Galway Kinnell, distinguished Princeton alumnus, poet, and English major, is dead at 87

Oct. 30, 2014

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and Department of English alumnus Galway Kinnell passed away on Tuesday, October 28, 2014, at the age of 87.

A member of the Princeton Class of 1948, and one of the most distinguished of contemporary American poets, Kinnell received a number of prizes during his career, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1982, the Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America in 2002, and the Wallace Stevens Award from the American Academy of Poets in 2010. From 1989 to 1993 he served as Vermont's first state poet laureate since Robert Frost held the post in the early 1960s.

At Princeton he graduated summa cum laude with a major in English, completing a senior thesis titled "Spring of Youth."

To read memories of Kinnell from different corners of Princeton, see:

Galway M. Kinnell '48: An Appreciation (The Lewis Center for the Arts)

Galway Kinnell, Class of 1948 (Graphic Arts)

For his New York Times obituary, see:

Galway Kinnell, Plain-Spoken Poet, is Dead at 87