My essay is going to be about a famous poet named Richard Purdy Wilbur.
Richard Wilbur was born on March 1, 1921 in Manhattan, New York. Two years later Richard and his family moved to North Caldwell, New Jersey, where he would spend most of his childhood growing up. Richard had a younger brother named Lawrence. While growing up the two were inseparable. In 1938 Richard enrolled in the all-male college of Amherst where he majored in English. Richard first ambition was to be a newspaper cartoonist. This might have been influenced by his father being an artist and his mother being a newspaper journalist. While at Amherst Richard was the chairman of the student newspaper. He did both write articles and drew the cartoons. In June of 1942, after his graduation, Richard married Charlotte Ward. Charlotte was a student at a sister school of Amherst named Smith College. Richard would often walk nine miles separating the schools to visit her. Shortly after being married World War II had begun. Richard joined the Army hoping to be a cryptographer, which was someone who decoded the enemy's codes. Halfway through his training he was transferred to Infantry. After three years of seeing combat and losing many of his friends Richard left the Army with the rank of staff sergeant. After the war Richard enrolled at Harvard with his G. I. Bill and majored in English. In 1950 after receiving his masters" degree he joined the Harvard faculty. While working his was able to meet many writers who influenced his intellectual development. In 1947 at the age of 26 Wilbur's first book was The Beautiful Changes and Other Poems. After his second book Ceremony and Other Poems it had many critics praising his work as he became the poet of his generation. .
While growing up in rural North Caldwell and not having many friends besides his brother to play with Richard spent most of his time wandering the farm and countryside. This was said to have a significant impact in some of his writing.