Alfred, William, 1922-1999

William Alfred (1922-1999) was a playwright, poet and beloved Harvard professor specializing in early English literature. He was born in Brooklyn in 1922 to working-class parents, served in the Army tank corp in World War II, and received his doctoral degree in English from Harvard in 1954 before joining the faculty, where he stayed until 1991. Alfred's works include: Hogan's Goat, Agamemnon, The Curse of an Aching Heart, and Nothing Doing. Luminaries he taught, influenced, or corresponded with include: Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones, Stockard Channing, John Lithgow, Gertrude Stein, Archibald MacLeish, and Robert Lowell. Alfred was the recipient of the New York Drama Desk Award, and served on the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award poetry panels.

Alfred was an American playwright and the Lawrence Lowell Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University.

Alfred was an American playwright and the Lawrence Lowell professor of the Humanities at Harvard University.