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James Dickey (1923-1997), a novelist and essayist as well as poet, was a native of Georgia. Born in Atlanta, he was educated at various colleges, including Rice University, Reed College, and the University of Florida, at Gainesville, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of South Carolina. In 1956-68, he served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. By his own reflection, he believed that the major theme in his work is the continuity that exists or must exist between the Self and the World. Much of his writing is rooted in nature - rivers and mountains, weather patterns, and the perils lurking within.
Dickey's first volume of poems was Into the Stone and Other Poems (1960) but his reputation was secured by Drowning with Others (1962) and Helmets (1964) dealing with his experience as a pilot. In the US Air Force during the World War II. His prolific output included Two Poems of Air (1964), Buckdancer’s Choice (1965), Poems 1957-1967 (1968), The Eye Beaters, Blood, Victory, Madness, Buckhead and Mercy (1970), and Zodaic (1976), The Strength of Fields (1977), Veteran Birth: The Gadfly Poems - 1947-1949 (1978), Falling, May Day Sermon and Other Poems (1981), The Early Motion (1981), Puella (1982), The Central Motion: Poems 1968-1979 (1983), False Youth-Four Seasons (1983) and God’s Images (1984). He wrote several volumes of brilliant verse for children.