Celebrated American poet Mary Oliver was raised in Maple Hills Heights, Ohio, a small town in Cleveland’s suburbs. As a child, her troubled, abusive family life encouraged her to seek time alone in the woods near her house, writing poetry in shelters she built herself. This practice of engaging deeply with nature, often on solitary walks, would continue for her whole life. In adulthood, Oliver would bring a notebook along on these walks, drawing poetry directly from her mundane experiences with the natural world.
As a teenager, Oliver impulsively drove to Steepletop, the New York home of the late Edna St. Vincent Millay, and befriended Millay’s sister Norma. Oliver moved into Steepletop and began working as Norma’s secretary, collaborating on the organization of Millay’s papers for the next six years. She attended Ohio State University and Vassar College during this time, although she did not complete a degree at either school. She also met her lifelong partner, the photographer Molly Malone Cook. Oliver and Cook moved to Provincetown in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a hub for artists whose stark coastal beauty and rich ecology helped to shape Oliver’s poetic output.
In 1963, Oliver published her first book of poetry, No Voyage. For the remainder of her career of over 50 years, she published prolifically, releasing nearly three dozen poetry collections, chapbooks, essay collections, and books on craft. Notable works include American Primitive, which won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and New and Selected Poems, winner of the 1992 National Book Award. Her many other honors include the Lannan Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement, the American Academy of Arts & Letters Award, the Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Memorial Prize, the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award, and the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award. She also received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. She was awarded honorary doctorates from the Art Institute of Boston, Dartmouth College, Marquette University, and Tufts University.
Described by The New York Times in 2007 as “far and away, this country's best-selling poet," Oliver wrote poems that considered nature in the straightforward manner of the Romantic poets and figures like Walt Whitman, often contemplating humankind’s relationship to nature and our limited capacity for comprehending its wonder and brutality. She taught at Case Western Reserve University and held residencies at Bucknell University and Sweet Briar College. She held the Catharine Osgood Foster Chair for Distinguished Teaching at Bennington College from 1991 until 2001. Oliver lived in Provincetown, Massachusetts, for many years, moving to Hobe Sound, Florida, after Cook’s death. She died of cancer in 2019.
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More Mary Oliver
Audio/Text: Krista Tippett interviews Oliver on On Being
Text: Read poetry by Oliver at the Poetry Foundation
Text: Read Oliver's famous poem "The Summer Day" at the Library of Congress
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Photo by Rachel Giese Brown.