Shapiro, Karl, 1913-2000, American poet and critic, b. Baltimore, studied Univ. of Virginia, Johns Hopkins. His interests in the aesthetics and artifice of modern poetry and the role of the poet as cultural spokesperson are expressed in his poems and his criticism. Shapiro's early volumes of verse-
Person, Place, and Thing (1942),
Place of Love (1943), and
V-Letter and Other Poems (1944; Pulitzer Prize)-were written while he was a soldier in World War II and contain much of his best-known work. Later volumes include
Trial of a Poet (1947),
Poems of a Jew (1958),
Adult Bookstore (1976),
Collected Poems, 1940-1977 (1978), and
Poet: Volume One: The Younger Son (1988). His critical essays were published in such volumes as
Essay on Rime (in verse, 1945),
In Defense of Ignorance (1960),
The Bourgeois Poet (1964),
To Abolish Children and Other Essays (1968), and
The Poetry Wreck (1975). His only novel,
Edsel, appeared in 1971. Shapiro also edited
Poetry magazine (1948-50) and until 1985 taught at various colleges.
Bibliography
See his autobiography, Reports of My Death (1990).
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