Western Wind

An Introduction to Poetry

John Frederick Nims

"ABOUT THE AUTHOR; John Frederick Nims was born in Muskegon, Michigan in 1913. He received his M.A. from the University of Notre Dame and his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago. He has taught poetry and work- shops in the writing of poetry at Notre Dame, the University of Illinois, the University of Toronto, and Harvard and is presently teaching at the University of Florida. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the univer- sities of Florence and Madrid. Professor Nims is the author of four books of poetry-The Iron Pastoral, A Fountain in Kentucky, Knowledge of the Evening, and Of Flesh and Bone-which have brought him awards from the National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities and The American Academy of Arts and Letters. His Knowledge of the Evening was a National Book Award Nominee. Professor Nims has also published several books of translations, including Sappho to Valéry: Poems in Translation and The Poems of St. John of the Cross. On the staff of Poetry for several years, he spent one year as its Visiting Editor. Professor Nims has also been on the staff of many writers' conferences, including the one at Bread Loaf, Vermont, where he served for over 10 years."- Publisher