John Wheatcroft (July 24, 1925 – March 14, 2017) was an American

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

and

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

. A novelist, poet, and playwright, Wheatcroft's works have appeared in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and the ''

Beloit Poetry Journal The ''Beloit Poetry Journal'' is an American poetry magazine established in 1950 at Beloit College.Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, and served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Wheatcroft attended

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

, and

Bucknell University Bucknell University is a private liberal arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts and Sciences, Freeman College of Management, and the College of Engineering. ...

, where he graduated in 1949. He began teaching in Bucknell's English department in 1952, and founded and directed the Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets in 1985 and was co-founder along with Jack Stadler and the first director of Bucknell's Stadler Center for Poetry. He also served as a juror for the 1996

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first presented in 1922, and is given for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, published ...

. As

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

after 1996, Wheatcroft continued to write and be published in his retirement. Wheatcroft's significant writings include the play ''Ofoti'', which was produced for

NET Playhouse ''NET Playhouse'' was an American dramatic television anthology series produced by National Educational Television. NET subsequently merged with WNDT Newark to form WNET, and was superseded by the Public Broadcasting Service, though the NET title ...

(now

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) in 1966 starring

René Auberjonois René Murat Auberjonois (; June 1, 1940 – December 8, 2019) was an American actor and director. He was best known for portraying Odo on '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' (1993–1999). He first achieved fame as a stage actor, winning the Tony Aw ...

,NET Playhouse: Ofoeti
at IMDB. and made into a film,

The Boy Who Loved Trolls ''The Boy Who Loved Trolls'' is a 1984 American made-for-television fantasy- adventure film produced for the PBS series ''WonderWorks''. The story was adapted by James A. DeVinney from a play by John Wheatcroft. The original play, entitled ''O ...

, in 1984. He wrote ''Catherine, Her Book'', creating diary entries of Catherine Earnshaw from ''

Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moorland, moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their tur ...

'', which is cited in Patsy Stoneman's ''Brontë Transformations'', and Christopher Heywood's version of ''Wuthering Heights''. He is mentioned in the 1986 edition of Curt Johnson's ''Who's who in U.S. Writers, Editors & Poets''. He also edited and participated in ''Our Other Voices: Nine Poets Speaking'', a collection of interviews with poets such as

Josephine Jacobsen Josephine Jacobsen (19 August 1908 – 9 July 2003) was a Canadian-born American poet, short story writer, essayist, and critic. She was appointed the twenty-first Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1971. In 1997, sh ...

and

Wendell Berry Wendell Erdman Berry (born August 5, 1934) is an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. Closely identified with rural Kentucky, Berry developed many of his agrarian themes in the early essays of ' ...

Death and interment

Wheatcroft died on March 14, 2017; his ashes were interred in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

Bibliography

*''Death of a Clown'' (1964) *''Prodigal Son'' (1967) *''Ofoti'' (1970) *''Edie Tells: A Portrait of the Artist as a Middle-Aged Cleaning Woman'' (1975) *''A Voice from the Hump and A Fourteenth-Century Poet's Vision of Christ'' (1977) *''Ordering Demons'' (1981) *''Gowpen: A Double Handful of Poems'' with Karl Patten (1982, The Press of Appletree Alley limited edition) *''Declaring Generations'' with

Peter Balakian Peter Balakian, born June 13, 1951, is an American poet, prose writer, and scholar. He is the author of many books including the 2016 Pulitzer prize winning book of poems ''Ozone Journal'', the memoir ''Black Dog of Fate'', winner of the PEN/Alb ...

(1982, The Press of Appletree Alley limited edition) *''Catherine, Her Book'' (1983) *''Slow Exposures'' (1986) *''The Beholder's Eye'' (1987) *''The Stare on the Donkey's Face'' (1990) *''Our Other Voices: Nine Poets Speaking'' (1991) *''Distances/Limited Edition'' (1991, The Press of Appletree Alley limited edition) *''Killer Swan'' (1992) *''Mother of All Loves'' (1994) *''Trio with Four Players'' (1995) *''Alfresco'' (1995, The Press of Appletree Alley chapbook) *''The Education of Malcolm Palmer'' (1997) *''Random Necessities'' (1999) *''Answering Fire'' (2006) *''The Fugitive Self'' (2009) *''Telling Tales'' (2010) *''The Portrait of a Lover'' (2011) *''The Disappearance of Felix Kulp'' (2013) *''I AM?'' (2013)

References

External links

*
"A Place for Poets" - Bucknell University article about the Seminar for Younger Poets
* * ttp://www.johnwheatcroft.com on squarespace blog {{DEFAULTSORT:Wheatcroft, John 1925 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists Poets from Philadelphia 20th-century American poets 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 21st-century American poets American male poets American male dramatists and playwrights Educators from Philadelphia 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Pennsylvania