William Meredith was born in New York City. He received his B.A. (magna cum laude) from Princeton University in 1940 and maintained close association with that institution for some years, as a Woodrow Wilson fellow in 1946-1947 and a resident fellow in creative writing in 1947-1948, 1949-1950, and 1965-1966. Much of his earlier published poetry takes its imagery and theme from his service in the U.S. Army Air Force (1941-1942) and in the U.S. Navy (1942-1946 and 1952-1954). Meredith has taught at the University of Hawaii and, since 1955, at Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut, where he is now Henry B. Plant Professor of English. He is not married.

Although not frequently represented in anthologies of American writing since 1950, Meredith has earned his share of plaudits and awards. Love Letter from an Impossible Land won the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition in 1943. He has also...