'The history of American writing (and especially poetry) in the twentieth century can be read as the history of a language gradually acquiring native speakers, when there were none before,' states this DLB volume's foreword. This second-of-three series profiles 47 American poets who helped to define the cultural language of the nation as it struggled to secure an active role in world affairs.
47 entries include: Kay Boyle, Sterling Brown, Stanley Burnshaw, e.e. Cummings, Edward Dahlberg, Langston Hughes, Stanley Kunitz, James Laughlin, Thomas Merton, Frederic Prokosch, Evelyn Scott, Jesse Stuart and Robert Penn Warren.