There are few American poets of this century who have not combined two vocations (those of teacher and writer are the most frequent). Mark Turbyfill has, over most of his life, combined three: poet, ballet dancer, and painter. His work in all these fields is interrelated, and there is nothing haphazard about his achievements, but such a diffusion of talents must also have carried a price in terms of the more widespread renown he might otherwise have earned.

Mark Turbyfill was born on 29 June 1896 in the small town of Wynnewood, about fifty miles south of Oklahoma City, the administrative capital of what was then known as Indian Territory. His parents were both Southerners, his father from North Carolina and his mother from Texas. His father had begun as a carpenter and then became an architect. He was for a while State Architect for Schools in Oklahoma and later...