For Edward Hirsch the night is not merely the stretch of time to be endured by the restless insomniac--a character that recurs throughout his poems. It is also imagination's twists and turns; knowledge of history; memory; and the desire, despite all odds, to survive. In his poetry Hirsch celebrates the capacity to live, gladly, in this night.

Edward Mark Hirsch was born on 20 January 1950 to Kurt and Irma Ginsburg Hirsch in Chicago. He and his two sisters, Arlene and Nancy, grew up in Chicago and in Skokie, a suburb. Hirsch received a B.A. from Grinnell College in 1972 and was then awarded a Watson Traveling Fellowship (1972-1973). He received his Ph.D. in folklore in 1979 at the University of Pennsylvania. On 29 May 1977 Hirsch and Janet Landay were married; their son, Gabriel David Landay Hirsch, was born in 1988. Hirsch has taught in the Poetry in the Schools Programs in...