Stanley Kunitz was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1905. He attended Harvard College, served in the Army in World War II, taught at Bennington College, Columbia, Yale, Princeton, Rutgers, and the University of Washington. He served for two years as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, was designated State Poet of New York, and a Chancellor Emeritus of The Academy of American Poets. In 2000 he was named United States Poet Laureate. Together with his wife, the painter Elise Asher, he split his time between New York City and Provincetown, Massachusetts. He died at the age of 100 on May 14, 2006.