William Stafford (1914-1993)

A selective list of online literary criticism for William Stafford, favoring signed articles by recognized scholars, articles published in reviewed sources, and web sites that adhere to the MLA Guidelines for Web Sites

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Introduction

"William Stafford." Poetry Foundation. Ed. Catherine Halley. Good, encyclopedia-type introduction to the poet's themes, style and techniques, with a biography, bibliography, and samples of poems. "If you have been wondering where the articulate, readable poems have gone in the last third of the 20th century, you might start with Stafford."

"William Stafford." About William Stafford; On "At the Bomb Testing Site"; On "Traveling Through the Dark"; An Interview with Stafford; Online Interviews; Bibliography, from the Modern American Poetry. Ed. Cary Nelson (U of Illinois).

"William Stafford." A very brief introduction to Stafford. Academy of American Poets.

Holden, Jonathan. "William Stafford: Genius in Camouflage." Holden, a scholar specializing in William Stafford and a poet, writes informally about how he came to work on Stafford and his personal experience with him.

Literary criticism

Gundy, Jeff. "Peaceable poet: William Stafford's witness." On Early Morning: Remembering My Father, William Stafford, by Kim Stafford (Graywolf) and Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford on Peace and War, ed. Kim Stafford. Christian Century, April 6, 2004.

Holden, Jonathan. "With Kit, Age 7, At the Beach." In On William Stafford: The Worth of Local Things. Ed. Tom Andrews. Google Books.

Kitchen, Judith. Publisher's site for Writing the World: Understanding William Stafford. Includes excerpt, Introduction (Oregon State UP 1999).

Heldrich, Philip. "William Stafford's Mythopoetic Kansas." The Midwest Quarterly, 1 Jan. 2002.

Metres, Philip. "William Stafford's Down in My Heart: The Poetics of Pacifism and the Limits of Lyric." Peace & Change 29 (January 2004).

William Stafford's archive at Pittsburg State U, Kansas.

Center for Great Plains Studies A brief biography of William Stafford, primary bibliography, and annotated secondary bibliography (U of Nebraska).

Removed articles

Roberts, J. Russell. "William Stafford" from "A Literary History of the American West," (Texas Christian UP 1998). A detailed overview of Stafford, contains an extensive secondary bibliography (removed).

Shigley, Sally Bishop. "Pax Femina: Women in William Stafford's West" Shigley writes that Stafford's "pacificism as a conscientious objector in World War II, his ambivalence about the effects of technology and industrialism on the earth, his environmentalism, and his tender concern for children combine to form an image that a contemporary cultural feminist would feel very much at home with. Yet Stafford's creation of women characters and voices is troubling." At Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, Fall 2000 (removed).

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