Born: February 27, 1925Died: July 6, 2002 Ohio connection: Birth Cincinnati Kenneth Koch, son of Stuart J. and Lillian Amy (Loth) Koch, was born February 27, 1925 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He began writing poetry in his early years, with inspiration from favorites Keats and Shelley. He later served in the United States Army in the …
Read More Kenneth KochBorn: 1955 Ohio connection: Resident Berea Born in Detroit, Michigan, Geoffrey Alan Landis spent his childhood in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. He graduated from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois. In the late 1970’s Landis received a B.S. in physics and a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology …
Read More Geoffrey A. LandisBorn: October 29, 1942Died: November 24, 1968 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Darryl Alfred Levy was born on October 29, 1942, on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio. His father was a shoe salesman who had emigrated from England, and his mother was a homemaker. The family would move around the greater Cleveland area throughout the years, settling in …
Read More D.A. LevyBorn: 1942 Ohio connection: Resident Westerville J. Patrick Lewis was born in Gary, Indiana. The former Children’s Poet Laureate (2011-2013) received a B.A. degree from Saint Joseph’s College in 1964, an M.A. from Indiana University in 1965, and a PhD in economics from the Ohio State University in 1974. Lewis taught in the department of Business, Accounting …
Read More J. Patrick LewisBorn: 1942 Ohio connection: Resident Columbus Anthony Libby was born in Jacksonville, Florida, the son of James Miller and Gertrude (Wright) Libby. He received a bachelor’s degree from College of the Holy Cross (1963) and was awarded a yearlong Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. Two years later, he was awarded another, which ended in 1967 and overlapped with …
Read More Anthony LibbyBorn: September 24, 1825Died: February 22, 1911 Ohio connection: Resident Cincinnati Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was born September 24, 1825, in Baltimore, Maryland to free parents but was orphaned by age three. She was raised by an aunt and uncle and studied Bible, literature, and public speaking at Academy for Negro Youth, a school founded …
Read More Frances Ellen Watkins HarperBorn: September 10, 1840 Died: December 13, 1937 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Leonard Gurley Foster, a Civil War veteran whose avocation brought him the epithet, “the Buckeye poet” was the son of Ebenezer and Elmyra (Williams) Foster. He was born on the family homestead in the Cuyahoga Valley near Denison Avenue in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland. He …
Read More Leonard Gurley FosterBorn: June 27, 1872Died: February 9, 1906 Ohio connection: Birth Dayton Writer, poet, and lyricist, Paul Laurence Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio, on June 27, 1872. Dunbar, the son of Matilda Murphy Dunbar and Joshua Dunbar (who served in the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment), two formerly enslaved people, wrote his first poem at the age of six. …
Read More Paul Laurence DunbarBorn: July 21, 1899Died: April 27, 1932 Ohio connection: Birth Garrettsville Harold Hart Crane, regarded as one of the greatest American poets of the 20th century, was born in Garrettsville, Ohio, on July 21, 1899. His father, a successful candy and syrup manufacturer, later moved the family to Warren before sending his son to live with his maternal …
Read More Hart CraneBorn: September 4, 1824Died: July 31, 1871 Ohio connection: Birth Mount Healthy Phoebe Cary was born in 1824 in Mount Healthy, Ohio, one of eleven children of Robert and Elizabeth Jessup Cary. She grew up on a farm and had little formal education. Under the tutelage of her older sister Alice, she developed a great love for literature …
Read More Phoebe Cary