Award-winning American poet, Mary Oliver, has died at age 83.
Mary Oliver won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for American Primitive. She was awarded the National Book Prize for Poetry in 1992 for New and Selected Poems and won the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry in 1998.
Growing up in Ohio, she spend a lot of time outdoors and enjoyed going on long walks and reading avidly. She began writing poetry at age 14.
Her first book was titled No Voyage and Other Poems and was published in 1963. It was during the late 1950s that she first met her partner of more than 40 years, photographer Molly Malone Cook. In her book Our World – which combines Oliver’s poems with Cook’s photographs – she wrote of seeing Cook for the first time, “I took one look and fell, hook and tumble.” They lived together in Massachusetts until Cook’s passing in 2005.
Part of what has made Mary Oliver such a beloved poet is the beautiful simplicity and accessibility of her writing.
“Mary Oliver isn’t a difficult poet. Her work is incredibly accessible, and I think that’s what makes her so beloved by so many people. It doesn’t feel like you have to take a seminar in order to understand Mary Oliver’s poetry. She’s speaking directly to you as a human being.” – Ruth Franklin, The New Yorker
Oliver was one of America’s most popular poets. She published more the 15 collections of poems and essays and many well known public figures count themselves among her fans, including Hillary Clinton and Oprah Winfrey.
“When it’s over, I want to say all my life I was a bride married to amazement.” Mary Oliver
I’ve been soothed, comforted, informed, enhanced by your words. Your life has been a Blessing to the world. #maryoliver— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) January 17, 2019
Thank you, Mary Oliver, for giving so many of us words to live by.
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 17, 2019
Inspired by her love of nature, Mary Oliver was known for taking long daily walks during which she often stopped to write. She always carried a hand-sewn notebook when she went walking, in order to record her impressions of nature. Having once forgotten a pencil, she fell into the habit of hiding pencils in the trees and bushes along the trails she liked to walk so that she would never again find herself stuck without the tools to write.
In a 2012 radio interview on NPR Oliver said, “One thing I do know is that poetry, to be understood, must be clear. It mustn’t be fancy.”
Influenced by Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau, Oliver was also often compared to Emily Dickinson. She believed in the discovery of self through a deep connection with nature, her style making her popular with fans of mindful poetry.
She will be remembered as a poet of deep insight and vision.
“When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.” – Mary Oliver, When Death Comes.
MARY OLIVER 1935 – 2019
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Sarah McDuling
Sarah McDuling is Booktopia's Category Manager for Children's and Young Adult Books. She has been in the bookselling game for almost a decade and a dedicated booklover since birth (potentially longer). At her happiest when reading a book, Sarah also enjoys talking/writing/tweeting about books. In her spare time, she often likes to buy a lot of books and take photographs of books. You can follow her on Twitter and Instragram @sarahmcduling
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