McLiesh Archibald (Macleish Archibald)

(1892-1982)
Born May 7, 1892 in Glen Cove (pc. Illinois). In 1915 he graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts, then served two years in the Army. After the war, studied law at Harvard University in 1919 received a Bachelor of Laws. In 1920-1923 led practice in Boston. Lived in France until 1928. Formation of the poet's style can be traced to collections Happy Family (The Happy Marriage, 1924) and Streets in the Moon (Streets in the Moon, 1926). In the last McLiesh included a poem Ars Poetica, containing the famous line: 'The verse must be verse, and the meaning it does not need'. For historical poem Conquistador (Conquistador, 1932) and a collection of Selected Poems 1917-1952 (Collected Poems 1917-1952, 1952) McLiesh won the Pulitzer Prize. In 1976 came a collection of new and old favorites poems 1917-1976 (New and Collected Poems, 1917-1976). McLiesh also wrote verse dramas, in particular, Job, a drama in verse (JB, A Play in Verse, 1958), on the biblical Book of Job. In 1961 he published a collection of critical essays: Poetry and Experience (Poetry and Experience).

Active than any other professional poet, McLiesh participated in public and political life. In 1944-1945 he was Assistant Secretary of State, in 1945 and 1946 - Chairman of the U.S. delegation to the conferences of UNESCO. In 1949-1962 he taught rhetoric and oratory at Harvard. McLiesh died in Boston April 20, 1982. Autobiography, which he has said on the tape, was published in 1986 under the name of Archibald McLiesh. Reflections (Archibald Macleish: Reflections).