McGrath, Thomas, 1916-1990

Thomas McGrath was born in 1916 near Sheldon, North Dakota. He first attended Moorhead State University and in 1939 earned a B.A. at the University of North Dakota. He studied at Louisiana State with Cleanth Brooks, was involved in radical political activity, wrote, and published his first book of poems. In the 1940-1941 academic year McGrath taught at Colby College in Maine then went to New York city where he wrote, did legal research for attorneys engaged in "political" cases, and worked at the Kearney Shipyards, until he entered the armed forces in 1942-1945. He used a Rhodes scholarship to attend New College, Oxford, England in 1947-48. McGrath then taught at Los Angeles State University, until he was dismissed due to his appearance as an unfriendly witness before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1953. From 1954 to 1960 McGrath worked several jobs, wrote screenplays, and in 1960 he resumed his academic career, teaching at C.W. Post College. He founded, with his wife Genia, the journal Crazy Horse. From 1962-1983 he taught at North Dakota State University and Moorhead State University. McGrath has been awarded a variety of distinguished prizes and fellowships for his work as a poet including a Guggenheim Fellow in 1967, and two Bush Fellowships (1976, 1981). In 1981 the University of North Dakota awarded him a Doctorate of Letters and in 1977 he received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Society for Western Literature. McGrath has been married three times, to Marion, Alice, and Eugenia (Genia), all of whom appear in his poetry. He is the father of a son, Tomasito, to whom much poetry is addressed.

From the description of Papers, 1940-1999. (University of North Dakota). WorldCat record id: 48777002

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