William Daniel Mundell (December 30, 1912December 24, 1997) was an American poet who served as Vermont's

poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

from 1989 to 1997. He published six anthologies of poetry.

Biography

Mundell was born in 1912, and he died on Christmas Eve 1997, in a 200-year-old farmhouse in South Newfane, Vermont, in the same room in which he was born. He attended Middlebury College but dropped out during the Depression to support his family. During World War II, he served as a radar operator in the Pacific. After the War, he took a year at Marlboro College. Mundell was a foreman with the Vermont State Highway Department, a selectman, justice of the peace, and auditor for the Town of Newfane. He was a carpenter, stonemason, painter, and a fine photographer, noted for his studies of frost on windows and ice in brooks — which appeared in '' Life Magazine'', March 5, 1971. An expert skier, he built one of the first rope ski tows in Vermont. Mundell was Executive Editor of '' Poet Lore'' magazine, and taught poetry at the Cooper Hill Writers Conference. In 1989, he was named his state's poet laureate by the Poetry Society of Vermont. He was the second person to hold this title, after Robert Frost. On February 18, 1998, the Vermont House and Senate passed Joint Resolution 123, "celebrating the remarkable life of Vermont's Poet Laureate and artist extraordinary William D. Mundell"''.'' As part of New York Public Radio, Readers Almanac series, Mundell discussed his 1977 collection ''Mundell Country: New Poems'' on June 26, 1978. The 23 minute audio file may be streamed at the NYPR Archive Collection.

Awards

* Stephen Vincent Benét Award, 1968 * Vermont Poet Laureate, 1989–1997.

Works

Mundell's photographs and poetry appeared in ''

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 ...

'', ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', '' American Forests'', '' Poet Lore,

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

,'' and '' Ladies' Home Journal''. He published six volumes of poetry: * ''Hill Journey'' (Stephen Greene Press, 1970) * ''Plowman’s Earth'' (Stephen Greene Press, 1973) * ''Mundell Country'' (Stephen Greene Press, 1977) * ''Finding Home'' (Cooper Hill Books, 1984) * ''A Book of Common Hours'' (Greenhills Books, 1989) * ''The Fun of Hollerin’'' (Cooper Hill Books, 1998)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mundell, William D. 1912 births 1997 deaths People from Newfane, Vermont 20th-century American poets Poets from Vermont Writers from Vermont