Title: The life and poetry of Ted Kooser /
Authors: Stillwell, Mary K.
Year: 2013
Subjects: Kooser, Ted; Kooser, Ted Criticism and interpretation.; Kooser, Ted; Poets, American Biography; Poets, American Nebraska Biography.; Poets laureate United States Biography.
Abstract: Just as so much of Kooser's own writing weaves geography, history, and family stories into its measures, so does this first critical biography consider the poet's work and life together: his upbringing in Iowa, his studies in Nebraska with poet Karl Shapiro as mentor, his career in insurance, his family life, his bout with cancer, and, always, his poetry. Combining a fine appreciation of Kooser's work and life, this book finally provides a fuller and more complex picture of a writer who, perhaps more than any other, has brought the Great Plains and the Midwest, lived large and small, into the poetry of our day.
Contents: Chronology -- Growing up in Iowa, 1939-1963 -- Official entry -- An emerging imagination -- Summers in paradise -- Looking the part -- King, a dog of the north -- Moving Gibraltar -- Nebraska apprenticeship, 1963-1969 -- The move to Nebraska -- Journey to a place of work -- Official entry blank -- Running on empty -- The shepherd's new song, 1970-1979 -- A local habitation & a name -- Singing the shepherd's song -- Not coming to be barked at -- "Walking home to you" -- American scripture, 1980-1994 -- Sure signs -- Common ground -- One world at a time -- Weather central -- "Feeling the speed," 1995 today -- "Lights on a ground of darkness" -- Winter morning walks -- Local wonders -- Delights & shadows -- "The ripening odor of praise" -- "Bright yellow leaves flying".