Born in Hutchinson, Kansas, William Stafford was reared in small towns on the Kansas plains. In 1937 he received a B.A. and in 1946 an M.A. from the University of Kansas at Lawrence. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1954. A conscientious objector, Stafford worked in civilian public service camps during World War II. In 1948 he began teaching at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, where he still teaches. He has twice taken one-year leaves of absence from Lewis and Clark to teach elsewhere: at Manchester College in 1955, and at San Jose State in 1956. Stafford served as Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress in 1970. As a U.S. Information Agency lecturer in 1972, he traveled to Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Stafford is also the recipient of a number of awards: a Yaddo Foundation Fellowship for 1956; the Oregon Centennial Prize...