John Ciardi: A Biography

by Edward M. Cifelli

In this study of Ciardi’s life, Edward Cifelli has captured all the deep concern, passion, and thoughtfulness that marked Ciardi’s long career in American letters. With care and penetrating detail, Cifelli evokes Ciardi’s early childhood in Boston, his Italian heritage, his service as a gunner on a B-29 during World War II, and his years teaching at Harvard and Rutgers. Illuminated here are Ciardi’s widely read contributions as an editor of Saturday Review and World magazines, as well as his tireless effort to bring an awareness and love of language and poetry to America through radio, television, the lecture circuit, and his twenty-six years on the staff of the famous Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, a gathering he directed for seventeen years.

592 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1997

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whenever I visit a library in a new town, I check to see if they have a copy of this book, and/or Cifelli's "The Collected Works of John Ciardi". If they do, it's a good library. Ciardi is better known for his translations of Dante, but his gritty, post-WWII poetry is stunning in its clarity and timelessness. His reverence for his father, family roots, and work ethic will remind one of Studs Terkel.