early career as a lexicographer. he soon turned his attention to poetry and poetic criticism, and won the pulitzer prize for poetry for his 1969 collection untitled subjects, which took for its subject dramatic imagined letters and monologues of 19th century historical figures. for much of his career, howard has written poems using a quantitative verse technique. a prolific literary critic, howard's monumental 1969 volume alone with america stretched to 594 pageshoward, richard. alone with america: essays on the art of poetry in the united states since 1950. new york: atheneum, 1969. and profiled 41 american poets (six of them womencarolyn kizer, denise levertov, sylvia plath, adrienne rich, anne sexton, and may swenson.) who had published at least two books each and "have come into a characteristic and&mdash;as i see it&mdash;consequential identity since the time, say, of the korean war." howard would later tell an interviewer "i wrote the book not for the sense of history, but for myself, knowing that a relation to oneâs moment was essential to getting beyond the moment. as i quoted shaw in the bookâs preface, if you cannot believe in the greatness of your own age and inheritance, you will fall into confusion of mind and contrariety of spirit. the book was a rescuing anatomy of such belief, the construction of a credendumâarticles of faith, or at least appreciation."richard howard, the art of poetry no. 86, the paris review, interview by j. d. mcclatchy, spring 2004 he was awarded the pen translation prize in 1976 for his translation of e. m. cioran's a short history of decay and the national book award "national book awards â 1983". national book foundation. retrieved 2012-03-10. there was a "translation" award from 1966 to 1983. for his 1983 translation of baudelaire's les fleurs du mal. howard was a long-time poetry editor of the paris review and is currently poetry editor of [[the western humanities 
1929_births American_lexicographers American_literary_critics American_poets Chevaliers_of_the_Ordre_national_du_MA(c)rite Columbia_University_alumni Columbia_University_faculty FrenchaEnglish_translators Gay_writers Guggenheim_Fellows Jewish_American_poets LGBT_Jews LGBT_poets LGBT_writers_from_the_United_States Lambda_Literary_Award_winners Living_people MacArthur_Fellows Members_of_the_American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Letters National_Book_Award_winners Poets_Laureate_of_New_York Pulitzer_Prize_for_Poetry_winners University_of_Houston_faculty University_of_Paris_alumni