Ann Stanford (November 25, 1916 – July 12, 1987) was an American poet.

Early life and education

Ann Stanford was born in

La Habra, California La Habra (archaic spelling of ''La Abra'', ) is a city in the northwestern corner of Orange County, California, United States. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,239. A related city, La Habra Heights, is located to the north o ...

and attended Stanford University where she graduated in 1938 ''

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

'', and

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

, with an M.A. in journalism in 1958, an M.A. in English in 1961, and a Ph.D. in English and American literature in 1962.

Personal life

Stanford married Roland Arthur White, an architect, in 1942, and they had three daughters and one son. Her oldest daughter is Academy Award nominated costume designer Rosanna Norton.

Career

When she died in 1987, at the age of seventy, Ann Stanford was at the apex of a long and distinguished career as a poet, translator, editor, scholar and teacher. Over a period of forty years, she had written eight volumes of poetry, two verse plays, and a book-length study of the Puritan poet Anne Bradstreet. She had also translated the classic Sanskrit text ''The Bhagavad Gita'' and edited ''The Women Poets in English'', an anthology that gathered, for the first time, hundreds of years of poetry by women. Her poems had appeared regularly in the most prestigious journals and magazines—the ''New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, The New Republic, The Southern Review''—and had been widely honored. From 1962 to 1987, she taught at California State University, Northridge. She was a founding member of the Associated Writing Programs. Since 1988, a poetry prize has been awarded in her name.

Awards

* Two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in Poetry * Pushcart Prize * National Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Literature * DiCastagnola Award for Poetry * 1968/1969

Shelley Memorial Award The Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America, was established by the will of Mary P. Sears, and named after the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The prize is given to a living American poet selected with reference to genius and need, and is ...

Works

*''Twelve Poets of the Pacific'' (edited by Yvor Winters; New Directions, 1937) *''In Narrow Bound'' (Alan Swallow, 1943) *''The White Bird'' (Alan Swallow, 1949) *''The Weathercock'' (The Viking Press, 1966) *''The Descent'' (The Viking Press, 1970) *''Climbing Up to Light'' (The Magpie Press, 1973) *''In Mediterranean Air'' (The Viking Press, 1977) *''Dreaming the Garden'' (Cahuenga Press, 2000) *''Holding Our Own: The Selected Poems of Ann Stanford'' (edited by Maxine Scates and David Trinidad; Copper Canyon Press, 2001) ;Verse plays *''Magellan: A Poem to Be Read by Several Voices'' (Talisman Press, 1958) *''The Countess of Forlì'' (Orirana Press, 1985) ;Translation *''The Bhagavad Gita: A New Verse Translation'' (Herder and Herder, 1970) ;Editor *''The Women Poets in English'' (McGraw-Hill, 1972) *''Critical Essays on Anne Bradstreet'' (with Pattie Cowell; G.K. Hall, 1983) ;Criticism *''Anne Bradstreet, the Worldly Puritan: An Introduction to Her Poetry'' (Burt Franklin, 1974)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanford, Ann 1916 births 1987 deaths Poets from California 20th-century American poets Stanford University alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni California State University, Northridge faculty People from La Habra, California American women poets 20th-century American women writers