John Ciardi letters (Ms. 88.4)

Biographical note

Ciardi, the son of Italian immigrants, was born in Boston's North End. He grew up in Medford, Massachusetts and studied at his hometown college, Tufts University, before receiving his M.A. from the University of Michigan in 1939.

After years of teaching English at Harvard (1946-1953) and Rutgers (1953-1961), Ciardi resigned his tenured faculty position to pursue an independent career. Ciardi wrote 21 books of poetry. He served as a highly popular poetry editor of the Saturday Review from 1956 to 1972. His occasional public television broadcasts were supplemented by his weekly National Public Radio series begun in 1980 entitled, "A Word in Your Ear." A National Teachers Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children was presented to Ciardi in 1982. He died of a heart attack on Easter Sunday in 1986.