James Wright is one of the most significant, most enduring figures in modern American poetry, the central figure of a greatly talented generation. Whether he was writing about his native Ohio, the natural world, love lost and f found, or the luminous resonant Italy of his later work, Wright's mastery of language and his powerful, haunting voice marked him out as one of the finest writers of his time, a poet whose work caught the spirit of America's anxious yet hopeful post-war years. James Wright was born in Martins Ferry, Ohio, in 1927. His Collected Poems won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. He died in 1980.