Bowers, Edgar

Edgar Bowers (1924-2000), poet, was born in Rome, Georgia. He studied at the University of North Carolina and completed graduate studies at Stanford University. Bowers taught English at the University of California Santa Barbara for most of his career. He is the author of five collections of poetry: Collected Poems, For Louis Pasteur: Selected Poems, Living Together, The Astronomers, and The Form of Loss. He died in San Francisco on February 4, 2000.

Epithet: of the University of California

Edgar Bowers was born in Rome, Georgia in 1924. He began writing poetry at a young age, and had published poems in the local newspapers by the time he was 13 years old. He entered the Univ. of North Carolina in 1942, but his studies were interrupted by World War II. As part of his training, he entered the ASTP program at Princeton, where he met a number of sophisticated young men who furthered his commitment to the arts. He served in Bavaria with the counter intelligence corps of the Army's 101st Airborne Division, and was stationed at Berchtesgaden as part of the "de-Nazification" program of the U.S. occupation force. After his discharge in 1946, he completed his undergraduate studies at UNC, and moved to Stanford in 1947 to pursue his doctorate. Under the guidance of poet and critic Yvor Winters, he wrote his dissertation on the poetry of T. Sturge Moore, and further developed his poetic sensibilities alongside classmates like poet Thom Gunn. From 1958 until his retirement in 1991, he taught at Duke University, Harpur College, and at UC Santa Barbara, where he specialized in English Renaissance and modern poetry. Bowers earned several distinctions, including two Guggenheim fellowships (1959 and 1969), and the Bollingen Prize for Poetry (1989). Bowers carefully controlled his literary output, developing a reputation as a true "poet's poet". He published five collections of poetry in his lifetime: The form of loss (1956), The astronomers (1965), Living together (1973), For Louis Pasteur (1989), and his Collected poems (1997). He died in San Francisco in 2000.

Expanded Biographical Narrative

Edgar Bowers was born in Rome, Georgia in 1924. He began writing poetry at a young age, and had published poems in newspapers by the time he was 13 years old. He entered the University of North Carolina (UNC) in 1942, but his studies were interrupted by World War II. As part of his training, he entered the Army Specialized Training program (ASTP) at Princeton University, where he met a number of sophisticated young men who furthered his commitment to the arts. He served in Bavaria with the counterintelligence corps of the Army's 101st Airborne Division, and was stationed at Berchtesgaden as part of the "de-Nazification" program of the U.S. occupation force.

After his discharge in 1946, he completed his undergraduate studies at UNC, and moved to Stanford in 1947 to pursue his master's degree and doctorate. Under the guidance of poet and critic Yvor Winters, he wrote his dissertation on the poetry of T. Sturge Moore, and further developed his poetic sensibilities. He taught at Duke University, Harpur College, and from 1958 until his retirement in 1991 at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he specialized in English Renaissance and modern poetry. He died in San Francisco in 2000.

Bowers earned several distinctions, including two Guggenheim fellowships (1959 and 1969), and the Bollingen Prize for Poetry (1989). Bowers carefully controlled his literary output, developing a reputation as a true "poet's poet." He published five collections of poetry in his lifetime: The Form of Loss (1956), The Astronomers (1965), Living Together (1973), For Louis Pasteur (1989), and Collected Poems (1997).