Peter Kane Dufault (April 22, 1923 – April 20, 2013) was an

American poet The poets listed below were either born in the United States or else published much of their poetry while living in that country. A B C D E F G H I–J K L M N O P Q *George Quasha (born 1942 in poetry, 1942) R ...

. He was born in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. Dufault wrote poetry for almost sixty years. Raised in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, he graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and served as a bomber pilot during

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 ...

. In 1968 he ran for Congress in

Columbia County, New York Columbia County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 61,570. The county seat is Hudson. The name comes from the Latin feminine form of the name of Christopher Columbus, which was at the ...

on the Liberal Party's anti-war platform. He was variously employed as a tree-surgeon, journalist, teacher, house-painter, and pollster; he was poet-in-residence at the

Cheltenham Festival The Cheltenham Festival is a horse racing-based meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar in the United Kingdom, with race prize money second only to the Grand National. The four-day festival takes place annually in March at Cheltenham Rac ...

on two occasions. He was well known as fiddler, banjo-player, and dance-caller. His poems have appeared in many magazines and journals including ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', ''

London Magazine ''The London Magazine'' is the title of six different publications that have appeared in succession since 1732. All six have focused on the arts, literature and miscellaneous topics. 1732–1785 ''The London Magazine, or, Gentleman's Monthly I ...

'' and ''

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

''. His poetry was also included in the Norton Anthology of Poetry in the 1996 Edition. He was raised in Mamaroneck New York, and from 1960 until his death he lived and wrote in

Hillsdale, New York Hillsdale is a town in Columbia County, New York, near Hudson, New York and Great Barrington, Massachusetts. State Routes 22 and 23 intersect near the town center, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The town has several r ...

. On June 4, 2010, a documentary film about Dufault, ''What I Meant to Tell You: An American Poet’s State of the Union'', had its world premiere at the

Berkshire International Film Festival The Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF) was founded in 2005 by Kelley Vickery in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The four-day festival features independent films for filmmakers and film aficionados, with showings of features, documentar ...

Great Barrington, Massachusetts Great Barrington is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,172 at the 2020 census. Both a summer resort and home to Ski Butternut, ...

. He died two days short of his 90th birthday in 2013 at his home in Hillsdale, New York.

Collected works

* ''Angel of accidence'' (1954) * ''For some stringed instrument'' (1957) * ''A Westchester Farewell-and Other Poems'' (1968) * ''On Balance, Selected Poems'' (1978) * ''Memorandum to the Age of Reason'' (Lindisfarne, 1988) * ''New Things Come into the World'' (1993) * ''Looking in All Directions'' (Nov 7, 2000) * ''To Be in the Same World'' (Dec 31, 2007)

References

Postscript: Peter Kane Dufault (1923-2013): The New Yorker June 6, 2013- Written by Brad Leithauser On Balance by Peter Kane Dufault . Publisher Info
Copies of book

External links

Directory entry at Poets & Writers .org

What I meant to tell you: An American Poet's State of the Union

Berkshire International Film Festival
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dufault, Peter Kane American male poets 1923 births Harvard University alumni 2013 deaths Poets from New York (state) Poets from New Jersey United States Army Air Forces bomber pilots of World War II 20th-century American poets 20th-century American male writers