U.S. Consultant in Poetry, 1956-1958
Randall Jarrell was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1914. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Vanderbilt University, where he studied under Robert Penn Warren. He taught at the University of Texas at Austin before he joined the armed forces, an experience that heavily influenced his second and third poetry collections. For The Woman at the Washington Zoo, Jarrell won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1960. In addition to his poetry, Jarrell was noted for his criticism, in particular his essays on other American poets. He served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1956-58. Randall Jarrell died in 1965.
Audio Recordings with Randall Jarrell
- As part of Poetry in English at the Library of Congress, Robert Frost interview with Randall Jarrell on May 19, 1959