Roethke, Theodore
1908—1963
Place of Birth: Saginaw, MI
Biography:
Theodore Roethke was born to Helen and Otto Roethke in Saginaw, Michigan in 1908. His father was a German immigrant who owned a large greenhouse, where Theodore spent much of his childhood playing. His father and uncle both died in 1923, and these two events powerfully shaped his physiological health and writing for the remainder of his life. Theodore attended the University of Michigan and spent a short time in law school before attending Harvard University. While at Harvard, Theodore learned under the poet Robert Hillver. He did not complete his graduate studies at Harvard because of financial reasons and instead became a professor of English. He taught at several universities including, Lafayette College, Pennsylvania State University and Bennington College. Theodore Roethke had a troubled life, beginning with the deaths of his father and grandfather when he was very young. In his older years he taught at Michigan State University in East Lansing when he began to suffer from deep depression. His depression often served as a catalysis for his poetry. In 1953 Theodore married his former student, Beatrice O’Connell. Beatrice was a faithful wife to Theodore and she continued to publish his poetry in his name, after his death in 1963.
Selected Works
- Open House (1941)
- The Lost Son and Other Poems (1948)
- Praise to the End! (1951)
- The Waking (1953)
- Words for the Wind (1958)
- I am! Says the Lamb (1961)
- Party at the Zoo (1963) — written for children
- The Far Field (1964) — published posthumously
- On Poetry & Craft (1965) - a collection of prose
Awards
- 1953 Pulitzer Prize
- The Bollingen Prize
- 1958 The National Book Award
- 1964 posthumous National Book Award for his last poems, The Far Field
Critical Reception
One critic said of Theodore Roethke, “Roethke is among the most celebrated American poets of the twentieth century. His poetry employs dynamic, descriptive imagery to convey the process of self-realization and discovery.”
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work
Roethke was born and spent most of his life as a writer in Michigan. He received many literary awards while working as an English professor at the University of Michigan. Much of Roethke’s poetry was inspired by his childhood and adulthood in Michigan. Roethke suffered from depression because of the deaths of his father and uncle when he was a child, and his depression often inspired his poetry as well.