By the time of Owen Dodson's death in 1983 he had published three volumes of poetry; his fiction and drama had been anthologized in over sixty texts and translated into Japanese, Italian, German, Czech, and Dutch. He was twice invited to read his poems at the Library of Congress; Richard Eberhart introduced Dodson at the 1968 Dartmouth College Black Arts Festival as "the best Negro poet in the United States." The next year Time magazine wrote that Dodson's poetry "stands peer to Frost, Carl Sandburg and other white American poets."

In 1956 George Plimpton awarded Dodson's short story "The Summer Fire" second prize in a contest sponsored by the Paris Review and subsequently included it in Best Short Stories from the Paris Review (1959). Twenty-seven of his plays and operas have been produced-- Till Victory is Won (March 1974) at the Kennedy Center. President Lyndon Johnson invited Dodson to the White House. He...