Although William Bronk received the American Book Award for his Life Supports: New and Collected Poems (1981), it was still possible for Beverly Schlack Randles to observe in 1988 that "this poet who can provoke such praise, and justly claim to be among America's finest, is virtually unknown, even to those who count themselves serious readers of poetry." Randles notes also that "Bronk is not altogether an innocent victim of his state of obscurity," for "most assuredly not constructing a literary life, nor housing himself in a recognizable package called The Poet, William Bronk has rejected compromise and costume." For almost all of his life Bronk has lived in the same Victorian house in the quiet upstate New York town of Hudson Falls. He has been an outsider to most literary circles, an occasionally active participant in few, and a disciple of none.

His work is characterized by a singular...