Snow, Wilbert, 1884–1977.

American poet and educator Charles Wilbert Snow was born on April 6, 1884, on White Head Island, St. George, Maine. Snow grew up on the Maine seacoast and spent a good portion of his adult life there as well. His experiences related to the Maine seacoast became the focus of much of his poetry.

Wilbert Snow was educated at Bowdoin College, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1907, and at Columbia University, receiving his Master of Arts degree in 1910. During World War I Snow served as an artillery captain in the U. S. Army.

Snow completed his extensive academic career as a Professor Emeritus of Wesleyan University (1921–1952), having taught there for thirty–one years. Prior to Wesleyan, Snow taught English at New York University (1907–1908), Bowdoin College (1908–1909), Williams College (1909–1910), the University of Utah (1913–1915), Indiana University (1916–1918, 1919–1921), and Reed College (1918–1919).

Always interested in politics, Wilbert Snow had a brief political career, serving as the Lieutenant-Governor of Connecticut in 1945–1946 and as the state’s Governor for twelve days in January of 1947. He also served as a U.S. Department of State lecturer in Europe and the Near East in 1951 and 1952.

With the exception of his autobiography titled Codline’s Child (1973), all of Wilbert Snow’s published work is comprised of books of poetry.

Snow’s first book of poems, Maine Coast, was published by Harcourt in 1923. Maine Coast was followed by Inner Harbor: More Maine Coast poems (1926), Down East (1932), Selected Poems (1936), Before the Wind (1938), Maine Tides (1940), Sonnets to Steve, and Other Poems (1957), Spruce Head (1958), and The Collected Poems of Wilbert Snow (1963).

Wilbert Snow died on September 28, 1977, at Spruce Head Island, Maine.

Kinsman, Clare D. and Mary Ann Tennenhouse (eds.) Contemporary Authors. Volumes 9-12. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1974. pp. 850-851. Locher, Frances (ed.) Contemporary Authors. Volumes 73-76. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1978.

From the guide to the Wilbert Snow letters to Homer E. Woodbridge, 1925–1951, 1925–1935 and 1949–1951, (University of Delaware Library - Special Collections)