Daniel Gerard Hoffman (April 3, 1923 – March 30, 2013) was an American poet, essayist, and academic. He was appointed the twenty-second

Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—commonly referred to as the United States Poet Laureate—serves as the official poet of the United States. During their term, the poet laureate seeks to raise the national cons ...

in 1973.

Early life and education

Hoffman was born in New York City. 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he served in the Army Air Corps, where he served stateside as a technical writer and as the editor of an aeronautical research journal, experiences detailed in his memoir ''Zone of the Interior.'' He was educated at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, earning a B.A. (1947), an M.A. (1949), and a Ph.D. (1956). He was a member of the

Boar's Head Society The Boar's Head Society (1910 – 1970s) was a student ''conversazione society'' devoted to poetry at Columbia University. It was an "adjunct to Columbia College's Philolexian Society... The purpose of their new society was entirely creative: ...

there.

Career

In 1954, Hoffman published his first collection of poetry, ''An Armada of Thirty Whales.'' This collection was chosen by

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

as part of the

Yale Series of Younger Poets The Yale Series of Younger Poets is an annual event of Yale University Press aiming to publish the debut collection of a promising American poet. Established in 1918, the Younger Poets Prize is the longest-running annual literary award in the Un ...

, and Auden commended it in his introduction as "providing a new direction for nature poetry in the post-Wordsworthian world." He has since published ten additional collections of poetry, a memoir, and seven volumes of criticism. Reviewing ''Beyond Silence'' in ''The New York Times Book Review'' in 2003, Eric McHenry found Hoffman a poet of remarkable consistency, "no less joyful or engaged at 80 than he was at 25." Hoffman taught at Columbia University,

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a private liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeducational colleges in the United States. It was established as ...

, and the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

. He retired from the latter as Felix Schelling Professor of English Emeritus, and its Philomathean Society in 1996 published an anthology of poetry in honor of his efforts to bring contemporary poets to give readings in their halls. He was a chancellor emeritus of the

Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreach ...

. From 1988 to 1999, he served as Poet in Residence at the

Cathedral of St. John the Divine The Cathedral of St. John the Divine (sometimes referred to as St. John's and also nicknamed St. John the Unfinished) is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. It is at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood ...

in New York City, where he administered the American Poets' Corner.

Awards

Hoffman won the Hazlett Memorial Award in 1984. He won the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry from ''The Sewanee Review'' in 2003. He won the 2005 Arthur Rense Poetry Prize "for an exceptional poet" from the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...

. He won the Memorial Medal of the Magyar P.E.N. for his translations of contemporary Hungarian poetry, and several grants and fellowships, including those from the Guggenheim Foundation and the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

. He received an honorary degree from Swarthmore College in 2005.

Personal life

Hoffman was married for 57 years to Elizabeth McFarland (1922–2005), a poet herself as well as the poetry editor of ''

Ladies' Home Journal ''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States. In ...

'', from 1948 until that magazine stopped publishing verse in 1961. From 1965 the couple spent summers in

Brooksville, Maine Brooksville is a town on Penobscot Bay in Hancock County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 935. It contains the villages of North Brooksville, South Brooksville (on Buck's Harbor), West Brooksville, Brooksvil ...

. In 2008 Orchises Press brought out a selection of McFarland's poems, ''Over the Summer Water,'' with an introduction by Hoffman. Hoffman was one of Philadelphia's

Franklin Inn Club The Franklin Inn Club is a private social club in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1902 as a literary society, it is one of the four historic gentlemen's clubs in Philadelphia's Center City and was the first to open membership to women in P ...

notable members. Daniel Hoffman was one of the named plaintiffs in "Authors Guild vs. Google" (2005), the purpose of which was to prevent Google from providing a complete searchable index of extant books.

Death

Hoffman died in an assisted living facility in Haverford, Pennsylvania, on March 30, 2013. He was 89.

Bibliography

* ''Paul Bunyan, Last of the Frontier Demigods'' (1952) * ''An Armada of Thirty Whales'' (1954) * ''The Poetry of Stephen Crane'' (1957) * ''A Little Geste and Other Poems'' (1960) * ''Form and Fable in American Fiction'' (1961) * ''The City of Satisfactions'' (1963) * ''Barbarous Knowledge: Myth in the Poetry of Yeats, Graves, and Muir (1967) * ''Striking the Stones'' (1968) * ''Broken Laws'' (1970) * ''Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe'' (1971), nominated for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

* ''The Center of Attention'' (1974) * ''Brotherly Love'' (1981), nominated for the National Book Award and

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".translation Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

from the Italian of Ruth Domino's poems * ''Beyond Silence: Selected Shorter Poems, 1948–2003'' (2003) * ''Makes You Stop and Think: Sonnets'' (2005) * ''The Whole Nine Yards: Longer Poems'' :

Louisiana State University Press The Louisiana State University Press (LSU Press) is a university press at Louisiana State University. Founded in 1935, it publishes works of scholarship as well as general interest books. LSU Press is a member of the Association of American Univ ...

(2009) * ''Next to Last Words: Poems'' :

(2013)