John Keats: The Making of a Poet

Aileen Coursen Ward was born in Newark, New Jersey on April 1, 1919. She received a B.A. in English from Smith College in 1940 and an M.A. in 1942 and a doctoral degree in 1953 from Radcliffe College. She taught at several colleges and universities during her lifetime including Wellesley, Barnard, Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, Brandeis, and New York show more University before retiring in 1990. Her biography, John Keats: The Making of a Poet, received a National Book Award in 1964 and the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize. She also wrote introductions to editions of William Blake and Thomas De Quincey and edited a collection of Keats's poems. She died on May 31, 2016 at the age of 97. (Bowker Author Biography) show less