Stanley Kunitz
(July 29, 1905 – May 14, 2006)

19 2nd St. NE, Capitol Hill neighborhood, DC.

Kunitz lived here during his first term as US Poet Laureate, from 1974 to 1976. During his second term, 2000 to 2001, he commuted in to DC to fulfill his duties as Laureate, rather than taking up residence in the city.

Kunitz was the author of twelve books of poems, including Intellectual Things (1930), Passport to the War (1944), The Testing Tree (1971), The Wellfleet Whale (1983), Passing Through (1995), and Collected Poems (2000). From 1928 to 1943, he was editor of the Wilson Library Bulletin, where he led the movement for intellectual freedom and the opposition of censorship in libraries. He founded the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA and the Poets House in NY, and served as judge for the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition.

Author photo courtesy of Library of Congress.