Ruth Stone

{{Infobox person

|name = Ruth Stone

|image = Ruth Stone 2009.jpg

|caption = Stone in 2009

|birth_date = {{birth date|1915|6|8}}

|birth_place = Roanoke, Virginia, U.S.

|death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|2011|11|19|1915|6|8}}

|death_place = Ripton, Vermont, U.S.

|known_for = What Love Comes To

|occupation = {{flatlist|

Poet
teacher
author}}

|education = University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (BA)

|awards = 2009 Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2007 Vermont State Poet, 2002 National Book Award, Whiting Award and two Guggenheim Fellowships[http://www.timesargus.com/article/20090426/FEATURES07/904260326 Times-Argus article] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402113214/http://www.timesargus.com/article/20090426/FEATURES07/904260326 |date=2015-04-02 }}The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States. Ed. Cathy N. Davidson and Linda Wagner-Martin. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Oxford University Press.

}}

Ruth Stone (June 8, 1915 – November 19, 2011) was an American poet.[https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/authors/ruth-stone/ Copper Canyon Press Bio]

Life and poetry

Stone was born in Roanoke, Virginia and lived there until age 6, when her family moved back to her parents' hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana.{{Cite news |last=Langer |first=Emily |date=27 November 2011 |title=Ruth Stone, poet who won acclaim later in her life, dies at 96 |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/ruth-stone-poet-who-won-wide-acclaim-later-in-her-life-dies-at-96/2011/11/27/gIQAfwr72N_story.html |access-date=9 April 2022}} She attended the University of Illinois. Her first marriage was to John Clapp in 1935, and they had one daughter. Her second marriage was to professor and poet Walter Stone, in 1944, with whom she had two daughters. Walter Stone, who served in World War II, received a PhD from Harvard University, and taught at University of Illinois, and then at Vassar College.{{Cite web |date=2015-03-18 |title=The House With Feet: The Dire Importance of Ruth Stone's Bequest • VIDA: Women in Literary Arts |url=https://www.vidaweb.org/house-feet-dire-importance-ruth-stones-bequest/ |access-date=2022-04-09 |website=VIDA: Women in Literary Arts |language=en-US}} Walter Stone committed suicide in 1959; this tragedy shaped the path of Ruth Stone's life, as she sought ways to support herself and her daughters by teaching poetry at universities across the United States.

Her work is distinguished by its tendency to draw imagery and language from the natural sciences.

Stone died at her home in Goshen, Vermont, on November 19, 2011.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/24/arts/ruth-stone-national-book-award-winner-dies-at-96.html?pagewanted=all| title=Ruth Stone, a Poet Celebrated Late in Life, Dies at 96| work=The New York Times| author= William Grimes| date= November 24, 2011}} She was buried near the raspberry bushes behind her Goshen home.{{cite web |url=https://ruthstonehouse.org/ruth-stone/?doing_wp_cron=1676986200.8457369804382324218750 |title=About Ruth Stone: Her Land |website=RuthStoneHouse.org |publisher=Ruth Stone House |location=Goshen, VT |access-date=February 21, 2023}}

Career

Stone's verse was published widely in periodicals, and she was the author of thirteen books of poetry.{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/8987302/Ruth-Stone.html | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | title=Ruth Stone | date=January 1, 2012}}

In 1990 Stone became a professor of English and Creative Writing at Binghamton University, and retired from this position at the age of 85.

Early on, Stone's work was recognized by editors.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} While her husband was teaching at Vassar College, Stone received the Kenyon Review Fellowship in Poetry.

House in Goshen, Vermont

When Stone received the Kenyon Review Fellowship in Poetry, she and Walter used the funds to buy a house in Goshen, Vermont, expecting that it would be a place to go in the summers, and to eventually retire. The house became a refuge for Stone after Walter's death, and over the years, became an intellectual center for her students and other poets.

Awards

Poetry Magazine Bess Hoken Prize, 1953
Kenyon Review Fellowship in Poetry, 1956{{Cite web |title=Past Fellows |url=https://kenyonreview.org/programs/fellowship/history/ |access-date=2022-04-09 |website=The Kenyon Review |language=en}}
Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, 1963-1965
Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, 1965{{cn|date=December 2023}}
Guggenheim Fellowship, Poetry, 1971{{Cite web |title=Ruth Stone |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/ruth-stone/ |access-date=2022-04-09 |website=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |language=en-US}}
Guggenheim Fellowship, Poetry, 1975
Delmore Schwartz Award, 1983{{Cite book |last=Beal |first=Jane |title=American Writers Supplement |publisher=Gale |year=2016 |pages=249–65 |chapter=Ruth Stone}}
Whiting Award, 1986
Paterson Poetry Prize, 1988{{cn|date=December 2023}}
Cerf Lifetime Achievement Award, State of Vermont{{cn|date=December 2023}}
National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry for Ordinary Words, 1999{{cn|date=December 2023}}
Eric Mathieu King Award from the Academy of American Poets, 1999{{cn|date=December 2023}}
National Book Award for In the Next Galaxy, 2002{{cn|date=December 2023}}
Wallace Stevens Award, Academy of American Poets, 2002{{cn|date=December 2023}}
Poet Laureate of Vermont, 2007{{cn|date=December 2023}}
Finalist, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for What Love Comes To: New and Selected Poems, 2009{{cn|date=December 2023}}

Legacy

Stone's long-time residence in Goshen, Vermont was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. Her heirs (both literary and family) — including her granddaughter, poet and visual artist Bianca Stone[http://www.newsadvance.com/the_burg/features/cover_story/riverviews-rebus-exhibit-showcases-poetry-comics/article_9f0ea09e-a484-11e3-b048-0017a43b2370.html "Riverviews' 'Rebus' exhibit showcases poetry comics"]. BURG, March 5, 2014 Brent Wells. — have established a foundation to convert the property into a writer's retreat.{{cite web|url=https://addisonindependent.com/late-poet-laureate-ruth-stones-goshen-home-coming-back-life|title=Late Poet Laureate Ruth Stone's Goshen home is coming back to life|publisher=Addison Independent|date=November 28, 2016|accessdate=2016-12-13}}

Paintbrush: A Journal of Poetry and Translation 27 (2000/2001) was devoted entirely to Stone's work.

The Ruth Stone Poetry Prize awarded by The Vermont College of Fine Arts and their literary journal Hunger Mountain is in its sixth year.{{Cite web |title=Hunger Mountain - VCFA Journal of the Arts |url=http://www.hungermtn.org/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180724123554/http://hungermtn.org/ |archive-date=2018-07-24 |access-date=2018-09-10}}

Stone's daughters [http://www.phoebestone.com/books.htm Phoebe Stone] and Abigail Stone, and her granddaughters Hillery Stone and Bianca Stone, are all published writers.

Cultural references

The voice of Ruth Stone reading her poem "Be Serious" is featured in the film USA The Movie.{{cite web |title=Ruth Stone |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2111521/ |website=IMDb}}

A documentary film by Nora Jacobson, Ruth Stone's Vast Library of the Female Mind, was released in 2022.{{cite web | url=https://www.vermontpublic.org/show/vermont-edition/2022-01-14/norwich-filmmaker-premieres-documentary-on-vermont-poet-laureate-ruth-stone | title=Norwich filmmaker premieres documentary on Vermont poet laureate Ruth Stone }}

Bibliography

What Love Comes To: New and Selected Poems, Bloodaxe Books, UK edition, 2009, {{ISBN|978-1-85224-841-3}}
{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fNHcxda5GkoC&q=Ruth+Stone| title=What Love Comes To: New and Selected Poems| publisher=Copper Canyon Press| year= 2008| isbn=978-1-55659-327-7}} —finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize[http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Poetry "Poetry"]. Past winners & finalists by category. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2012-04-08.
{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1a8MVwuPCF8C&q=Ruth+Stone| title=In the Dark| publisher= Copper Canyon Press| year= 2004| isbn=978-1-55659-210-2 }}; Copper Canyon Press, 2007, {{ISBN|978-1-55659-250-8}}
{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=apsIwYQmImwC&q=Ruth+Stone| title=In the Next Galaxy| publisher= Copper Canyon Press| year= 2002| isbn=978-1-55659-207-2}} winner of the National Book Award

[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2002 "National Book Awards – 2002"]. National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-04-08.

(With acceptance speech by Stone, announcement by Poetry Panel Chair Dave Smith, and essay by Katie Peterson from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)

Ordinary Words, Paris Press, 2000, {{ISBN|978-0-9638183-8-6}} winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award
Simplicity, Paris Press, 1996, {{ISBN|978-0-9638183-1-7}}
Who is the Widow's Muse?, Yellow Moon Press, 1991, {{ISBN|978-0-938756-32-3}}
The Solution Alembic Press, Ltd., 1989, {{ISBN|978-0-9621666-3-1}}
Second Hand Coat: Poems New and Selected 1987; Yellow Moon Press, 1991, {{ISBN|978-0-938756-33-0}}
American Milk, From Here Press, 1986, {{ISBN|978-0-89120-027-7}}
Cheap: New Poems and Ballads, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975, {{ISBN|978-0-15-117034-0}}
Unknown Messages Nemesis Press, 1973
Topography and Other Poems Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971, {{ISBN|978-0-15-190495-2}}
In an Iridescent Time, Harcourt, Brace, 1959

References

External links

[http://ruthstonefoundation.org/ Ruth Stone Foundation]
[http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=6609 Ruth Stone Biog and audio files] from the Poetry Foundation
[http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/368 Ruth Stone from the Academy of American Poets]
[http://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/ruth-stone#/ Profile at The Whiting Foundation]
[http://coldfrontmag.com/tag/joe-ahearn "What Love Comes To"], Joe Ahearn, Cold Front, September 3, 2008
[https://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2004/jul/ruthstone/ "The Imagined Galaxies of Ruth Stone"], NPR
[http://www.narrativemagazine.com/authors/ruth-stone "Ruth Stone"], Narrative Magazine
[http://www.thedrunkenboat.com/stoneinterview.htm "On the Road to Paradise: An Interview with Ruth Stone"], The Drunken Boat, Rebecca Seiferle
[http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html TED - Elizabeth Gilbert talks about the way Ruth Stone has "caught" poems that were "searching" for an author]
[http://www.thethepoetry.com/2011/12/abigail-stone-wrapped-in-newspaper/ In Memoriam of Ruth Stone, written by her daughter Abigail Stone] from [http://www.thethepoetry.com THEthe Poetry Blog]
{{YouTube|kyzXn3rAGQM|Ruth Stone}}, September 2008