The John N. Morris Home Page

Poet John Nelson Morris (1931-1997), taught English literature and poetry writing at Washington University in St. Louis for 29 years. A distinguished poet, his honors included publication in Poetry, The New Yorker, and The New Republic, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978, and an Award in Literature form the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1979.

He published four volumes of poetry, all with Knopf:

Green Business (1970)
The Life Beside This One (1975)
The Glass Houses (1980)
A Schedule of Benefits (1987)

Born in Oxford, England, where his father was a student, Morris spent part of his childhood on his grandfather's peach farm in Eagle Springs, North Carolina,. He attended August Military Academy in Fort Definace, Virginia, and in 1953 received a bachelor's degree in English from Hamilton College. After two years as a Marine during the Korean War, Morris attended graduate school at Columbia University, earning a doctorate in 1965. He taught at the University of Delaware and at Columbia University before coming to Washington University in 1967 as an associate professor. He was promoted to full professor in 1971.

At Washington University, Morris was part of a now-legendary group of poets and professors which included Howard Nemerov, Mona Van Duyn, Constance Urdang, and Donald Finkel.

The John N. Morris Archive is located in the Special Collections at Olin Library at Washington University.

This page is being constructed in in honor of John N. Morris by his former student Catherine Rankovic. In late 1995, she conducted the only known literary interview with Morris, in which he discusses in depth his life and career. Along with a selection of Morris's poems, this interview was published in the literary magazine River Styx in 1996. At the time of the interview she also photographed Morris in his famous Duncker Hall office, and at Olin Library.