Appleman, Philip, 1926-

Philip Appleman was born on February 8, 1926 in Kendallville, Indiana. During World War II, at the age of 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps and following the war, the Merchant Marines. He received a B.S. in English from Northwestern in 1950 and the following year obtained an A.M. in English from the University of Michigan. From 1951 to 1952 he was a Fullbright scholar at the University of Lyon, France. In 1955 he completed his Ph.D. in English from Northwestern University.

Appleman began teaching at Indiana University in 1955. In 1982 he earned the title of Distinguished Professor of English and in 1986 the additional title of Distinguished Professor Emeritus. Additionally, Appleman has served as a visiting professor at Columbia University, the State University of New York, at Purchase, New York University, and the University of Southern California.

Appleman has published eight volumes of poetry which include Kites on a Windy Day (Byron Press, University of Nottingham,1967), Summer Love and Surf (Vanderbilt University Press, 1968), Open Doorways (Norton, 1976), Darwin's Ark (Indiana University Press, 1984), Let There Be Light (HarperCollins, 1991), and New and Selected Poems, 1956-1996 (University of Arkansas Press, 1996). Revisions and drafts of all of these publications are included in the collection. His poetry has appeared in such impressive publications as the Nation, the New York Times, Paris Review, Poetry, and the Yale Review. His most recent collection of poetry is Karma, Dharma, Pudding & Pie (Quantuck Lane Press, 2009).

In addition to his poetry, Appleman is the author of three novels: In the Twelfth year of the War (Putnam, 1970), Shame the Devil (Crown Publishers, Inc. 1981), and Apes and Angels (Putnam, 1989). He has also published and edited a number of nonfiction works such as the Norton Critical Edition, Darwin, The Silent Explosion and the Norton Critical Edition, Malthus's Essay on Population.

Appleman's works have garnered such prestigious awards as the Castagnola Award from the poetry Society of America in 1975. In the same year, he received the Fellowship in Poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Friend of Darwin Award from the National Center for Science Education in 2002 as well as many others. Appleman is also a founding member of the Poets Advisory Committee of Poets House, New York.

From the guide to the Philip Appleman papers, 1955-1991, (Indiana University Office of University Archives and Records Management http://www.libraries.iub.edu/archives)