Benton, William, 1939-....

William Benton received his early training in music, and worked as a jazz musician before becoming a writer. He is the author of several books of poetry, including Marmalade, with drawings by James McGarrell (George Adams Gallery Press, New York, 1997), Normal Meanings (Deer Crossing Press, Paducah, 1978), Eye La View (Capra Press, Santa Barbara, 1975), and The Bell Poems (Riverrun Press, New York, 1970).

His poetry has been published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Open City and other magazines. He is also the author of Exchanging Hats: Elizabeth Bishop Paintings (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1996), which was selected by the New York Times Book Review as number two in the top-ten list of art books for that year.

Other recent books are Birds and Deaf Elephants, (Pomegranate Press, San Francisco, 2002), and Gods of Tin, as editor, (Shoemaker and Hoard, 2004). He has lectured on both art and literature at numerous universities, and served for three years as Dean of the Museum Art School (now Pacific Northwest College of Art), Portland, Oregon. He is also the author of Close to the Sun, a musical play, for which he wrote book, lyrics, and music. Shoemaker and Hoard published his novel, Madly, in 2005. He lives in New York City.

From the guide to the William Benton Collection, 1971-1998, (University of Kansas Kenneth Spencer Research Library Department of Special Collections)