Kooser, Ted

▪ 2005

      The announcement in August 2004 that Midwesterner Ted Kooser would be the next U.S. poet laureate consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress was widely applauded. Kooser, who assumed the post in October, was the first poet from the Great Plains to be so honoured. In addition to arranging readings and writing poems for presidential inaugurations and other affairs of state, Kooser was expected, like recent poets laureate, to try to broaden the visibility of poetry in a nation not particularly known for cherishing it. The title of his upcoming book for 2005—The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets—hinted, perhaps, at what his sphere of influence might be.

      Theodore Kooser was born in Ames, Iowa, on April 25, 1939. He attended Iowa State University (B.S., 1962) and the University of Nebraska (M.A. in English, 1968) and briefly taught high-school English before settling into an insurance career. He rose to the position of vice president of Lincoln Benefit Life Insurance Co. and retired in 1998. In 1970 he also began to teach creative writing part time at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. He published his first volume of poetry, Official Entry Blank, in 1969 and followed with nine more books, including Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry (with his good friend Jim Harrison) in 2003 and Delights and Shadows in 2004. Kooser won numerous local and national honours, including two National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) fellowships, the Pushcart Prize, and the Stanley Kunitz Prize.

      Kooser's poems were short and mostly concerned the land and people in the region around his farm in Garland, northwest of Lincoln, an area jocularly called the “Bohemian Alps” owing to the large number of Czech immigrants who had settled there. His most common poetic technique was an extended metaphor in which he selected a specific image and enriched it in surprising ways. Critics had compared Kooser to, among others, Wendell Berry of Kentucky as a poet of place, Robert Frost for his sympathy with and ability to depict homespun America, Philip Larkin for his passion of discovery, Anton Chekhov for his tender wisdom, and Edgar Lee Masters and Edward Arlington Robinson for the cumulative effect of his work over time. Critic Dana Gioia, now the head of the NEA, was quoted as saying that “Kooser has written more perfect poems than any poet of his generation.” In one of his best-known poems, “Selecting a Reader” from Sure Signs (1980), Kooser writes with his typical wry, understated humour in imagining a reader inspecting his work: “She will take out her glasses, and there/in the bookstore, she will thumb/over my poems, then put the book back/up on its shelf. She will say to herself/‘For that kind of money, I can get my raincoat cleaned.' And she will.”

Charles Trumbull

* * *

▪ American poet

byname of  Theodore Kooser 

born April 25, 1939, Ames, Iowa, U.S.

      American poet, whose verse was noted for its tender wisdom and its depiction of homespun America.

      Kooser attended Iowa State University (B.S., 1962) and the University of Nebraska (M.A., 1968) and briefly taught high-school English before settling into an insurance career that continued until his retirement in 1998. In 1970 he began teaching creative writing part-time at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

      Kooser's subject is everyday experience. His poetry, generally short, treats the Midwestern landscape and rural life. His most common poetic technique is the creation of an extended metaphor that begins with the selection of a specific image and enriches it in surprising ways. His first collection of poetry was published as Official Entry Blank (1969). His later volumes include Sure Signs (1980), One World at a Time (1985), Weather Central (1994), and Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry (2003), which was cowritten with Jim Harrison (Harrison, Jim). In 2005 Kooser received a Pulitzer Prize for Delights & Shadows (2004). Valentines (2008) collects poems Kooser wrote over the course of two decades on the occasion of Valentine's Day. His nonfiction work includes Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps (2002) and The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets (2005), a guidebook to writing poetry.

      Kooser was the publisher and editor of Windflower Press, which specialized in contemporary poetry, and of the magazines Salt Creek Reader (1967–75) and Blue Hotel (1980–81). In 2004 he became the first poet from the Great Plains to be named poet laureate consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress; he held the post until 2006.

* * *