Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz Dies at 100
Stanley Kunitz, a former American poet laureate who in his poetry made metaphoric use of the Talmud and other Jewish images, died Sunday, May 14, at age 100.
Kunitz, who was known for writing on themes ranging from life and death to gardens, received the Pulitzer Prize in 1959. The son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, he gave up his dream of earning a doctorate at Harvard after being told that non-Jewish students wouldn’t enjoy being taught English literature by a Jew. A pacifist, Kunitz was a strong opponent of the Vietnam War and, later, American military involvement in Central America and in Iraq.
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